PORCELAIN - I. I CHINESE VASE PAINTED IN COBALT 4 CHINESE WINE JAR OF THICK PORCELAIN 2 CHINESE SOUP PLATE OF EGGSHELL PORCELAIN 18TH CENTURY 5 JAPANESE HIZEN JAR 18TH CENTURY 3 LARGE CHINESE VASE ON PORCELAIN PEDESTAL DATE ABOUT 1600 6 MODERN JAPANESE CUP 19 TH CENTURY 7 CHINESE ENAMELED PORCELAIN JAR-MING DYNASTY is no doubt that the number of languages spoken on the earth has rapidly decreased and is rapidly decreasing. There is no doubt that the number of persons speaking the main Aryan languages is rapidly increasing, both by the natural increase of the Caucasian population and by the extended use of these languages, with the extension of the trade and commerce of these countries. But there is no satisfactory statistical measure of this increase. ILLITERACY. It is common, although not universal, to inquire at a census whether the person is able to read and write. With the extension of education in most civilized countries the proportion of illiterates among the population is declining. At the present time this proportion, in Christian countries, is greatest in the Slavic peoples and among the negroes of the United States. An intermediate position is held by the Romance countries and Hungary, while the highest position is occupied by Eng land, the United States, and the Germanic countries of Europe. See VITAL STATISTICS; IMMIGRATION; EMIGRATION. POPULIST PARTY, or PEOPLE'S PARTY. A political party in the United States, organized at Cincinnati in May, 1891, by a national convention composed chiefly of representatives of the agricultural and industrial classes. The party grew out of the movements previously inaugurated by the "Grangers" and the "Farmers' Alliance" (q.v.). Its platform of principles demanded the free and unlimited coinage of silver; the abolition of the national banking system; the issue of fiat money in sufficient quantity to transact the business of the country on a cash basis, and the loan of such currency to the people at not more than two per cent. per annum on non-perishable agricultural products; national ownership of all means of public communication and transportation; a graduated income tax; popular election of United States Senators; the adoption of the initiative and referendum in legislation; and the prohibition of alien ownership of land. On July 2, 1892, a National Convention of the Populist Party met at Omaha, Neb., for the purpose of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United States. It adopted a platform embodying the above mentioned views and nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa for President and James G. Field of Virginia for Vice-President. The Populist ticket received 22 electoral votes and a popular vote of 1,055,424. In the next Presidential campaign, that of 1896, the Populist Party nominated for President W. J. Bryan, who had already received the nomination of the Democratic Party, and for Vice-President Thomas E. Watson of Georgia. Most of the Populist Party supported Bryan and the Democratic candidate for Vice-President, W. J. Sewall, but a considerable portion of the party stood for the independence of their movement, and voted for Bryan and Watson. On account of their refusal to depart from the path marked out by themselves, the latter were called the "Middle-of-the-Road" Populists. In order to have the full Populist vote counted for Bryan, an arrangement was made between the two parties in twenty-eight States, by which each was to have a proportionate representation on the electoral ticket. As a result of this arrangement Bryan received 176 electoral votes, while Sewall received 149 and Watson 17. The Populist platform of 1896 differed but slightly from that of 1892. In the campaign of 1900 the Populist Party again nominated for President W. J. Bryan, who was also the Democratic nominee, but again refused to indorse the Democratic nominee for the Vice-Presidency (Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois). After a spirited contest, Charles A. Towne of Minnesota received the nomination for Vice-President, but he subsequently withdrew, and the National Executive Committee of the Populist Party substituted Stevenson. In addition to its old principles the party in 1900 denounced the imperialistic policy of the Government, expressed sympathy for the Boers in their struggle with Great Britain, advocated municipal ownership of public utilities, and condemned the practice of the courts in issuing injunctions in labor disputes between employers and employees. Consult: Hopkins, Political Parties in the United States (New York, 1900); McKee, National Conventions and Platforms (Baltimore, 1900); and Reynolds, National Platforms and Political History (Chicago, 1898). POPʼULOʻNIA. An ancient town of Italy. See PIOMBINO. PROBEAGLE (from Fr. porc, hog + Eng. beagle), or MACKEREL SHARK. Specifically, a ferocious shark (Lamna cornubica), bluish gray in color and reaching a length of ten feet, which is found in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The term is extended, however, to include TEETH OF A porbeagle (SIDE VIEW). the whole of its family (Lamnida), which contains several pelagic species, often of great size, power, and ferocity, with stout bodies, a wide mouth with separate, triangular, highly specialized teeth (the third in the upper jaw always small), large gill-openings, and great fleshy fins. In addition to the typical porbeagle (a British name), a well-known species (Isurus oxyrhyncalled 'cane de mare;' and a rarer one (Isurus chus) haunts the Mediterranean, where it is DeKayi) occurs on the North American coast. The largest and most cosmopolitan of the family is the great white 'man-eater' shark (q.v.). PORCELAIN (OF. porcelaine, porcellaine, Fr. porcelaine, from It. porcellana, porcelain, Venus-shell, so called because the highly polished surface suggested that of the Venus-shell, whose curved upper surface resembled a pig's back, from porcella, diminutive of porco, pig, from Lat. porcus, swine, hog, pig; connected with Lith. parszas, Ir. orc, OHG. farh, dialectic Ger. Farch, Ger. Ferkel, AS. fearh, Eng. farrow, pig). A peculiar kind of pottery made by the Chinese for many centuries, and in Europe since the discovery of its ingredients about the year 1710. There was indeed a little porcelain made in Florence at the close of the sixteenth century, but it is probable that this was made of materials brought from China. Its decoration shows the artistic spirit of the time; but so very little of the ware was made that it never influenced the later development of the manufacture in Europe. The next attempt at making the ware in Europe was by experiments, each separate establishment producing a fine white ware made of some mixture of ingredients peculiar to the establishment in question and often kept secret. These wares resulted in the manufacture of what is known as soft porcelain, false porcelain, artificial porcelain, and by similar names. In these the copying of the Chinese ware was avowed and some of the announcements were to the effect that at length the true Oriental secret had been discovered. The ware was, however, more nearly a glass than a true ceramic ware. The date of the first manufacture of porcelain in China is not fixed. The earliest piece that can be dated dates from the Sung dynasty between 960 and 1368; but all Chinese history and tradition point to a much earlier date even than 960 for the first making of a real porcelain. Vitreous glazes of the surface and the partial vitrification of the whole mass as described below need not of necessity have characterized the very early wares which are now assumed to have been porcelanous. The characteristic of Chinese porcelain which has always caused the greatest admiration and the most minute study in Europe, the decoration by means of under-glaze and over-glaze painting, seems not to have been introduced until a time late in the Ming dynasty. Before the fifteenth century decoration was carried out very largely in relief or in intaglio this relief varying from minute patterns raised by modeling upon the surface while soft to boldly projecting figures, masks, flowers, and the like, molded separetely and applied, the adhesive paste causing them to keep their positions until fired. The patterns in intaglio are sometimes very elaborate, and use is made of the color of the glaze filling up these recessed lines and scrolls more deeply than it covers the body of the piece, so that these incised or impressed patterns show in a different color from the rest of the surface. These methods of decoration are not limited to the period in question, but have been kept constantly in use. During these earlier years (Sung dynasty and the first reigns of the Ming dynasty) decoration by 'solid color' as it is now called, was greatly respected; the forms of vases and platters were as graceful or as vigorous and significant as at any subsequent time, and vessels of these refined shapes were invested with color, especially a splendid green which has been hard to procure in later wares-the green which is the true and proper tint, afterwards described in France as céladon. Other colors existed, especially yellow, which has always been the Imperial color, though opinions differ as to the proper hue; but, as has been stated by the latest and most accurate European writers, the years before 1367 may be said with out impropriety to constitute the céladon period. Of course these dates and attributions are still open to revision. The reign of the Emperor Wang-Li, which is generally given as from 1573 to 1619 A. M., is accepted as the period of the earliest pieces painted in brilliant colors and existing in Europe in any considerable number. In these the painting is of two kinds: in pure blue on the unbaked body before the glaze has been applied, and in enameled colors applied to the finished and fired piece upon the glaze and fixed by a second firing at a relatively low temperature. Such pieces are of extreme softness and delicacy; the blue shows through the glaze in an elaborate scheme of outline, much as the etched line in a Liber Studiorum (q.v.) print shows through the mezzotint which was applied afterwards. The more brilliant colors, usually green, yellow, and red, though black is also used in certain pieces, are applied upon and within these outlined spaces and the slight irregularities and imperfections, where the outline is at one moment partly obscured by the enamel color and again left more clearly separated from it, add greatly to the charm of the piece. The fault often found with the richly decorated Chinese porcelain, namely, that the patterns are hard and too strongly relieved from the nearly white ground, is hardly true of these pieces, which are among the most attractive known. This peculiar system has not been abandoned, but even during the eighteenth century it was followed with great success, and it is possible that some of the pieces so painted are of the nineteenth century. Pieces in pure blue and white are, however, the especial production of the Ming epoch. Nearly all the important blue-and-white pieces which bring enormous prices in Europe, and especially in England, where 'blue china' was the particular fad of the years between 1870 and 1890, are assumed to be of the Ming dynasty, although it is quite well understood by more careful students that but few of such early pieces exist in Europe, and that those few are generally so placed and so held that they can never come into the market. Such are not merely the pieces in national collections, but also some in private hands and identified during many years by their having been mounted in European silver or silver-gilt, with feet, covers, tips to spouts, and the like, the plate marks on the silver fixing the date of this work beyond any question. Nine-tenths of the beautiful wares existing in Europe, brought thence to the United States, are of the Ching or Tsing dynasty, that is to say, the dynasty of the Tatar conquerors of China, beginning with 1644, and still holding the throne. The Tsing pieces are of all sorts: pure white with or without delicate incised patterns, or in grotesque forms of dragon and the like, or in carefully modeled and delicately formed statuettes; white painted with pure blue under the glaze; white covered externally with pure strong color, blood-red (sang de bœuf) or maroon, turquoise blue or deep blue, yellow, and other hues; pieces of which the pattern is 'reserved' in white on a ground filled in with dark blue or black, or, pieces of which the pattern is 'reserved' in white pieces adorned with very elaborate painting in many colors, the subject being often flowers, flowering plants, bushes, bamboo thickets, and the like, and as often including human figures treated with great dexterity and a very sufficient knowledge of drawing, but made decorative rather than realistic. The history of real porcelain in Europe is very brief; for the Florentine ware above named has no connection with the development of the art. That development began in Saxony, at the Meissen factory near Dresden, under the direction of |