DENISON

520

DENMARK

of their graves an abbey, called St. Denis, which soon grew to be one of the richest and most important in the whole kingdom, and was long the burial-place of the French kings. For a long time the saint's name was the war-cry of the French soldiers, who charged with the cry: "Mont-joy e Saint Denys! "

Denison, Tex., a town in Grayson County and near the Red River in north-central Texas, on the Mo., Kans. & Texas and the Houston & Texas Central railways. It has considerable trade in fruits and agricultural products and a number of manufacturing establishments, including railway machine-shops. St. Xavier convent is situated here, and "besides good public schools there also is a business-college. Denison erected the first public-school building in Texas. Population, 13,632-

Den'mark, the smallest of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, consists of the peninsula of Jutland and a group of islands in the Baltic. Besides Denmark proper, under the rule of the Danish king, are now the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and the Danish West Indies of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John. The area of Denmark proper is 15,592 square miles; that of Iceland, Greenland and the West Indies 86,634 square miles, with a total population of 2,605,268. Denmark is separated from Norway on the north by the Skager Rack, from Sweden on the east by the Sound and the Cattegat, and on the south it is bounded by the Prussian provinces of Schleswig-Holstein.

Surface and Drainage. The greater part of Denmark proper is low, the highest point being less than 600 feet above the sea. The coast is usually flat, skirted by sand-ridges and shallow lagoons. On the east coast are many bays useful for navigation and valuable for their fisheries, and there are many good harbors. There are no rivers, though the canals are important.

Climate. Mists and sea-fogs are frequent, and rain, snow or hail on an average 150 days in a year. In the spring a cold, dry wind, called the skai, whirls clouds of fine sand from the coast inland, doing great damage to the crops.

Natural Resources. The commonest tree is the beech, which nowhere flourishes as it does in Denmark, though 300 years ago, the now rare oak was the great Danish tree. Denmark is poor in minerals. Peat from the many bogs, brown coal or lignite and seaweed take the place of wood as fuel. The value of the fisheries in one year exceeded 10 million dollars.

Agriculture. About 80 per cent, of Denmark is good soil, and nearly half the people are farmers. The land for the most part is parceled out into small holdings. The main crops are oats, barley and rye; wheat,

flax, hemp, potatoes, butter and bacon are other leading products. Cattle, horses, sheep and goats are raised in sufficient numbers for exportation.

Manufactures. While Danish manufactures are not of great importance, the state in 1905 had 41 distilleries, whose brandy-output was 7,398,610 gallons. Other important manufactures are beer, beet-sugar and oleomargerine.

Education. The people are well-educated. Parents are compelled to send their children to school between the ages of 7 and 14 years. There are nearly 3,000 elementary schools, with 330,256 pupils, besides 71 high, 31 Latin and 12 agricultural schools. There are a Royal Academy of Arts, having seven teachers and 200 pupils, and a Polytechnic Institution with a faculty numbering 23 and 450 students. The University of Copenhagen has 85 professors and about 1,300 students, and there are numerous colleges and other advanced schools.

Government and Religion. The established religion, to which the king must belong, is Lutheranism. Denmark is a constitutional monarchy, the king having a cabinet of eight ministers. The king was chosen by the people until 1660, when people and clergy, driven by hatred of the nobles, gave the king absolute power and made the crown hereditary. A constitution was afterward granted to the nation. The present form of government was adopted in 1849. The national legislature or rigs-dag, consists of the upper house or lands-thing and the lower house or folkething, which is chosen by the people.

^4rmy and Revenue. The army numbers some 14,000; the war-strength is 50,000; and the navy, which is small and chiefly engaged in coast defense, comprises three monitors, three torpedo-gunboats and seven torpedo-boats. The revenue about equals the expenditure—about 88 million kroners annually. (The nominal value of the kroner is 25 cents.) The state in 1905 had about 2,000 English miles of railway, 1,138 miles of which it owned; 2,342 miles of telegraph lines, and 125,303 miles of telephonic wires.

History. Denmark's history goes back to the dim twilight of the saga-period, out of which loom the figures of its heroes, their brave deeds and daring voyages. Here the Celts first had their home, and from these shores the Angles and Saxons set sail in the fifth century to conquer England; while in their place the Danes of Zealand settled on the deserted lands. The missionary Ansgar baptized a Danish king as a Christian in 826, but their being Christians did not hinder the Danes from making their usual inroads into the territory of the Franks or check the piratical voyages of the famous vikings. Gorm the