Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/680

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LAY
LAZARUS

from the balcony of the court-house in Philadel- phia, and scattered the tea and broke the cups and saucers that his wife had purchased a short time before. In 1737 he wrote a treatise entitled "All Slave-Keepers, that keep the Innocent in Bondage. Apostates." It was printed by Benjamin Franklin, who told the author, when the manuscript was brought to him, that it was deficient in arrange- ment. " It is no matter," said Mr. Lay, " print any part thou pleasest first." He was the pioneer of the abolitionists in the colonies, and in his bold, defiant denunciation of slave-holding, was in marked contrast to Anthony Benezet. his successor in this work, who achieved probably greater suc- cess by gentler methods.


LAY, Henry Champlin, P. E. bishop, b. in Richmond, Va., 6 Dec, 1823 ; d. in Easton, Md., 17 Sept., 1885. He was graduated at the Univer- sity of Virginia in 1842, and at the Episcopal theological seminary in Alexandria in 1846. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Meade in Christ's church, Alexandria, 10 July, 1846. During part of his diaconate he served in Lynnhaven parish, Va., but in 1847 he removed to Huntsville, Ala., where he assumed charge of the Church of the Nativity. He was ordained priest by Bishop Cobbs, 12 July, 1848, became rector of the Church of the Nativity, and held that post for eleven years. Having been elected missionary bishop of Arkansas and Indian territory, he was consecrated in St. Paul's church, Richmond, Va., 23 Oct., 1859. In 1868 the diocese of Maryland was divided, and a new one formed on the eastern shore, under the title of the diocese of Easton. It being the privilege of a missionary bishop to accept the oversight of an organized diocese when elected thereto, Bishop Lay was translated to Easton, 1 April, 1869. He received the degree of D. D. from Hobart college in 1857, and from William and Mary in 1873, and that of LL. D. from Cambridge, England, in 1867, at the time of the Lambeth conference. Bishop Lay published numerous sin- gle sermons on special occasions, also " Letters to a Man Bewildered among many Counsellors " ; " Tracts for Missionary Use " ; " Studies in the Church " (New York, 1872) ; " Ready and Desirous " (1885) ; and " The Church and the Nation " (1885).


LAY, John L., inventor, b. in Buffalo, N. Y., 14 Jan., 1832. He entered the United States navy as 2d assistant engineer in July, 1862, and designed the torpedo by means of which Lieut. William B. Cushing (q. v.) destroyed the Confederate ram "Albemarle." In October, 1863, he was promoted to 1st assistant engineer, and in 1865, after the fall of Richmond, he was sent up James river in ad- vance of Admiral Porter's fleet to remove ob- structions. Subsequently he entered the Peruvian service, and was engaged in preparing fixed mines, and in placing suspended torpedoes in the harbor of Callao, in order to prevent the Spanish fleet from entering. At this time he conceived the idea of a locomotive torpedo, and on his return to the United States in 1867 he invented the sub- marine torpedo that bears his name, which has since become the property of the U. S. government. It consists of a cylindrical boat with conical ends, carrying a spar torpedo or containing in its for- ward end about 100 pounds of some explosive. The motive power is obtained from an engine that is worked by carbon - dioxide gas, and drives a screw propeller. The carbon dioxide, in a liquid form, is stored in the forward section of the cylin- drical body. There is a coil of rope in the in- terior that connects it with the point from which it has been despatched, and the torpedo can be launched from shore as well as from a ship. All its movements are within the control of the open*! tor, who steers it, regulates its machinery, and ex- plodes it by means of a compact electric battery and key-board. The course of the boat is shown to the operator by a small flag, which rises above the surface of the water, and a speed of nine miles an hour has been attained in experiments.


LAY, Oliver Ingraham, artist, b. in New York city in 1845. He was a pupil of Thomas Hicks, studied at the Cooper institute and the National academy, and was elected an associate of the latter in 1876. His works include portraits of Edwin Booth as Hamlet (1883), Cyrus W. Field, Miss Fidelia Bridges, Henry A. Ferguson, and Winslow Homer, N. A.: "Watching the Snow" (1879); and " The Two Friends."


LAYE, Francis, British soldier, b. about 1753; d. in Newcastle, England, 29 Jan., 1828. He was ordered to New York as a lieutenant of artillery in 1773, wounded at Bunker Hill, took part in numerous battles, and accompanied Gen. Alexander Leslie's expedition to Virginia. He was severely wounded at Camden, under Lord Rawdon, received the special thanks of that officer for his services, and then sent home. He commanded the artil- lery in the West Indies in 1800, aiding in the capture of the islands by the expeditions under Sir John Duckworth and Gen. Trigge.


LAZARUS, Emma, poet, b. in New York city, 22 July, 1849 ; d. there, 19 Nov., 1887. She was educated privately and turned her attention to po- etry. Her " Poems and Translations " (New York, 1867), were followed by " Admetus and oth- er Poems" (1871), and were received with favorable criti- cism on both sides of the Atlantic. Her first impor- tant prose work was " Alide, an Epi- sode of Goethe's Life" (Philadelphia, 1874), after which she contributed her

poems, including

numerous translations from Heine, principally to "Scribner's Monthly." Her translations were collected and published as "Poems and Ballads of Heine" (New York, 1881), and her miscellaneous poems under the title of " Songs of a Semite " (1882). Miss Lazarus was a Jewess, and wrote for " The Century " several very striking essays on topics relating to the condition of her race, notably " Was the Earl of Beaconsfield a Representative Jew?" and "Russian Christianity versus Modern Judaism." She also wrote critical articles on Salvini, Emerson, and others, for the same periodical. During the winter of 1882 thousands of Russian Jews came to New York to escape the brutal treatment suffered in Russia, and it became necessary to devise means for their employment. Miss Lazarus published articles in the "American Hebrew," indicating a system of technical education, solving the difficulty, and the project was soon put into execution. During this year her "In Exile," "The Crowing of the Red Cock." and " The Banner of the Jew" were written. Her last writings, a series of prose poems, appeared in 1887. She also translated poems from the mediaeval Hebrew writ-