Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/325

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WALLACHIA 277 WALLENSTEIN master, he learned to play on military instruments, and also studied the violin, pianoforte, and guitar. He spent some years in Australia, and made an exten- sive concert tour in the Australian col- onies, India, and the United States. In 1845 he went to London, and devoted himself to composition. His first opera, "Maritana," vpas produced at Drury Lane, 1845, and secured him at once a reputation. "Lurline" and the "Amber Witch" are nig other chief operatic com- positions. He wrote numerous airs for the pianoforte. He died in Haute Ga- ronne, France, Oct. 12, 1865. WALLACHIA, one of the two princi- palities of southern Europe that were united in 1861 to form the kingdom of Rumania. It is bounded on the N. by Moldavia and Transylvania, on the N. W. by Hungary, on the W. and S. by the Danube river, separating it from Serbia and Bulgaria, and on the E. by the Dan- ube, separating it from Dobrudja; ai^a about 30,000 sauare miles; capital, Buch- arest. Pop. al)cut 4,800,000. See Ru- mania. WALLACE, JAMES WILLIAM, an American actor; born in London, Eng- land, Aug. 24, 1795; began his profes- sional career as Laertes to Elliston's "Hamlet" in 1813; and in 1816 appeared as lago to Edmund Kean's "Othello." He Came to the United States in 1818, and on Sept. 7 made his first appearance in New York City in the Park Theater as "Macbeth." He became stage manager of the Drury Lane Theater in 1820; opened the National Theater in New York City and managed it till it was destroyed by fire in 1839; opened Wallack's Lyceum in 1852 and in 1861 built Wallack's Theater in New York City. He died in New York City, Dec. 25, 1864. WALLACE, LESTER JOHN, an American actor and manager, son of James William Wallack; born in New York, Jan. 1, 1820. He conducted Wal- lack's Theater, New York City, for 24 years; was identified with the American stage for more than 40 years; and on his retirement in May, 1888, was the re- cipient of an unequaled dramatic testi- monial. He wrote the plays "The Vet- eran" and "Rosedale." His autobiog- raphy, "Memoirs of Fifty Years," was published the year after his death. He died in Stamford, Conn., Sept. 6, 1888. WALLA WALLA, a city and county- seat of Walla Walla co., Wash.; on the Walla Walla river, and on the Navi- gation Company's, the Oregon-Wash- ington and the Northern Pacific rail- roads; 160 miles E. of The Dalles, Ore. It is the trade center of east central Washington and contiguous parts of Idaho and Oregon. Here are Whitman College (Cong.), St. Vincent's Academy, De La Salle Institute, Fort Walla Walla, a United States military post. United States and State penitentiaries. National and other banks, and several daily and weekly newspapers. The industries in- clude foundries and machine shops, and flour and lumber mills. Poo. (1910) 19,364; (1920) 15,503, WALL CREEPER, the Tichodroma murarna, a native of southern and cen- tral Europe. It frequents walls and per- pendicular rocks in preference to trees, the favorite resort of the genus Certhia. It is a very prettv bird, about six inches long; plumage light gray, with bright crimson on the shoulders, the larger wing coverts, and the inner webs of the secondaries; the rest of the wings black; tail black, tipped with white. Called also spider catcher, from its habit of feeding on spiders and insects. WALLENSTEIN, ALBRECHT WEN- ZEL EUSEBIUS, COUNT VON (val' len-stine), the great general of the Im- perialists, in the Thirty Years' War; born in 1583, of an ancient and wealthy family of Bohemia. In his youth he re- paired to Italy, where he studied phi- losophy, astronomy, and the sciences then in vogue, and would have become an adept in the abstruse doctrines then so generally believed in, had not the condi- tion of his country called him from the study of the occult sciences to the practice of war. As a soldier and leader he gained honor and distinction on his first field by defeating the Turks, who had penetrated into Hungary. From this time he devoted himself to the service of his country, and in a few years rose to be regarded as the most popular and consummate general in Europe; his vast wealth, immense estates, and extraor- dinary popularity giving him a power and influence hardly less than sovereign. He became in a few years the mainstay and support of the Imperial cause, and, both alone and in conjunction with Tilly, obtained several victories, and more than once raised the empire from the verge of ruin by his counsel and skill as a com- mander. For these services he received the dukedom of Mecklenburg, and im- mense tracts of land both in Bohemia and Hungary. His power and his in- fluence, however, procured for him many enemies, to whom his sovereign, forget- ful of the services he had rendered, lent so willing an ear that Wallenstein, in- dignant at the coldness of the emperor, threw up his commission and retired to the privacy of his paternal estates. Hardly had Wallenstein quitted the