the Kansas river, in the east part of the state, about 60 m. W. of Kansas City. Pop. (1900), 33,608, of whom 3201 were foreign-born (including 702 Germans, 575 Swedes, 512 English, 407 Russians, 320 Irish, &c.) and 4807 were negroes; (1910, census), 43,684. It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Missouri Pacific railways. The city is regularly laid out on a fairly level prairie bench, considerably elevated above the river and about 890 ft. above sea-level. Among its prominent buildings are the United States government building, the Capitol (erected 1866-1903 at a cost of $3,200,589 and one of the best state buildings in the country), the county court house, the public library (1882), an auditorium (with a seating capacity of about 5000), the Y.M.C.A. building, a memorial building, housing historical relics of the state, and Grace Church Cathedral (Protestant Episcopal). The city is the see of a Protestant Episcopal bishop. In the Capitol are the library (about 6000 volumes) and natural history collections of the Kansas Academy of Science, and the library (30,000 books, 94,000 pamphlets and 28,500 manuscripts) and collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, which publishes Kansas Historical Collections (1875 sqq.) and Biennial Reports (1879 sqq.). The city is the seat of Washburn (formerly Lincoln) College (1865), which took its present name in 1868 in honour of Ichabod Washburn of Worcester, Massachusetts, who gave it $25,000; in 1909 it had 783 students (424 being women). Other educational establishments are the College of the Sisters of Bethany (Protestant Episcopal, 1861), for women, and the Topeka Industrial and Educational Institute (1895), for negroes. In Topeka are the state insane asylum, Christ's Hospital (1894), the Jane C. Stormont Hospital and Training School for nurses (1895), the Santa Fé Railway Hospital, the Bethesda Hospital (1906) and the St Francis Hospital (1909). Topeka is an important manufacturing city. Its factory product was valued in 1905 at $14,448,869. Natural gas is piped from southern Kansas for manufacturing and domestic use.
The first white settlement on the site of Topeka was made in 1852, but the city really originated in 1854, when its site was chosen by a party from Lawrence. It was from the first a free-state stronghold. More than one convention was held here in Territorial days, including that which framed the Topeka Constitution of 1855; and some of the meetings of the free-state legislature chosen under that document (see Kansas) were also held here. Topeka was made the temporary state capital under the Wyandotte Constitution, and became the permanent capital in 1861. It was first chartered by the pro-slavery Territorial legislature in 1857, but did not organize its government until 1858 (see Lawrence). In 1881 it was chartered as a city of the first class. The first railway outlet, the Union Pacific, reached Eugene, now North Topeka, in 1865. The construction of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé was begun here in 1868, and its construction shops, of extreme importance to the city, were built here in 1878. In 1880, just after the great negro immigration to Kansas, the coloured population was 31% of the total.
See F. W. Giles, Thirty Years in Topeka (Topeka, 1886).
TOPELIUS, ZAKRIS [Zacharias] (1818–1898), Finnish
author, was born at Kuddnäs, near Nykarleby, on the
14th of January 1818. He was the son of a doctor of
the same name, who was distinguished as the earliest collector
of Finnish folk-songs. Topelius became a student at Helsingfors
in 1833, was made professor in 1863 and received
in succession all the academic distinctions open to him.
Quite early in his career he began to distinguish himself
as a lyric poet, with the three successive volumes of his
Heather Blossoms (1845–1854). The earliest of his historical
romances was The Duchess of Finland, published in 1850.
He was also editor-in-chief of the Helsingfors Gazette from
1841 to 1860. In 1878, Topelius was allowed to withdraw from
his professional duties, but this did not sever his connexion
with the university; it gave him, however, more leisure for his
abundant and various literary enterprises. Of all the multifarious
writings of Topelius, in prose and verse, that which has
enjoyed the greatest popularity is his Tales of a Barber-Surgeon,
episodes of historical fiction from the days of Gustavus II.
Adolphus to those of Gustavus III., treated in the manner of
Sir Walter Scott; the five volumes of this work appeared at
intervals between 1853 and 1867. Topelius attempted the
drama also, with most success in his tragedy of Regina von
Emmeritz (1854). Topelius aimed, with eminent but perhaps
pathetic success, at the cultivation of a strong passion of
patriotism in Finland. He died on the 13th of March 1898
at Helsingfors. Topelius was an exceptionally happy writer
for children, his best-known work being Läsning för barn.
His abundant poetry is graceful and patriotic, but does not
offer any features of great originality.
(E. G.)
TOPETE, JUAN BAUPTISTA (1821-1885), Spanish naval
commander and politician, was born in Mexico on the 24th of
May 1821. His father and grandfather were also Spanish
admirals. He entered the navy at the age of seventeen, cut out
a Carlist vessel in 1839, became a midshipman at twenty-two,
obtained the cross of naval merit for saving the life of a sailor in
1841 and became a lieutenant in 1845. He served on the West
Indian station for three years, and was engaged in repressing the
slave trade before he was promoted frigate captain in 1857. He
was chief of staff to the fleet during the Morocco War, 1859, after
which he got the crosses of San Fernando and San Hermenegilde.
Having been appointed chief of the Carrara arsenal at Cadiz, he
was elected deputy and joined the Union Liberal of O'Donnell
and Serrano. He was sent out to the Pacific in command of the
frigate “Blanca,” and was present at the bombardment of
Valparaiso and Callao, where he was badly wounded, and in
other engagements of the war between Chile and Peru. On his
return to Spain, Topete was made port captain at Cadiz, which
enabled him to take the lead of the conspiracy in the fleet against
the Bourbon monarchy. He sent the steamer “Buenaventura”
to the Canary Isle for Serrano and the other exiles; and when
Prim and Sagasta arrived from Gibraltar, the whole fleet under
the influence of Topete took such an attitude that the people,
garrison and authorities of Cadiz followed suit. Topete took
part in all the acts of the revolutionary government, accepted the
post of marine minister, was elected a member of the Cortes of
1869, supported the pretensions of Montpensier, opposed the
election of Amadeus, sat in several cabinets of that king's reign,
was prosecuted by the federal republic of 1873 and again took
charge of the marine under Serrano in 1874. After the Restoration
Topete for some years held aloof, but finally accepted the
presidency of a naval board in 1877, and sat in the Senate as a
life peer until his death on the 29th of October 1885 at Madrid.
TÖPFFER, RODOLPHE (1799-1846), the inventor of pedestrian journeys in Switzerland by schoolboys, was born at Geneva on the 31st of January 1799. His grandfather, a tailor, came about 1760 from Schweinfurt (Bavaria) to settle in Geneva, while his father, Adam, was an artist. Rodolphe's literary education was rather desultory, as he intended to be an artist, like his father. But in 1819 his weak eyesight put an end to that intention, so he studied in Paris, intending to devote himself to the profession of schoolmaster. After passing some time in a private school in Geneva (1822-1824), he founded (1824) one of his own, after his marriage. It was in 1823 that he made his first foot journey in the Alps with his pupils, though this became his regular practice only from 1832 onwards. These Voyages en zigzag were described annually (1832-1843) in a series of lithographed volumes, with sketches by the author—the first printed edition appeared at Paris in 1844, and a second series (Nouveaux voyages en zigzag) also at Paris in 1854. Both series have since passed through many editions. In 1832 he was named professor of belles-lettres at the university of Geneva, and held that chair till his death, on the 8th of June 1846. As early as 1834 he published an article in the Bibliothèque universelle of Geneva. It was followed by a number of tales, commencing with the Bibliothèque de mon oncle (1832), many of which were later collected (1841) into the well-known volume which bears the title of Nouvelles genevoises. He took some part (on the Conservative side) in local politics, and was (1841-1843) editor of the Courrier de Genève. Among
