Pennsylvania Railroad Company's freight depot at Thirteenth and Market streets, and in the following year opened it as a dry goods and clothing store, subsequently much enlarged. In September 1896 he acquired from Hilton, Hughes & Company the former New York store of A. T. Stewart, and thereafter greatly enlarged it and added a new building; this, and the Philadelphia store, are among the largest department stores in the United States. Mr Wanamaker was postmaster-general in President Benjamin Harrison's cabinet in 1889–1893, and brought about the establishment of post-offices on ocean-going vessels. He early identified himself with religious work in Philadelphia; was the first paid secretary, in 1857–1861, of that city's Young Men's Christian Association, of which he was president in 1870-1883, and in 1858 founded, and thereafter served as superintendent of, the Bethany (Presbyterian) Sunday School, one of the largest in the world. He took an active part in the movement which resulted in the formation of the United States Christian Commission in 1861.
WANDERU (Wanderoo), the native name for the species of langur monkeys (Semnopithecus) inhabiting the island of Ceylon; but in India commonly misapplied to the lion-tailed macaque, Macacus silenus (see Primates).
WANDESFORD, CHRISTOPHER (1592–1640), lord deputy of Ireland, was the son of Sir George Wandesford (1573–1612) of Kirklington, Yorkshire, and was born on the 24th of September 1592. Educated at Clare College, Cambridge, he entered parliament in 1621, and his rise to importance was due primarily to his friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards earl of Strafford. Although at first hostile to Charles I., this being evidenced by the active part he took in the impeachment of Buckingham, Wandesford soon became a royalist partisan, and in 1633 he accompanied Wentworth to Ireland, where he was already master of the rolls. His services to his chief were fully recognized by the latter, whom in 1640 he succeeded as lord deputy, but he had only just begun to struggle with the difficulties of his new position when he died on the 3rd of December 1640.
His son Christopher (1628–1687), created a baronet in 1662, was the father of Sir Christopher Wandesford (d. 1707), who was created an Irish peer as Viscount Castlecomer in 1707, Castlecomer in Kilkenny having been acquired by his grandfather when in Ireland. Christopher, the 2nd viscount (d. 1719), was secretary-at-war in 1717–1718. In 1758 John, 5th viscount, was created Earl Wandesford, but his titles became extinct when he died in January 1784.
For Wandesford's life see Thomas Comber, Memoirs of the Life and Death of the Lord Deputy Wandesford (Cambridge, 1778); T. D. Whitaker, History of Richmondshire, vol. ii. (1823); and the Autobiography of his daughter, Alice Thornton, edited by Charles Jackson for the Surtees Society (Durham, 1875).
WANDIWASH, a town in the North Arcot district of Madras, India. Pop. (1901) 5971. It is notable as the scene of the victory of Sir Eyre Coote in 1760, the most important ever won by the British over the French in India.
WANDSBEK, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, practically forming a populous suburb of Hamburg, with which it is connected by a railway and an electric tramway. Pop. (1905) 31,563. It is best known as the place of residence of the poet Johann Heinrich Voss and of Matthias Claudius, who here issued (1771–1775) the Wandsbecker Boten. There is a monument to Claudius in the town. Its leading manufactures are spirits, tobacco, beer, leather and confectionery; other industries are machine building and gardening.
WANDSWORTH, a south-western metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded N. by the river Thames and Battersea, and E. by Lambeth, and extending S. and W. to the boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901) 232,034. The name, which occurs in Domesday, indicates the position of the village on the river Wandle, a small tributary of the Thames. Wandsworth is the largest in area of the metropolitan boroughs, including the districts of Putney by the river, part of Clapham in the north-east, Streatham in the south-east, Balham and Upper and Lower Tooting in the centre and south. These are mainly residential districts, and the borough is not thickly populated. Towards the west, along the Upper Richmond and Kingston roads, there is considerable open country, undulating and well wooded. It is to a great extent preserved in the public grounds of Putney Heath, which adjoins Wimbledon Common, outside the borough, on the north; and Richmond Park and Barnes Common, parts of which are in the borough. Other public grounds are parts of Wandsworth Common (193 acres) and Clapham Common, both extending into Battersea, Tooting Bec (147 acres) and Streatham Common (66 acres), and Wandsworth Park bordering the Thames. The borough is connected with Fulham across the Thames by Wandsworth and Putney bridges. The annual Oxford and Cambridge boat-race starts from above Putney Bridge, finishing at Mortlake; and the club-houses of the principal rowing clubs of London are situated on the Putney shore. Putney Heath was formerly notorious as a resort of highwaymen and duellists. Among the institutions of Wandsworth are the Royal Hospital for Incurables, Putney; the Fountain and the Grove fever hospitals, Lower Tooting; the Clapham School of Art, Wandsworth Technical Institute; the Roman Catholic Training College for Women, West Hill; and Wandsworth Prison, Heathfield Road. The parliamentary borough of Wandsworth returns one member, but the municipal borough also includes part of the Clapham division of the parliamentary borough of Battersea and Clapham, and part of the Wimbledon division of Surrey. The borough council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. Area, 9129.7 acres.
WANGANUI, the principal port on the west coast of North Island, New Zealand, in the Waitotara county, at the mouth of the Wanganui river, 134 m. by rail N. of Wellington. Pop. (1906) 8175. The town is laid out in rectangular blocks at the foot of low hills, from the summit of which (as in Queen's Gardens) a splendid panorama is seen, including the snow-clad Mount Ruapehu to the north-east. The river bar obstructs navigation, the depth not exceeding 14 ft., so that large vessels must lie outside. The district is agricultural and pastoral, and wool and grain are exported, as well as meat and dairy produce, for which there are large refrigerating works. The Wanganui Collegiate School (Church of England) is one of the largest boarding schools in Australasia. The district was the scene of conflicts with the natives in 1847, 1864 and 1868, and in the beautiful Moutoa gardens a monument commemorates the battle of that name (May 14th, 1864). The settlement was founded in 1842.
WANGARA, the Hausa name for the Mandingo (q.v.), a people of West Africa; used also as the name of districts in the western and central Sudan. The Wangara are also known as Wangarawa, Wongara, Ungara, Wankoré and Wakore. According to Idrisi (writing in the 12th century), the Wangara country was renowned for the quantity and the quality of the gold which it produces. The country formed an island about 300 m. long by 150 in breadth, which the Nile (i.e. Niger) surrounded on all sides and at all seasons. This description corresponds fairly accurately with the tract of country between the Niger and its tributary the Bani. Idrisi's account of the annual inundation of the land by the rising of the Niger agrees with the facts. He states that on the fall of the waters natives from all parts of the Sudan assembled to gather the gold which the subsiding waters left behind. In the closing years of the 18th and the opening years of the 19th century the discoveries of Hornemann, Mungo Park and others revived the stories of Wangara and its richness in gold. Geographers of that period (e.g. Major Rennell) shifted the Wangara country far to the east and confused Idrisi's description with accounts which probably referred to Lake Chad. Gradually, however, as knowledge increased, the Wangara territory was again moved westward, and was located within the Niger bend. The name has now practically disappeared from the maps save that a town in the hinterland of Dahomey is named Wangara (French spelling Ouangara). Idrisi's account as to the richness in gold of the upper Niger regions has basis in fact; though the gold brought
