Encyclopaedia Britannica Volume 4, Slice 1 Part 30

BLOW-GUN, a weapon consisting of a long tube, through which, by blowing with the mouth, arrows or other missiles can be shot accurately to a considerable distance. Blow-guns are used both in warefare and the chase by the South American Indian tribes inhabiting the region between the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and by the Dyaks of Borneo. In the 18th century they were also known to certain North American Indians, especially the Choctaws and Cherokees of the lower Mississippi. Captain Bossu, in his _Travels through Louisiana_ (1756), says of the Choctaws: "They are very expert in shooting with an instrument made of reeds about 7 ft. long, into which they put a little arrow feathered with the wool of the thistle (wild cotton?)." The blow-guns of the South American Indians differ in style and workmans.h.i.+p. That of the Macusis of Guiana, called _pucuna_, is the most perfect. It is made of two tubes, the inner of which, called _oorah_, is a light reed in. in diameter which often grows to a length of 15 ft. without a joint. This is enclosed, for protection and solidity, in an outer tube of a variety of palm (_Iriartella setigera_). The mouth-piece is made of a circlet of silk-gra.s.s, and the farther end is feruled with a kind of nut, forming a sight. A rear open sight is formed of two teeth of a small rodent. The length of the _pucuna_ is about 11 ft. and its weight 1 lb. The arrows, which are from 12 to 18 in. long and very slender, are made of ribs of the cocorite palm-leaf. They are usually feathered with a tuft of wild cotton, but some have in place of the cotton a thin strip of bark curled into a cone, which, when the shooter blows into the _pucuna_, expands and completely fills the tube, thus avoiding windage. Another kind of arrow is furnished with fibres of bark fixed along the shaft, imparting a rotary motion to the missile, a primitive example of the theory of the rifle. The arrows used in Peru are only a few inches long and as thin as fine knitting-needles. All South American blow-gun arrows are steeped in poison. The natives shoot very accurately with the _pucuna_ at distances up to 50 or 60 yds.

The blow-gun of the Borneo Dyaks, called _sumpitan_, is from 6 to 7 ft.

long and made of ironwood. The bore, of in., is made with a long pointed piece of iron. At the muzzle a small iron hook is affixed, to serve as a sight, as well as a spear-head like a bayonet and for the same purpose. The arrows used with the _sumpitan_ are about 10 in. long, pointed with fish-teeth, and feathered with pith. They are also envenomed with poison.

Poisoned arrows are also used by the natives of the Philippine island of Mindanao, whose blow-pipes, from 3 to 4 ft. long and made of bamboo, are often richly ornamented and even jewelled.

The principle of the blow-gun is, of course, the same as that of the common "pea-shooter."

See _Sport with Rod and Gun in American Woods and Waters_, by A.M.

Mayer, vol. ii. (Edinburgh, 1884); _Wanderings in South America_, &c., by Charles Waterton (London, 1828); _The Head Hunters of Borneo_, by Carl Bock (London, 1881).

BLOWITZ, HENRI GEORGES STEPHAN ADOLPHE DE (1825-1903), Anglo-French journalist, was born, according to the account given in his memoirs, at his father's chateau in Bohemia on the 28th of December 1825. At the age of fifteen he left home, and travelled over Europe for some years in company with a young professor of philology, acquiring a thorough knowledge of French, German and Italian and a mixed general education.

The finances of his family becoming straitened, young Blowitz was on the point of starting to seek his fortune in America, when he became acquainted in Paris with M. de Falloux, minister of public instruction, who appointed him professor of foreign languages at the Tours Lycee, whence, after some years, he was transferred to the Ma.r.s.eilles Lycee.

After marrying in 1859 he resigned his professors.h.i.+p, but remained at Ma.r.s.eilles, devoting himself to literature and politics. In 1869 information which he supplied to a legitimist newspaper at Ma.r.s.eilles with regard to the candidature of M. de Lesseps as deputy for that city led to a demand for his expulsion from France. He was, however, allowed to remain, but had to retire to the country. In 1870 his predictions of the approaching fall of the Empire caused the demand for his expulsion to be renewed. While his case was under discussion the battle of Sedan was fought, and Blowitz effectually ingratiated himself with the authorities by applying for naturalization as a French subject. Once naturalized, he returned to Ma.r.s.eilles, where he was fortunately able to render considerable service to Thiers, who subsequently employed him in collecting information at Versailles, and when this work was finished offered him the French consuls.h.i.+p at Riga. Blowitz was on the point of accepting this post when Laurence Oliphant, then Paris correspondent of _The Times_, for which Blowitz had already done some occasional work, asked him to act as his regular a.s.sistant for a time, Frederick Hardman, the other Paris correspondent of _The Times_, being absent. Blowitz accepted the offer, and when, later on, Oliphant was succeeded by Hardman he remained as a.s.sistant correspondent. In 1873 Hardman died, and Blowitz became chief Paris correspondent to _The Times_. In this capacity he soon became famous in the world of journalism and diplomacy.

In 1875 the duc de Decazcs, then French foreign minister, showed Blowitz a confidential despatch from the French amba.s.sador in Berlin (in which the latter warned his government that Germany was contemplating an attack on France), and requested the correspondent to expose the German designs in _The Times_. The publication of the facts effectually aroused European public opinion, and any such intention was immediately thwarted. Blowitz's most sensational journalistic feat was achieved in 1878, when his enterprise enabled _The Times_ to publish the whole text of the treaty of Berlin at the actual moment that the treaty was being signed in Germany. In 1877 and again in 1888 Blowitz rendered considerable service to the French government by his exposure of internal designs upon the Republic. He died on the 18th of January 1903.

_My Memoirs_, by H.S. de Blowitz, was published in 1903.

BLOWPIPE, in the arts and chemistry, a tube for directing a jet of air into a fire or into the flame of a lamp or gas jet, for the purpose of producing a high temperature by accelerating the combustion. The blowpipe has been in common use from the earliest times for soldering metals and working gla.s.s, but its introduction into systematic chemical a.n.a.lysis is to be ascribed to A.F. Cronstedt, and not to Anton Swab, as has been maintained (see J. Landauer, _Ber_. 26, p. 898). The first work on this application of the blowpipe was by G. v. Engestrom, and was published in 1770 as an appendix to a treatise on mineralogy. Its application has been variously improved at the hands of T.O. Bergman, J.G. Gahn, J.J. Berzelius, C.F. Plattner and others, but more especially by the two last-named chemists.

The simplest and oldest form of blowpipe is a conical bra.s.s tube, about 7 in. in length, curved at the small end into a right angle, and terminating in a small round orifice, which is applied to the flame, while the larger end is applied to the mouth. Where the blast has to be kept up for only a few seconds, this instrument is quite serviceable, but in longer chemical operations inconvenience arises from the condensation of moisture exhaled by the lungs in the tube. Hence most blowpipes are now made with a cavity for retaining the moisture.

Cronstedt placed a bulb in the centre of his blowpipe. Dr Joseph Black's instrument consists of a conical tube of tin plate, with a small bra.s.s tube, supporting the nozzle, inserted near the wider end, and a mouth-piece at the narrow end.

The sizes of orifice recommended by Plattner are 0.4 and 0.5 mm. A trumpet mouth-piece is recommended from the support it gives to the cheeks when inflated. The mode of blowing is peculiar, and requires some practice; an uninterrupted blast is kept up by the muscular action of the cheeks, while the ordinary respiration goes on through the nostrils.

If the flame of a candle or lamp be closely examined, it will be seen to consist of four parts--(a) a deep blue ring at the base, (b) a dark cone in the centre, (c) a luminous portion round this, and (d) an exterior pale blue envelope (see FLAME). In blowpipe work only two of these four parts are made use of, viz. the pale envelope, for oxidation, and the luminous portion, for reduction. To obtain a good _oxidizing flame_, the blowpipe is held with its nozzle inserted in the edge of the flame close over the level of the wick, and blown into gently and evenly. A conical jet is thus produced, consisting of an inner cone, with an outer one commencing near its apex--the former, corresponding to (a) in the free flame, blue and well defined; the latter corresponding to (d), pale blue and vague. The heat is greatest just beyond the point of the inner cone, combustion being there most complete. Oxidation is better effected (if a very high temperature be not required) the farther the substance is from the apex of the inner cone, for the air has thus freer access. To obtain a good _reducing flame_ (in which the combustible matter, very hot, but not yet burned, is disposed to take oxygen from any compound containing it), the nozzle, with smaller orifice, should just touch the flame at a point higher above the wick, and a somewhat weaker current of air should be blown. The flame then appears as a long, narrow, luminous cone, the end being enveloped by a dimly visible portion of flame corresponding to that which surrounds the free flame, while there is also a dark nucleus about the wick. The substance to be reduced is brought into the luminous portion, where the reducing power is strongest.

Various materials are used as supports for substances in the blowpipe flame; the princ.i.p.al are charcoal, platinum and gla.s.s or porcelain.

Charcoal is valuable for its infusibility and low conductivity for heat (allowing substances to be strongly heated upon it), and for its powerful reducing properties; so that it is chiefly employed in testing the fusibility of minerals and in reduction. The best kind of charcoal is that of close-grained pine or alder; it is cut in short prisms, having a flat smooth surface at right angles to the rings of growth. In this a shallow hole is made for receiving the substance to be held in the flame. Gas-carbon is sometimes used, since it is more permanent in the flame than wood charcoal. _Platinum_ is employed in oxidizing processes, and in the fusion of substances with fluxes; also in observing the colouring effect of substances on the blowpipe flame (which effect is apt to be somewhat masked by charcoal). Most commonly it is used in the form of wire, with a small bend or loop at the end.

The mouth blowpipe is unsuitable for the production of a large flame, and cannot be used for any lengthy operations; hence recourse must be made to types in which the air-blast is occasioned by mechanical means.

The laboratory form in common use consists of a bellows worked by either hand or foot, and a special type of gas burner formed of two concentric tubes, one conveying the blast, the other the gas; the supply of air and gas being regulated by stopc.o.c.ks. The _hot blast blowpipe_ of T.

Fletcher, in which the blast is heated by pa.s.sing through a copper coil heated by a separate burner, is only of service when a pointed flame of a fairly high temperature is required. Blowpipes in which oxygen is used as the blast have been manufactured by Fletcher, Russell & Co., and have proved of great service in conducting fusions which require a temperature above that yielded by the air-blowpipe.

For the applications of the blowpipe in chemical a.n.a.lysis see CHEMISTRY: _a.n.a.lytical_.

BLuCHER, GEBHARD LEBERECHT VON (1742-1819), Prussian general field marshal, prince of Wahlstadt in Silesia, was born at Rostock on the 16th of December 1742. In his fourteenth year he entered the service of Sweden, and in the Pomeranian campaign of 1760 he was taken prisoner by the Prussians. He was persuaded by his captors to enter the Prussian service. He took part in the later battles of the Seven Years' War, and as a hussar officer gained much experience of light cavalry work. In peace, however, his ardent spirit led him into excesses of all kinds, and being pa.s.sed over for promotion he sent in his resignation, to which Frederick replied, "Captain Blucher can take himself to the devil"

(1773). He now settled down to farming, and in fifteen years he had acquired an honourable independence. But he was unable to return to the army until after the death of Frederick the Great. He was then reinstated as major in his old regiment, the Red Hussars. He took part in the expedition to Holland in 1787, and in the following year became lieutenant-colonel. In 1789 he received the order _pour le merite_, and in 1794 he became colonel of the Red Hussars. In 1793 and 1794 he distinguished himself in cavalry actions against the French, and for his success at Kirrweiler he was made a major-general. In 1801 he was promoted lieutenant-general.

He was one of the leaders of the war party in Prussia in 1805-1806, and served as a cavalry general in the disastrous campaign of the latter year. At Auerstadt Blucher repeatedly charged at the head of the Prussian cavalry, but without success. In the retreat of the broken armies he commanded the rearguard of Prince Hohenlohe's corps, and upon the capitulation of the main body of Prenzlau he carried off a remnant of the Prussian army to the northward, and in the neighbourhood of Lubeck he fought a series of combats, which, however, ended in his being forced to surrender at Ratkau (November 7, 1806). His adversaries testified in his capitulation that it was caused by "want of provisions and ammunition." He was soon exchanged for General Victor, and was actively employed in Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Konigsberg until the conclusion of the war. After the war, Blucher was looked upon as the natural leader of the patriot party, with which he was in close touch during the period of Napoleonic domination. His hopes of an alliance with Austria in the war of 1809 were disappointed. In this year he was made general of cavalry. In 1812 he expressed himself so openly on the alliance of Russia with France that he was recalled from his military governors.h.i.+p of Pomerania and virtually banished from the court.

When at last the Napoleonic domination was ended by the outbreak of the War of Liberation in 1813, Blucher of course was at once placed in high command, and he was present at Lutzen and Bautzen. During the armistice he worked at the organization of the Prussian forces, and when the war was resumed Blucher became commander-in-chief of the Army of Silesia, with Gneisenau and m.u.f.fling as his princ.i.p.al staff officers, and 40,000 Prussians and 50,000 Russians under his control. The autumn campaign of 1813 will be found described in the article NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS, and it will here be sufficient to say that the most conspicuous military quality displayed by Blucher was his unrelenting energy. The irresolution and divergence of interests usual in allied armies found in him a restless opponent, and the knowledge that if he could not induce others to co-operate he was prepared to attempt the task in hand by himself often caused other generals to follow his lead. He defeated Marshal Macdonald at the Katzbach, and by his victory over Marmont at Mockern led the way to the decisive overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig, which place was stormed by Blucher's own army on the evening of the last day of the battle. On the day of Mockern (October 16, 1813) Blucher was made a general field marshal, and after the victory he pursued the routed French with his accustomed energy. In the winter of 1813-1814 Blucher, with his chief staff officers, was mainly instrumental in inducing the allied sovereigns to carry the war into France itself. The combat of Brienne and the battle of La Rothiere were the chief incidents of the first stage of the celebrated campaign of 1814, and they were quickly followed by the victories of Napoleon over Blucher at Champaubert, Vauxchamps and Montmirail. But the courage of the Prussian leader was undiminished, and his great victory of Laon (March 9 to 10) practically decided the fate of the campaign. After this Blucher infused some of his own energy into the operations of Prince Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia, and at last this army and the Army of Silesia marched in one body direct upon Paris. The victory of Montmartre, the entry of the allies into the French capital, and the overthrow of the First Empire were the direct consequences. Blucher was disposed to make a severe retaliation upon Paris for the calamities that Prussia had suffered from the armies of France had not the allied commanders intervened to prevent it. Blowing up the bridge of Jena was said to be one of his contemplated acts. On the 3rd of June 1814 he was made prince of Wahlstadt (in Silesia on the Katzbach battlefield), and soon afterwards he paid a visit to England, being received everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm.

After the peace he retired to Silesia, but the return of Napoleon soon called him to further service. He was put in command of the Army of the Lower Rhine with General Gneisenau as his chief of staff (see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN). In the campaign of 1815 the Prussians sustained a very severe defeat at the outset at Ligny (June 16), in the course of which the old field marshal was ridden over by cavalry charges, his life being saved only by the devotion of his aide-de-camp, Count Nost.i.tz. He was unable to resume command for some hours, and Gneisenau drew off the defeated army. The relations of the Prussian and the English headquarters were at this time very complicated, and it is uncertain whether Blucher himself was responsible for the daring resolution to march to Wellington's a.s.sistance. This was in fact done, and after an incredibly severe march Blucher's army intervened with decisive and crus.h.i.+ng effect in the battle of Waterloo. The great victory was converted into a success absolutely decisive of the war by the relentless pursuit of the Prussians, and the allies re-entered Paris on the 7th of July. Prince Blucher remained in the French capital for some months, but his age and infirmities compelled him to retire to his Silesian residence at Krieblowitz, where he died on the 12th of September 1819, aged seventy-seven. He retained to the end of his life that wildness of character and p.r.o.neness to excesses which had caused his dismissal from the army in his youth, but however they may be regarded, these faults sprang always from the ardent and vivid temperament which made Blucher a das.h.i.+ng leader of horse. The qualities which made him a great general were his patriotism and the hatred of French domination which inspired every success of the War of Liberation. He was twice married, and had, by his first marriage, two sons and a daughter. Statues were erected to his memory at Berlin, Breslau and Rostock.

Of the various lives of Prince Blucher, that by Varnhagen von Ense (1827) is the most important. His war diaries of 1793-1794, together with a memoir (written in 1805) on the subject of a national army, were edited by Golz and Ribbentrop (Campagne Journal 1793-4 von _Gl.

Lt. v. Blucher_).

BLUE (common in different forms to most European languages), the name of a colour, used in many colloquial phrases. From the fact of various parties, political and other, having adopted the colour blue as their badge, various cla.s.ses of people have come to be known as "blue" or "blues"; thus "true blue" meant originally a staunch Presbyterian, the Covenanters having adopted blue as their colour as opposed to red, the royal colour; similarly, in the navy, there was in the 18th century a "Blue Squadron," Nelson being at one time "Rear-Admiral of the Blue"; again, in 1690, the Royal Horse Guards were called the "Blues" from their blue uniforms, or, from their leader, the earl of Oxford, the "Oxford Blues"; also, from the blue ribbon worn by the knights of the Garter comes the use of the phrase as the highest mark of distinction that can be worn, especially applied on the turf to the winning of the Derby. The "blue Peter" is a rectangular blue flag, with a white square in the centre, hoisted at the top of the foremast as a signal that a vessel is about to leave port. At Oxford and Cambridge a man who represents his university in certain athletic sports is called a "blue"

from the "colours" he is then ent.i.tled to wear, dark blue for Oxford and light blue for Cambridge.

BLUEBEARD, the monster of Charles Perrault's tale of _Barbe Bleue_, who murdered his wives and hid their bodies in a locked room. Perrault's tale was first printed in his _Histoires et contes du temps pa.s.se_ (1697). The essentials of the story--Bluebeard's prohibition to his wife to open a certain door during his absence, her disobedience, her discovery of a gruesome secret, and her timely rescue from death--are to be found in other folklore stories, none of which, however, has attained the fame of _Bluebeard_. A close parallel exists in an Esthonian legend of a husband who had already killed eleven wives, and was prevented from killing the twelfth, who had opened a secret room, by a gooseherd, the friend of her childhood. In "The Feather Bird" of Grimm's _Hausmarchen_, three sisters are the victims, the third being rescued by her brothers.

Bluebeard, though Perrault does not state the number of his crimes, is generally credited with the murder of seven wives. His history belongs to the common stock of folklore, and has even been ingeniously fitted with a mythical interpretation. In France the Bluebeard legend has its local habitation in Brittany, but whether the existing traditions connecting him with Gilles de Rais (q.v.) or Comorre the Cursed, a Breton chief of the 6th century, were anterior to Perrault's time, we have no means of determining. The identification of Bluebeard with Gilles de Rais, the _bete d'extermination_ of Michelet's forcible language, persists locally in the neighbourhood of the various castles of the baron, especially at Machecoul and Tiffauges, the chief scenes of his infamous crimes. Gilles de Rais, however, had only one wife, who survived him, and his victims were in the majority of cases young boys.

The traditional connexion may arise simply from the not improbable a.s.sociation of two monstrous tales. The less widespread identification of Bluebeard with Comorre is supported by a series of frescoes dating only a few years later than the publication of Perrault's story, in a chapel at St Nicolas de Bieuzy dedicated to St Tryphine, in which the tale of Bluebeard is depicted as the story of the saint, who in history was the wife of Comorre. Comorre or Conomor had his original headquarters at Carhaix, in Finistere. He extended his authority by marriage with the widow of Iona, chief of Domnonia, and attempted the life of his stepson Judwal, who fled to the Frankish court. About 547 or 548 he obtained in marriage, through the intercession of St Gildas, Tryphine, daughter of Weroc, count of Vannes. The pair lived in peace at Castel Finans for some time, but Comorre, disappointed in his ambitions in the Vannetais, presently threatened Tryphine. She took flight, but her husband found her hiding in a wood, when he gave her a wound on the skull and left her for dead. She was tended and restored to health by St Gildas, and after the birth of her son retired to a convent of her own foundation. Eventually Comorre was defeated and slain by Judwal. In legend St Tryphine was decapitated and miraculously restored to life by Gildas. Alain Bouchard (_Grandes croniques_, Nantes, 1531) a.s.serts that Comorre had already put several wives to death before he married Tryphine. In the _Legendes bretonnes_ of the count d'Amezeuil the church legend becomes a charming fairy tale.

See also E.A. Vizetclly, _Bluebeard_ (1902); E. Sidney Hartland, "The Forbidden Chamber," in _Folklore_, vol. iii. (1885); and the editions of the _Contes_ of Charles Perrault (q.v.). Cf. A. France, _Les Sept Femmes de Barbe Bleue_ (1909).

BLUE-BOOK, the general name given to the reports and other doc.u.ments printed by order of the parliament of the United Kingdom, so called from their being usually covered with blue paper, though some are bound in drab and others have white covers. The printing of its proceedings was first adopted by the House of Commons in 1681, and in 1836 was commenced the practice of selling parliamentary papers to the public. All notices of questions, resolutions, votes and proceedings in both Houses of Parliament are issued each day during the session; other publications include the various papers issued by the different government departments, the reports of committees and commissions of inquiry, public bills, as well as returns, correspondence, &c., specially ordered to be printed by either house. The papers of each session are so arranged as to admit of being bound up in regular order, and are well indexed. The terms upon which blue-books, single papers, &c., are issued to the general public are one halfpenny per sheet of four pages, but for an annual subscription of 20 all the parliamentary publications of the year may be obtained; but subscriptions can be arranged so that almost any particular cla.s.s of publication can be obtained--for example, the daily votes and proceedings can be obtained for an annual subscription of 3, the House of Lords papers for 10, or the House of Commons papers for 15. Any publication can also be purchased separately.

Most foreign countries have a distinctive colour for the binding of their official publications. That of the United Slates varies, but foreign diplomatic correspondence is bound in red. The United States government publications are not only on sale (as a rule) but are widely supplied gratis, with the result that important publications soon get out of print, and it is difficult to obtain access to many valuable reports or other information, except at a public library. German official publications are bound in white; French, in yellow; Austrian, in red; Portuguese, in white; Italian, in green; Spanish, in red; Mexican, in green; j.a.panese, in grey; Chinese, in yellow.

BLUESTOCKING, a derisive name for a literary woman. The term originated in or about 1750, when Mrs Elizabeth Montagu (q.v.) made a determined effort to introduce into society a healthier and more intellectual tone, by holding a.s.semblies at which literary conversation and discussions were to take the place of cards and gossip. Most of those attending were conspicuous by the plainness of their dress, and a Mr Benjamin Stillingfleet specially caused comment by always wearing blue or worsted stockings instead of the usual black silk. It was in special reference to him that Mrs Montagu's friends were called the Bluestocking Society or Club, and the women frequenting her house in Hill Street came to be known as the "Bluestocking Ladies" or simply "bluestockings." As an alternative explanation, the origin of the name is attributed to Mrs Montagu's deliberate adoption of blue stockings (in which fas.h.i.+on she was followed by all her women friends) as the badge of the society she wished to form. She is said to have obtained the idea from Paris, where in the 17th century there was a revival of a social reunion in 1590 on the lines of that formed in 1400 at Venice, the ladies and men of which wore blue stockings. The term had been applied in England as early as 1653 to the Little Parliament, in allusion to the puritanically plain and coa.r.s.e dress of the members.

BLUFF (a word of uncertain origin; possibly connected with an obsolete Dutch word, _blaf_, broad), an adjective used of a s.h.i.+p, meaning broad and nearly vertical in the bows; similarly, of a cliff or sh.o.r.e, presenting a bold and nearly perpendicular front; of a person, good-natured and frank, with a rough or abrupt manner. Another word "bluff," perhaps connected with German _verbluffen_, to baffle, meant originally a horse's blinker, the corresponding verb meaning to blindfold: it survives as a term in such games as poker, where "to bluff" means to bet heavily on a hand so as to make an opponent believe it to be stronger than it is; hence such phrases as "the game of bluff,"

"a policy of bluff."

BLUM, ROBERT FREDERICK (1857-1903), American artist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th of July 1857. He was employed for a time in a lithographic shop, and studied at the McMicken Art School of Design in Cincinnati, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but he was practically self-taught, and early showed great and original talent. He settled in New York in 1879, and his first published sketches--of j.a.panese jugglers--appeared in _St Nicholas_. His most important work is a large frieze in the Mendelssohn Music Hall, New York, "Music and the Dance" (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the Century magazine attracted wide attention, as did his ill.u.s.trations for Sir Edwin Arnold's _j.a.ponica_. In the country and art of j.a.pan he had been interested for many years. "A Daughter of j.a.pan," drawn by Blum and W.J.

Baer, was the cover of _Scribner's Magazine_ for May 1893, and was one of the earliest pieces of colour-printing for an American magazine. In _Scribner's_ for 1893 appeared also his "Artist's Letters from j.a.pan."

He was an admirer of Fortuny, whose methods somewhat influenced his work. Blum's Venetian pictures, such as "A Bright Day at Venice" (1882), had lively charm and beauty. He died on the 8th of June 1903 in New York City. He was a member of the National Academy of Design, being elected after his exhibition in 1892 of "The Ameya"; and was president of the Painters in Pastel. Although an excellent draughtsman and etcher, it was as a colourist that he chiefly excelled.