t of Congress (March 2, 1899),--and returned
home, arriving in New York City, where, on the 3rd of October 1899, he
received a great ovation. He was a member (1899) of the Schurman
Philippine Commission, and in 1899 and 1900 was spoken of as a possible
Democratic candidate for the presidency. He acted as president of the
Schley court of inquiry in 1901, and submitted a minority report on a
few details.

DEWEY, MELVIL (1851- ), American librarian, was born at Adams Center,
New York, on the 10th of December 1851. He graduated in 1874 at Amherst
College, where he was assistant librarian from 1874 to 1877. In 1877 he
removed to Boston, where he founded and became editor of _The Library
Journal_, which became an influential factor in the development of
libraries in America, and in the reform of their administration. He was
also one of the founders of the American Library Association, of which
he was secretary from 1876 to 1891, and president in 1891 and 1893. In
1883 he became librarian of Columbia College, and in the following year
founded there the School of Library Economy, the first institution for
the instruction of librarians ever organized. This school, which was
very successful, was removed to Albany in 1890, where it was
re-established as the State Library School under his direction; from
1888 to 1906 he was director of the New York State Library and from 1888
to 1900 was secretary of the University of the State of New York,
completely reorganizing the state library, which he made one of the most
efficient in America, and establishing the system of state travelling
libraries and picture collections. His "Decimal System of
Classification" for library cataloguing, first proposed in 1876, is
extensively used.

DEWING, THOMAS WILMER (1851- ), American figure painter, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, on the 4th of May 1851. He was a pupil of Jules
Lefebvre in Paris from 1876 to 1879; was elected a full member of the
National Academy of Design in 1888; was a member of the society of Ten
American Painters, New York; and received medals at the Paris Exhibition
(1889), at Chicago (1893), at Buffalo (1901) and at St Louis (1904). His
decorative genre pictures are notable for delicacy and finish. Among his
portraits are those of Mrs Stanford White and of his own wife. Mrs
Dewing (b, 1855), _nee_ Maria Oakey, a figure and flower painter, was a
pupil of John La Farge in New York, and of Couture in Paris.

DE WINT, PET