EMPORIA

emporia, a city and the county-seat of lyon county, kansas, u.s.a., on the neosho river, about 60 m. s.w. of topeka. pop. (1890) 7551; (1900) 8223, of whom 686 were foreign-born and 663 were negroes; (1910 u.s. census) 9058. it is served by the atchison, topeka & santa fe, and the missouri, kansas & texas railways. the city has a carnegie library, and is the seat of the state normal school and of the college of emporia (presbyterian; 1883). emporia's industrial interests are mainly centred in commerce with the surrounding farming region; but there are small flour mills, machine shops, foundries and other manufacturing establishments,--in 1905 the value of the factory product was $571,601. the municipality owns and operates the water-works and the electric-lighting plant. emporia was settled in 1856 and was chartered as a city in 1870. the emporia _gazette_, established in 1890, was purchased in 1894 by william allen white (b. 1868), a native of emporia, who took over the editorship and made a great stir in 1896 by his editorial entitled "what's the matter with kansas?"; he also wrote several volumes of excellent short stories, particularly _the court of boyville_ (1889), _stratagems and spoils_ (1901) and _in our town_ (1906). emporium (a latin adaptation of the gr. [greek: emporion], from [greek: en], in, and stem of [greek: poreuesthai], to travel for purpose of trade) a trade-centre such as a commercial city, to which buyers and dealers resort for transaction of business from all parts of the world. the word is often applied to a large shop.