HALSTEAD, Murat, American journalist: b. Ross, Butler County, Ohio, 2 Sept. 1829; d. Cincinnati, Ohio, 2 July 1908. At 18 he began writing for newspapers, studied at Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, and did local news paper reporting on several Cincinnati papers. In 1853 he became manager of a department on the Cincinnati Commercial. The follow ing year he acquired a necuniary interest in the paper, which began rapidly to increase in circulation and influence. The Commercial combining with the Gazette, its rival, the Cin cinnati Commercial-Gazette became the recog nized organ of the Ohio Republicans. In 1890 he removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he edited the Standard Union. Later he was a contributor to magazines and as a special cor respondent went to the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. He wrote 'The Story of Cuba); 'Life of William McKinley) 'The Story of the 'History of American Expansion' • 'Life of Admiral Dewey) • 'The Boer and British War) • 'The War Between Russia and Japan) (1905), etc.
HAM, one of the three sons of Noah, from whom the earth after the Deluge was peopled. He is first mentioned between the other two — Shem, Ham and Japheth; but afterward is ex pressly designated the younger son of Noah, that is, relatively to the other two. He had four sons — Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan. The three first traveled southward, and from them the tribes that peopled the African continent, as Canaan became the father of the tribes that principally occupied the terri tory of Phoenicia and Palestine. Ham is also
used as a designation of Egypt, probably on account of its population having sprung from a son of Ham, and the name Ammon, by which the chief god of the northern Africans was often called and worshipped, may very likely derive its origin from the same source.
HAM, the joint which unites the thigh and the leg of an animal, but more generally under stood to mean the cured thigh of the hog. Ham-curing is now an important branch of business, especially in Great Britain and Amer ica, and the details of the process are generally the everywhere. The meat is first well rubbed with salt, and a few days after it is rubbed again with a mixture of salt, saltpetre and sugar, though sometimes the saltpetre is omitted. After lying in the tub for 8 or 10 days it is ready for drying. Wet-salting re quires three weeks and dry-salting four. The smoking of hams is carried on in smokehouses, the meat being hung as high as possible and subjected to the smoke of a fire kindled on the ground-flat, and which ascends through holes in the flooring. The process of smoking is for the most part carried on in winter, the fire being kept in a smouldering state for five or six weeks. Wood is used in preference to coal in the process of smoking. See PORK.