KROUT, Mary Hannah, American journal ist and author: b. Crawfordsville, Ind., 3 Nov. 1857. She was educated at home, became asso ciate editor of the Crawfordsville Journal in 1881, and editor on the Terre Haute Express in 1882. She was for 10 years on the staff of the Chicago Inter-Ocean, was its staff corre spondent in Hawaii during the revolution in 1893, furnishing special data subsequently for the State Department. She was also staff cor respondent in London from 1895 to 1898, then went to China for a syndicate of representative newspapers specially to investigate the com mercial relations of China and the United States. In 1907 she visited Australia for the second time, lecturing on American political and economic conditions and writing a series of articles for the Sydney and Auckland press on American topics. In recent years she has en gaged in miscellaneous literary work, and lec turing on literary and general topics. She has
published 'Hawaii and a Revolution> (1888); 'Alice in the Hawaiian Islands' (1899) ; 'A Looker-on in London' (1899) ; 'Two Girls in China' (1900) ; completed the 'Memoirs' of Gen. Lew Wallace' (1907) ; 'Memoirs of Bernice Pauahi Bishop' (1909) ; 'Reminis cences of Mary S. Rice' (1908) ; 'Platters and Pipkins' (1908); 'The Coign of Vantage' (1909).
KRU, kroo, or KRUMEN, a negro tribe of Cape Palmas, West Africa, of exceptional stature and very dark skinned. They hire themselves as able sailors and boat crews along the entire northwest African coast and work also in the factories, being efficient workers and fairly reliable, which, good characteristics have aided them to the principal trade of their sec tion of country. They were found useful fac tors in the building of the Panama Canal. Con sult Biittikofer, 'Reisebilder aus Liberia> (Vol. II, Leyden 1890).