Take a piece of wood, such as a lucifer-match, and say to one of the
company, "How long do you think it would take you to carry this piece of
wood into the next room?" "Half a minute," perhaps one will reply.
"Well, try, then," say you; "carry it." You then cut off little pieces,
and give them to him one by one. He will soon be tired of the
experiment.
TO TURN A GLASS OF WATER UPSIDE DOWN WITHOUT SPILLING ANY OF ITS
CONTENTS.
Fill a glass carefully, place a piece of paper on the top, place your
hand on the paper, and tilt the glass round sharply, when it will be
found that the pressure of the air upward on the paper will retain the
water. The glass may then be held by the foot.
EMBROIDERY FOR GIRLS.
BY SUSAN HAYES WARD.
No II.
Whenever you find any pretty outline pictures, whether figures, flowers,
or little slate pictures, see if they can be used for stem-stitch
embroidery. They are just what you want for doyleys, or for squares,
like tiles, to insert into brackets, and it will be much pleasanter for
you to find your own designs. Doyleys can be cut from eight to twelve
inches square, and they should be worked and pressed before fringing.
Anything worked in cotton or wools should be pressed; but if worked in
silks, it should be pressed as little as possible. Doyleys for common
use are made of coarse linen or duck, white or gray, and are worked in
crewels, outline crewels, or embroidery cottons. Either red or brown
cotton will wash well. Dainty doyleys, only intended to keep very choice
china from being scratched by the finger-bowls, are made of exquisitely
fine linen, first washed to remove the dressing, and wrought in silks
that have been scalded. Fine sewing silk, a single strand of letter D
button-hole twist (this silk is twisted of three strands), or a single
thread of "filoselle," or filling silk, are good for this work.
For your first half-dozen doyleys in coarse linen or duck get your
little sister's set of slate pictures: a coffee-pot, a clock--any
picture will do, no matter what it is, so long as the lines are few and
simple, and tell their own story. You want every one to see instantly
that your pear with two leaves is a _pear_, and not a pumpkin. Of course
you can not see to trace the design through your thick linen, so trace
it off neatly on a piece of thin paper, and prick the lines of your
tracing carefully with a fine needle. Place this pricked pattern, rough
side uppermost, in the middle or in one corner of your linen, just where
it will look best, not forgetting to allow for fringe. Then rub a little
charcoal powder over the pricked pattern with a wad of soft cotton-wool.
Lift off the tracing carefully, and follow the dotted charcoal lines
with a soft sharp pencil or with a pen dipped in liquid bluing. Don't
smudge your work by resting your hand on the charcoal powder. When you
have drawn over all the lines, blow off the powder, and rap the linen
smartly on the back two or three times to get thoroughly rid of the
charcoal. If you know how to draw, so much the better: trust your eye,
and do away with tracings altogether.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
[Illustration: FIG. 8.]
[Illustration: FIG. 9.]
The coarse pictures of which I have been speaking look best when worked
in but one or two colors at the most. If you like Japanese pictures, as
I hope you do, you can make a set of birds (see Fig. 7), worked all in
one color, or of little figures (see Fig. 8) in bright-colored silks.
You can find such designs in Japanese drawing-books for sale at the
Japanese shops, on advertisement cards, or on fans. Japanese figures may
be brightly colored, if you like; but in working outline pictures like
Bo-peep (Fig. 9), or like Miss Greenaway's (YOUNG PEOPLE No. 51, p.
753), one or two of which might be worked, use several shades of dull
blues, brick reds, or gold browns, remembering that the outlines of
clothes and hair must be darker than those of the flesh.
BURGLARS.
BY JIMMY BROWN.
Some people are afraid of burglars. Girls are awfully afraid of them.
When they think there's a burglar in the house, they pull the clothes
over their heads and scream "Murder father Jimmy there's a man in the
house call the police fire!" just as if that would do any good. What you
ought to do if there is a burglar is to get up and shoot him with a
double-barrelled gun and then tie him and send the servant out to tell
the police that if they will call after breakfast you will have
something ready for them that will please them. I shouldn't be a bit
frightened if I woke up and found a strange man in my room. I should
just pretend that I was asleep and keep watching him and when he went to
climb out of the window and got half way out I'd jump up and shut the
window down on him and tie his legs. But you can't expect girls to have
any courage, or to know what to do when anything happens.
We had been talking about burglars one day last week just before I went
to bed, and I thought I would put my bownarrow where it would be handy
if a robber did come. It is a nice strong bow, and I had about thirty
arrows with sharp points in the end about half an inch long, that I made
out of some big black pins that Susan had in her pincushion. My room is
in the third story, just over Sue's room, and the window comes right
down on the floor, so that you can lie on the floor and put your head
out. I couldn't go to sleep that night very well, though I ate about a
quart of chestnuts after I went to bed and I've heard mother say that if
you eat a little something delicate late at night it will make you go to
sleep.
A long while after everybody had gone to bed I heard two men talking in
a low tone under the window, and I jumped up to see what was the matter.
Two dreadful ruffians were standing under Sue's window, and talking so
low that it was a wonder I could hear anything.
One of them had something that looked like a tremendous big squash, with
a long neck, and the other had something that looked like a short
crowbar. It didn't take me long to understand what they were going to
do. The man with the crowbar was intending to dig a hole in the
foundation of the house and then the other man would put the big squash
which was full of dynamighty in the hole and light a slow-match and run
away and blow the house to pieces. So I thought the best thing would be
to shoot them before they could do their dreadful work.
I got my bownarrow and laid down on the floor and took a good aim at one
of the burglars. I hit him in the leg, and he said "Ow! ow! I've run a
thorn mornamile into my leg."
Then I gave the other fellow an arrow, and he said "My goodness this
place is full of thorns, there's one in my leg too."
Then they moved back a little and I began to shoot as fast as ever I
could. I hit them every time, and they were frightened to death. The
fellow with the thing like a squash dropped it on the ground and the
other fellow jumped on it just as I hit him in the cheek and smashed it
all to pieces. You can just believe that they did not stay in our yard
very long. They started for the front gate on a run, yelling "Ow! ow!"
and I am sorry to say using the worst kind of swear words. The noise
woke up father and he lit the gas and I saw the two wretches in the
street picking the arrows out of each other but they ran off as soon as
they saw the light.
Father says that they were not burglars at all, but were only two idiots
that had come to serenade Sue; but when I asked him what serenading was
he said it was far worse than burglary, so I know the men were the worst
kind of robbers. I found a broken guitar in the yard the next morning,
and there wasn't anything in it that would explode, but it would have
been very easy for the robbers to have filled it with something that
would have blown the house to atoms. I suppose they preferred to put it
in a guitar so that if they met anybody nobody would suspect anything.
Neither mother nor Sue showed any gratitude to me for saving their
lives, though father did say that for once that boy had showed a little
sense.
When Mr. Travers came that evening and I told him about it he said,
"Jimmy! there's such a thing as being just a little too smart."
I don't know what he meant, but I suppose he was a little cross, for he
had hurt himself some way--he wouldn't tell me how--and had
court-plaster on his cheek and on his hands and walked as if his legs
were stiff. Still, if a man doesn't feel well he needn't be rude.
[Illustration: A THANKSGIVING DINNER IN THE WOODS.]
Kissing through the Chair.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN."
[Illustration]
Peep-ho! peep-ho!
Kissing through the chair;
Mamma has kissed Baby
Twice, I declare!
Like a little poker,
Stiff, Baby stands;
Stamps with his tiny feet,
Pushes with his hands.
Peep-ho! peep-ho!
What a funny chair!
Baby is as tall as
Mamma, standing there!
Quite upon a level--
And so very grand;
Baby might be Prince of Wales,
Or king of any land!
Peep-ho! peep-ho!
Just another kiss!
Then he may run away
After some new bliss;
So wide his world is!
So long his year!
Baby has no end of joys;
Mamma's joy is--here!
[Illustration]
[Illustration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX]
The next Number of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE will contain the opening
chapters of two new serials--"MILDRED'S BARGAIN," by Mrs. John Lillie, a
delightful story for girls, full of incident, and inculcating a
principle which all little maidens should learn as early in life as
possible; and "TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS," a story overflowing with
experiences of exciting interest to boys, and showing how "all is not
gold that glitters."
* * * * *
Those correspondents whose letters offering exchange have been once
printed are desired not to repeat their requests, except in cases where
an entirely different article is offered. In justice to the new
exchanges, we can not make room for repetitions. If any boy finds that
his offer to exchange postage stamps, for example, having been published
several months since, is now overlooked, he can continue adding to his
collection by answering the new offers which appear weekly in the
Post-office Box.
We can not undertake to rectify mistakes and settle disputes between
those who are exchanging. Considering the very large number of requests
for exchange which have been printed in the Post-office Box, we have
received very few complaints of unfairness, and in those few cases, as
we can not hold court and allow both sides a hearing, it is impossible
for us to judge of the justice of the accusation. Very satisfactory
reports are given by nearly all of the boys and girls of the successful
and pleasant manner in which they have added to their different
collections, and we are gratified to find that, with two or three
exceptions only, packages of stamps and curiosities of all kinds have
been safely and pleasantly exchanged by our young friends. Remember,
boys, that these small exchanges you are now making with each other
represent in miniature the large business transactions to which you will
be parties when you are men. Act always honestly and honorably, and
instead of trying to gain an undue advantage for yourselves, make it
your constant study to give a fair equivalent for what you receive. In
that way you will form characters which will help you to become upright
men, and entitle you to the respect of all with whom you may have
dealings.
In spite of our oft-repeated advice to correspondents in regard to the
care necessary in addressing the letters they send, as well as to give
their own address in full, we receive communications constantly from
boys and girls who are the recipients of letters they can not answer, as
the sender has given only his name, and neither the town nor State in
which he lives, and in many cases no signature whatever. The young
exchangers who receive these unsigned epistles are so honorable as to
feel much distressed because they can make no acknowledgment of the
favor, and request help from the Post-office Box in obtaining the
address of their negligent correspondent. We can not give up space to
the rectification of these acts of carelessness, and the writer of the
unsigned letter will realize, when he receives no answer, that
inattention will surely bring its own penalty.
* * * * *
REDMYRE, SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.
I am a little girl twelve years old. I am going to write this
letter all by myself. I go to school with three other little girls.
Last Thursday night we all went to see the _Juvenile Pinafore_. All
who acted were children, and we enjoyed it very much. We are having
Michaelmas holidays just now (September 28).
I tried Nellie H.'s and Sadie McB.'s recipes for candy, and I
liked them very much. I send a recipe for sugar-biscuits: Mix
together a pound of flour, six ounces of butter, two tea-spoonfuls
of baking powder, half a pound of sugar, three eggs, and a pinch
of salt. Mix well the flour, sugar, powder, and salt, rub in the
butter, then add the eggs, well beaten. Add enough milk to make a
dough. Roll it out thin, cut it into small round biscuits, and
bake in a hot oven.
I like YOUNG PEOPLE very much. We never get it here until a month
after it is printed.
GERTIE R.
* * * * *
DRESDEN, SAXONY.
My young friends, if you would like to make glass slides for your
magic lanterns, I will tell you how to put any drawing you wish on
the glass. Take a glass of the required size, put a thin layer of
wax on it, and after having heated it for a while over a candle
flame draw the figures or landscapes in the wax with a knife point
or a pointed stick until your instrument touches the glass. Then
take a lead vessel with an opening almost as large as your piece of
glass. Put into this vessel a small quantity of fluoride of
calcium, and mix it with sulphuric acid. When this is all prepared
cover the lead vessel with the glass plate, the waxed side
downward, and heat the vessel a little. While heating it you will
perceive bitter-smelling vapors of hydrofluoric acid, which come in
contact with the glass where the wax has been scraped off. After
about fifteen or twenty minutes take away the plate, heat it, and
wipe off the wax. You can also wash it off with spirits of wine.
When the glass is cleaned you will find your drawing engraved on
it, and you may afterward color the design to suit your taste.
One thing must not be overlooked. When you try this chemical
experiment, do not inhale the vapors of the hydrofluoric acid, for
they are very injurious, and burn the skin very badly. Always
experiment in a room to which plenty of fresh air has free access.
I wish you much success, and hope you may thus have some pleasant
hours during the coming winter days. If any one of you knows some
other experiment, I should be ever so glad to see it in the
Post-office Box.
LOUIS G. E.
We hope the members of our Young Chemists' Club, who will no doubt try
this pretty experiment, will not overlook for an instant the dangerous
qualities of the chemicals, and bear constantly in mind the caution
given by the correspondent, as a little carelessness might lead to very
serious trouble. If Louis G. E. knows any easy method of coloring the
glass slides for a magic lantern so that the paint will be sufficiently
transparent and yet firmly set on the glass, he would confer a favor
upon many readers of YOUNG PEOPLE by describing it.
* * * * *
BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK.
I like HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE very much. The stories and the little
letters are all pretty. I intend to have volume first bound before
Christmas. If I knew enough readers of the paper who lived near me,
I would begin a society right away like the one N. D. wrote about.
I have four pet rabbits which I can lay on their backs like
kittens. Their names are Jerry, Billy, Dicky, and Bessie. Jerry is
white with pink eyes, Billy is gray with black eyes, and Dicky and
Bessie are black with blue eyes.
T. P. G.
* * * * *
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA.
I like HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE. I have been reading it in bed, for I
have been sick for two months. I have had the scarlet fever. I have
made a waltzing fairy, and a cucuius out of cork.
I had a pet hare, and once I forgot and left it tied in the hot
sun. It had a sunstroke and died. It used to sit on its hind-legs,
and take its fore-paws and wash its face real clean. I had a pet
deer, too, that was sent me from the White Sulphur Springs, but he
would cut me with his fore-hoofs, and he was so wild he broke off
his young horns, and we had to kill him.
I have a collection of Indian arrow-heads and minerals. I am
eleven years old.
DAVIS C.
* * * * *
KESWIC, IOWA.
I will tell Jessie Lee R. how I make scrap-books. I get some large
volume that is worthless--an old agricultural report or book of
advertisements will do--and cut out every other leaf. I make paste
or starch, and lay it on the scraps with a brush or a knife. After
pasting, it is a good plan to lay clean paper between the leaves
until the paste is dry. It is better to let the leaves dry slowly
under heavy pressure than to iron them.
MAY L.
* * * * *
DETROIT, MICHIGAN.
I went to Cincinnati lately, and I visited the Zoological Garden. I
bought some candy, and gave it to the monkeys and the Rocky
Mountain grizzly bears. They would stick their mouths through the
bars, and open them for me to throw in the candy. There was a white
polar bear who was swimming all the time. When I threw a stone in
his tank he would dive after it, and bring it up and throw it at
me.
N. P. G.
* * * * *
OSWEGO, NEW YORK.
I am fourteen years old. I enjoy YOUNG PEOPLE very much. I always
read all the stories and all the letters. I wish some little girl
would tell me how to make some Christmas presents, some that would
be pretty and not very expensive. I have made almost everything I
can think of.
I am going to try the hanging basket described by Daniel D. L.,
which I think will make a very pretty ornament. I would like to
ask him if it is necessary to empty the cup, and put in all fresh
water every morning, or if only to fill in what has evaporated is
sufficient.
CARRIE V. D.
* * * * *
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.
We have had a big snow-storm here. It begun in the night, and
lasted until noon to-day (November 6).
I have taken YOUNG PEOPLE since the first number, and now I am
beginning the second volume. I am going to take it always.
J. T. M.
* * * * *
BERLIN HEIGHTS, OHIO.
Correspondents wishing a catalogue of birds' eggs can obtain one by
sending ten cents in stamps or silver to W. J. Knowlton, 168
Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts.
MILTON D. C.
* * * * *
All boys from eleven to sixteen are invited to become members of a
debating society on a legal basis. The debates are carried on by
mail. For further particulars address, inclosing a three-cent stamp
for answer, the recording secretary,
A. G. NORRIS,
2222 Pine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
We hope this new society will meet with better success than the one
noticed in the Post-office Box of YOUNG PEOPLE No, 52. The idea is very
good, and if well developed might prove beneficial to the youthful
debaters. We are requested by N. L. Collamer, to whom communications for
the first society were to be addressed, to inform those from whom he
received answers to his proposition, that in spite of all his efforts,
and much to his regret, the club he tried to form was not successful.
Correspondents will please accept this statement as an explanation why
their letters to him have remained unanswered.
* * * * *
I wish to inform those boys with whom I have been exchanging that
as the nesting season is over I have no more eggs.
I have two United States half-cent pieces, one of 1804 and one of
1825, which I will exchange for some United States Department
stamps, or old issues of postage stamps.
WALLACE ROSS,
Lock Box 97, Rutland, Vermont.
* * * * *
I have a collection of birds' eggs, and would like to exchange with
any subscriber of YOUNG PEOPLE. I will exchange the egg of a
king-bird for one of a martin. I would request all correspondents
to label distinctly all eggs they may send.
CHARLES MATTHEWS, P. O. Box 15,
Fort Covington, Franklin County, New York.
* * * * *
I would like to exchange postage stamps. I have some very rare
stamps from Greece and from South America.
PEYTON A. SAVIN,
1262 Lexington Avenue and Eighty-fifth Street,
New York City.
* * * * *
I have a collection of nineteen hundred and twenty stamps, and a
great many duplicates. I would like to exchange with Charles H. W.,
of Brooklyn, New York, who has such a large collection. If he will
send me his address and a list of his duplicates, I will send him a
list of my best ones.
K. S.,
P. O. Box 203, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
* * * * *
I live in a little town of about eighteen houses, on the Champlain
Canal, thirty miles from Saratoga. I have a printing-press, a
collection of birds' eggs, and some white bantams and some rabbits.
I have to go five miles every morning to a military school. I stay
there all day, and ride home in a stage at night.
I would like to exchange flower seeds, birds' nests, and specimens
of quartz for postmarks, stamps, birds' eggs, or curiosities.
Will you please tell me how to mount postmarks properly?
GEORGE E. BAKER,
Comstocks, Washington County, New York.
Postmarks should be mounted in the same manner as stamps. You will find
directions for mounting specimens neatly and conveniently in the paper
entitled "Stamp Collecting," in YOUNG PEOPLE No. 54.
* * * * *
My brother and myself are collecting coins, minerals, birds' eggs,
shells, and stamps, and will be glad to exchange with any readers
of YOUNG PEOPLE. Some one sent us a box of shells and a star-fish,
but unaccompanied by any address. If we can find out who sent it,
we will be glad to send something in return.
L. F. BREHMER,
Penn Yan, Yates County, New York.
* * * * *
Harry Gustin, of Bay City, Michigan, is also troubled because he has
received several unsigned letters which he wishes to answer, and can not
for want of an address. Leon M. Fobes, of Portland, Maine, has sent
stamps and written several times to a correspondent, but has received
no answer. All this trouble is the result of carelessness and negligence
on one side or the other. Always remember to _direct your letters
properly_, and to give _your full address_.
* * * * *
I like very much to read the letters in the Post-office Box. I,
too, am trying to make a collection of stones, one from each State.
I would like to exchange with any readers of YOUNG PEOPLE. I will
give a stone from either Wisconsin, Illinois, or Colorado for one
from any other locality.
MAMIE H. BALL,
Augusta, Eau Claire County, Wisconsin.
* * * * *
I would like to exchange a box of good paints for a little engine.
E. BENSON,
Care of W. H. Francis,
749 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey.
* * * * *
We wish very much to get a bow from the Indian country, and if any
boy or girl living there would send each of us an Indian bow about
five feet long, with a few arrows, we will give in return pressed
leaves, or a winter bouquet of Minnesota grasses, or any
curiosities we can get in this locality, or in the spring we would
send in return a collection of birds' eggs.
MAUD POOL and PHEBE EDDY,
Morristown, Rice County, Minnesota.
* * * * *
We are compelled to condense the following offers for exchange:
Coins and postage stamps.
WILLIE T. KNOX,
2318 Third Avenue, New York City.
* * * * *
Postage stamps and eggs.
PEREZ S. BURR, Freeport, Maine.
* * * * *
Postage stamps for postal cards and stamps.
ANITA R. NEWCOMB,
1336 Eleventh Street, Washington, D. C.
* * * * *
Ohio postmark for postmarks from any other State, and old issues of
United States postage and revenue stamps for foreign stamps.
GEORGE E. FRAZIER,
Caldwell, Noble County, Ohio.
* * * * *
Postmarks for different kinds of buttons.
MARY P. BICE,
39 Second Street, Utica, New York.
* * * * *