PEOPLE about our temperance meeting we have every Wednesday
afternoon. We call ourselves the Band of Hope, because our teacher
says we are the hope of the nation. She reads to us how alcohol
hurts the brain and the health, and does not allow one to be a
strong man. Then we have singing, and say the Lord's Prayer. Before
we go home the young ladies give us papers. From sixty to seventy
boys meet every week. We are going to try to have a reading-room
for the bigger boys.
I hope all the children will read this letter, and I want lots of
boys to have temperance meetings, as we do.
JAMES MCD.
* * * * *
WATERBURY, VERMONT.
In YOUNG PEOPLE No. 77, G. H. inquired how much sap it takes to
make a pound of maple sugar. My papa has a sugar orchard of three
hundred trees, and has made seventeen hundred pounds of sugar this
year. He says it takes from fourteen to twenty quarts of sap to
make a pound of sugar.
M. H. M.
* * * * *
COLD SPRING, NEW YORK.
I want to tell the boy in Ohio that I had ten chickens hatched on
the 11th of March, seventeen days earlier than his.
FRED D. M.
* * * * *
We acknowledge a package of letters from the scholars of the Marcella
Street Home, Boston Highlands. These little fellows who write to us are
from seven to twelve years old. We are very glad to hear from them, and
gratified to see from their neat and correctly written letters that they
are profiting by the kind attention of their teachers. We thank them for
their expressions of pleasure in YOUNG PEOPLE, and like to know that
they spend so many happy hours reading its stories, working out the
puzzles, and learning pieces from it to speak in school. We print two of
the letters, and are sorry we have not space to print them all.
MARCELLA STREET HOME, BOSTON, MASS.
I am a little boy eleven years old. All the boys here have been
very much interested in the story of Toby Tyler. I think his lot is
something like ours, for we are all poor boys without homes; but
there are many things to make it a happy home for us here.
We have four beautiful school-rooms, pleasant teachers and
officers, and a kind Superintendent.
At noon we leave our school-rooms, and fall in line to march into
the dining-hall, and afterward we go to a large play-room, where
we play.
In the evening we come again to the school-rooms for half an hour.
We have silent prayer, and take off our shoes, and march out into
the dormitories for the night.
I like holidays, for then the boys have a good time and a big
dinner.
GEORGE JOHNSTON.
I am a very small boy. I am eight years old, and I have been at the
Marcella Street Home four years. We have just moved into our new
school-room, and it is so very pleasant and so sunny! There are
nine windows in it, seven blackboards, with nine drawings on them
made by us boys, and two gas jets with Easter-eggs on them, and
seven plants. Don't you think it must be nice?
We have sixty-four boys in our school, and all have new desks. How
good our Superintendent is to us! We have two radiators, two
numeral frames, and three spelling frames, and lots of blocks that
the babies play with.
I like the story of Toby Tyler, and think he is smart. I hope he
will never run away again. I like the puzzles too. My teacher told
us that smart boys answer your puzzles, so we try, if we _are_ in
the lowest room.
JOSEPH MINON.
We have received many correct answers to puzzles from these ambitious
little students, and hope we shall hear from them again and often.
* * * * *
SOLDIERS' ORPHAN HOME, KNIGHTSTOWN, INDIANA.
I am a little girl twelve years old. My father and mother are both
dead. I have been here at the Home nearly four years. I was here
when it burned down; but it has been rebuilt more beautiful than
ever. My teacher and governess are very kind to the children. We
have three ranks of boys, and one rank of girls. There are four
little boys here who wear dresses yet. We have a dog that has been
here twelve years. We are all happy, and I shall be lonesome when
the time comes for me to leave.
HATTIE E. R.
* * * * *
I live on a farm three miles from the post-office. I went on
horseback for the mail yesterday. I had a nice ride. A short
distance from our house is a high hill, and from its summit is one
of the grandest views in Northern New York State.
Right at the base of the hill live some little friends of mine.
They are getting a collection of minerals and insects, and I am
making a collection of woods. I have one hundred and twenty-five
different kinds. I would like to exchange elm, bass-wood, maple,
and ash, for black walnut or cottonwood. Please label specimens.
CLAIR W. AUSTIN,
Copenhagen, Lewis Co., N. Y.
* * * * *
I wish to exchange foreign stamps, fossils, minerals, and other
specimens, for minerals, fossils, shells, sea plants, corals, or
other ocean curiosities, arrow-heads, spear-heads, and other
genuine Indian relics, or any good curiosities. Correspondents will
please label every specimen distinctly, and state the locality
where it was found.
I wish to give notice to those who are exchanging with me that my
address is changed.
LOUIS D. ORRISON,
1206 Independence Avenue, Kansas City, Mo.
* * * * *
Edna Wheeler, Williamsville, Vermont, wishes to notify correspondents
that she can not exchange any more maple sugar for shells and mosses.
* * * * *
Robert T. Parke, Downingtown, Pennsylvania, desires to withdraw his name
from our exchange list, as his stock of coins and other articles for
exchange is exhausted.
* * * * *
If the correspondent who sent me stamps in an unsealed letter, and
wished arrow-heads in return, will favor me with his address, I
will answer him. I also request the addresses of others who have
sent me things and have received no answer.
RUSSELL S. JANNEY,
Rainbow Box, Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio.
* * * * *
I wish to say to correspondents that my stock of Chinese coins is
exhausted. I will now exchange peacock coal, minerals, stamps, and
postmarks, for sea-shells, sea-moss, and arrow-heads or other
Indian relics.
WILLARD BARNES,
Wellsville, Allegany Co., N. Y.
* * * * *
The following exchanges are offered by correspondents:
A printing-press and outfit in good order, for a stamp-book but
little used.
JAMES NELSON, JUN.,
Mount Vernon, Westchester Co., N. Y.
* * * * *
A Newfoundland stamp, for a petrified shell.
ARCHIE C. NIVEN,
Care of Rev. T. M. Niven, Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.
* * * * *
An ounce of soil from Pennsylvania, for the same from any other
State.
JAMES A. PARKER,
Williamsport, Penn.
* * * * *
Florida moss and iron ore, for fifteen postage stamps from Japan,
Spain, Cuba, Newfoundland, and other foreign countries.
H. LEONARD POTTS,
P. O. Box 18, Pottstown, Montgomery Co., Penn.
* * * * *
Soil of Long Island, New York, for the same from any other State.
SAMUEL D. PINE,
Jamaica, Long Island, N. Y.
* * * * *
A specimen of tourmaline, for minerals or Indian relics; or some
stamps, for a curiosity.
JOHN G. REEVS,
P. O. Box 720, Yonkers, N. Y.
* * * * *
Stamps from Russia, Montevideo, Argentine Confederation, Chili,
Brazil, and Germany (no duplicates), for other foreign stamps.
Those of China, Italy, and France especially desired.
M. B. RAUCH,
713 Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn.
* * * * *
Ten postmarks, for one stamp, either a United States 90-cent
Agricultural, Executive, or Justice Department, Cape of Good Hope,
Western Australia, Persia, or Egypt.
HARRY B. ROOD,
Poultney, Rutland Co., Vt.
* * * * *
Foreign stamps and insects, for insects.
ARTHUR R. TORREY,
1 Hubbard Avenue, West Cambridge, Mass.
* * * * *
Stamps from Bavaria and Denmark, for United States department
stamps.
DAN TALMAGE,
Bound Brook, N. J.
* * * * *
Specimens of garnet rock, kyanite, or limestone, for postage
stamps, or other minerals.
LOUIS TREADWELL, Redding, Fairfield Co., Conn.
* * * * *
Ocean curiosities, fossils, old coins, and other curiosities, for
Indian relics.
WILLIAM A. WHITE,
Sag Harbor, Suffolk Co., Long Island, N. Y.
* * * * *
United States and foreign stamps, for sea-shells, Indian relics,
ore, coral, or other curiosities.
JOHNNIE WOOD,
188 State Street, Rochester, N. Y.
* * * * *
Minerals and curiosities, for United States department and revenue
stamps, and foreign postage stamps.
GEORGE E. WELLS,
P. O. Box 466, New York City.
* * * * *
Ten foreign stamps, for fifty postmarks (no duplicates).
ANNE H. WILSON,
Clermont, Columbia Co., N. Y.
* * * * *
Stamps.
CHARLIE E. WHEELER,
Chesterville, Franklin Co., Me.
[_For other exchanges, see third page of cover._]
* * * * *
P. C. H.--In most book establishments the printing is done from
stereotype or electrotype plates, taken from the type pages. In the
first process one or more pages are placed in an iron frame, and from
these a mould is taken in plaster of Paris. Type-metal--a composition
mainly of lead and antimony--is poured into this mould, forming a cast
of the face of the type. These casts, or "plates," are planed down upon
the back to a regular thickness, and from them the printing is made
precisely as from the types themselves. In electrotyping, a mould of
beeswax, coated with black-lead to give it a metallic surface, is forced
by a powerful pressure upon a page of type, producing a perfect
fac-simile. After receiving another coating of black-lead, the mould is
placed in a tank filled with a solution of sulphate of copper, into
which enter the poles of a galvanic or electric battery, the mould being
connected with the positive pole, the negative pole being attached to a
plate of copper. In an instant a thin film of copper appears on the
"black-leaded" surface of the mould. This increases in quantity until it
has acquired the thickness of a sheet of stout paper. The upper surface
of this "shell," when taken from the mould, is a perfect fac-simile of
the face of the original page. This thin shell would be crushed flat by
the immense pressure of the printing-press. It must be "backed up" with
type-metal. This metal will not, even when melted, adhere firmly to a
sheet of copper, but it will adhere to tin, and melted tin will adhere
to copper. A sheet of tin-foil is laid upon the back of the copper
shell, which is secured in a shallow iron tray, and heated. Melted
type-metal is then poured over the plate, filling up every depression,
and forming a solid backing, firmly soldered to the shell. The plates
are then shaved down to the proper size, and are ready for the press.
* * * * *
REBECCA D.--There are several works on the Egyptian Pyramids, but all of
them are too scientific and learned to be interesting to young readers.
If you live near a library which contains encyclopædias, you will find
in them all that you would care to read at present about their age and
probable origin and purpose. The largest and most interesting are at
Jeezeh, about twelve miles from Cairo, and seven from the banks of the
Nile. Learned men differ in regard to the time when they were built, as
well as for what use they were intended. Some calculations place the
date at about 2170 years B.C., and while some scholars hold that these
enormous structures were intended for royal sepulchres only, others
suppose that they were built for astrological purposes. Although erected
in the childhood of the human race, the masonry of the Pyramids is far
superior to that of modern times. The joints of the casing-stones, that
still partially cover the sides, are so close that the thinnest paper
can not be inserted in them.
* * * * *
B. T. H.--As allegory is a figurative representation in which a story or
a picture signifies something more than its literal meaning, it is the
privilege of an artist to call his ideal picture "Temperance,"
"Fortitude," or anything else he pleases. Probably the pictures you saw
were given those names because to the artist's mind they represented the
characteristics of those particular virtues.
* * * * *
A very large number of our little correspondents have sent us poems on
spring and the fresh grass and flowers. We can not print any of them,
but we thank them for their favors. Their fancies are all pretty, and we
are glad to see that boys and girls are such close observers of Nature,
and that they love her changing moods well enough to write her praises
in verse.
* * * * *
The editor thanks Tillie S. for her pretty Easter-egg, with its kind
wishes.
* * * * *
G. S. H.--Long Island is a part of New York State, and is included
within its boundaries. It may properly be said to be in New York State.
* * * * *
NELSE W., W. L. W., R. C. ORR, AND OTHERS.--The coins and paper money
you inquire about are interesting as curiosities, but have no great
value. United States cents and half-cents of an early date are usually
sold for from ten to thirty cents, according to date and condition. The
only coinage upon which any special value is placed is that of 1799,
which was so small that but few perfect specimens now remain in
existence. It is not always the age which determines the value; for
instance, a cent of 1810 is worth considerably more than one of 1798. If
you live near any large public library, and can consult the Mint Reports
of different years, you can find out whether the coinage of that year
was large or small, and in that way determine if your specimen be rare
or not. Every mail brings us questions concerning the value of coins,
which we can not answer, partly because the descriptions, as a rule, are
not sufficiently accurate, and also because the value depends very much
on condition, and that we can not know without a careful examination of
the coin in question. If any of you have old coins, the best thing is to
keep them and look upon them as curiosities, without seeking to know
their money value, which is arbitrary at best, as every dealer or
collector to whom you might take them will offer you a different price.
* * * * *
Correct answers to puzzles have been received from W. Aiken, R. Burke,
J. Cott, J. Reagan, and P. Riley, Marcella Street Home, "A. B. C,"
_Courtland F. Bishop_, Charles S. Bingham, A. E. Cressingham, R. O.
Chester, Bernie Collins. Frank C. F., Ernest Frankel, E. L. Hunt, Willie
Hartwell, Frank Hayward, William B. Hadley, W. E. J., Samuel Kridel,
Beth D. L., "_L. U. Stral_," Otis J. Loomis, H. B. Lent, Charles F.
Meyer, Percy L. McD., F. Nichols, Bessie and Edith Nesbitt, "Pepper,"
Charles H. P., Ned Robinson, John Richardson, "Starry Flag," G. P.
Salters, T. W. Siddall, _Howard J. Van Doren_, Maude Wilson, "Will A.
Mette."
* * * * *
PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
No. 1.
HOUR-GLASS PUZZLE.
Additional. Surrounded by water. Wrath. Fodder. In spring. A decree. A
song. An architectural term. Innocent. Centrals--A useful Southern
product.
C. W. S.
* * * * *
No. 2.
ENIGMA.
In chains, but not in bands.
In hearts, but not in hands.
In hoping, not in sighing.
In laughing, not in crying.
In mountain, not in valley.
In trifle, not in dally.
In castle, not in tower.
In rain, but not in shower.
My whole a graceful flower.
OWLET.
* * * * *
No. 3.
DIAGONALS.
Across.--A metal. Taste. Toil. A model. A part of a cask.
Diagonals.--From left to right, a cape of the United States; from right
to left, islands west of South America.
WILL A. METTE.
* * * * *
No. 4.
HALF-SQUARES.
1. A dreary place. A vegetable substance. A river in Europe. A title. A
preposition. A letter from Tennessee.
2. Advantage. A bird. Something useful in a kitchen. A marsh. A
preposition. A letter from Montana.
R. F. L.
* * * * *
No. 5.
ENIGMA.
In wan, but not in pale.
In wind, but not in gale.
In game, but not in play.
In wagon, not in dray.
In light, but not in dark.
In wren, but not in lark.
In spade, but not in rake.
The whole the children like to make.
POLLY.
* * * * *
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN No. 77.
No. 1.
Parsnip, Spinach.
No. 2.
S P R I N G S T R E A M
P I A N O T R E A T
R A I N R E A R
I N N E A R
N O A T
G M
No. 3.
C A R A C A S
S A L A D
B A T
B
R A T
L A M A S
B A N A N A S
No. 4.
1. S-nag. 2. F-air. 3. O-live. 4. S-hut. 5. G-lad. 6. B-rook. 7.
P-Russia. 8. S-pain. 9. O-range. 10. B-arrow. 11. A-den. 12. Z-one. 13.
S-tone. 14. S-tale. 15. H-eight. 16. S-late. 17. H-ill.
No. 5
Jerusalem.
* * * * *
NOTICE.
The publishers will furnish HARPER'S MAGAZINE, beginning with the June
Number (which is the commencement of Volume LXIII.), and HARPER'S YOUNG
PEOPLE, beginning with Number 80, published May 10, 1881 (containing the
first installments of the new serials)--the two periodicals together for
one year--on receipt of FIVE DOLLARS.
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE.
SINGLE COPIES, 4 cents; ONE SUBSCRIPTION, one year, $1.50; FIVE
SUBSCRIPTIONS, one year, $7.00--_payable in advance, postage free_.
The Volumes of HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE commence with the first Number in
November of each year.
Subscriptions may begin with any Number. When no time is specified, it
will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the
Number issued after the receipt of the order.
Remittances should be made by POST-OFFICE MONEY-ORDER OR DRAFT, to avoid
risk of loss.
HARPER & BROTHERS,
Franklin Square, N. Y.
[Illustration: "MISTER, PLEASE PULL THE BELL FOR ME."]
THE ELECTRIC TRICK.
BY G. B. BARTLETT.
At a noted game club in Boston this little trick was introduced by the
writer to show how easily the keenest intellects can be puzzled when off
their guard. Three substances are first chosen with great care--one
animal, one mineral, one vegetable. After each has been subjected to the
closest examination to discover that but one kingdom is represented in
its composition, they are laid, side by side, the mineral toward the
north, after some pains have been taken to discover the points of the
compass as nearly as possible. The attention of the company is then
called to the subject of electricity in the human body, and after each
has spoken of his powers in that direction, such as the common ones of
lighting the gas with the finger, or by giving shocks or causing sparks
after rubbing the feet on a thick carpet, etc., the operator says, "I am
about to try a simple experiment of this kind, and to judge which of
these three substances was touched by any one gifted with magnetic
power." He then closes his eyes, while some one touches one of the
substances, and then he remarks, "I am perfectly willing to let you do
this for yourselves if you are able: just rub your finger very hard on
the carpet, and judge by a faint tingling sensation which of those three
articles was last touched." After some hesitation, he lifts up the
substance last touched, and repeats the experiment until all are
satisfied. Many imaginative people think that they feel a faint
sensation, and if they happen to select the right article, are much
elated, and it is very funny to see several sensible people on their
knees rubbing the carpet with their forefingers to feel the faint
tingling of electricity.
This trick was played for weeks without discovery, so the author was
ashamed to tell that the scientific mystery was owing to a confederate,
and that a quiet and demure lady signified the article which had been
touched by giving an almost imperceptible cough as his finger touched
the right one; and to make it more difficult of detection, when two had
been touched without the signal, he of course knew that the third was
the right substance for him to select.
CHARADE.
If my first is my second,
'Tis sure to be fleet;
If my second's my first,
It is not fit to eat.
And what is my whole
Will depend upon whether
My second and first
You fit rightly together.
If my second comes first,
'Tis an animal; but
If my second comes second,
Why, then, 'tis a nut.
So if it's an animal,
Then you may back it;
But supposing it isn't--
I leave you to crack it.
THE PAN OF FLOUR.
[Illustration: He would pull the Cloth.]
[Illustration: Result.]
[Illustration: "Look at dat Chile! His own Farder wouldn' know 'im!"]
End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, May 10, 1881, by Various