school-books. Should a girl sell them, if she can, when passing on to a
higher class in which she does not need the books used in the former
term? Ought they be taken care of with as much pains as one bestows on
the books in the library or the pretty illustrated editions which come
to one as gifts at birthdays and holidays?
To the first question I answer, without hesitation, keep all your
school-books if you possibly can. Never sell them or dispose of them in
any way unless it is very plainly your duty to somebody else to do so.
For instance, in a family an older sister may let the younger children
have her books when she is done with them. This may save her parents the
expense of buying new ones, and having the same books duplicated in the
household collection. Or there may be in your acquaintance a girl too
poor to buy new books, who will be very glad and thankful to have yours
as a gift. In this case it will be your pleasure, I am sure, to make
this friend happy, and to relieve her of anxiety, and help her in
procuring her education. But, as a rule, I would advise you to keep your
books for yourself. Even when you have finished studying in a particular
book you may want it to refer to, and after your school-days are over
your books will be reminders of the delightful times you had when you
used them. School-books are valuable because they are written in a
clear, plain, straightforward style which it is quite easy to
comprehend. They do not wander away from the point, and they give a
great deal of information packed up in a small compass. A good
school-book on any subject is a real treasure.
All books should be treated with respect. No nice person leaves books
lying around heedlessly, with the bindings opened widely so that they
become loosened, and the pages curling up at the corners. If a girl is
neat about her room and her dress, she will surely be so in the care of
her books. Never let books gather dust. They are as ornamental as
pictures or flowers or vases, and a house in which there are a number of
books is already half furnished.
I speak with the more emphasis about the folly of selling school-books
because I have a confession to make. Once, a long while ago, I was
moving from my home to a distant State, to stay for some years, and I
owned a book-case, a pretty affair with five shelves, to which a friend
took a fancy. "Sell me the book-case," she pleaded; "you will not need
it for ages, and I would like it so much for my own library." Well, I
did not sell the book-case; I gave it away, and that part of the
transaction I have never regretted in the very least. But, alas! the
little case was full of grammars, and geographies, and logics, and
rhetorics, and spellers, and arithmetics, and lexicons, the dear books
that had kept me company all the way from childhood on, and in an evil
moment I was persuaded to sell those to a dealer in second-hand books. I
was sorry the next time I needed to look at one of the dear things, and,
if you will believe me, girls, I am still sorry. I changed something
precious for a little bit of money when I disposed of my books. And I
wish I had not done it.
If by any chance books have been used by a patient in illness, such as
scarlet-fever or any other contagious disease, they must immediately be
burned up. This is the only safe way. A child recovering from such an
attack may ask for his or her books to play with. Let the books be
given, if the mother is willing, but they must be destroyed afterwards.
Even if they have remained on shelves in the room and the patient has
not so much as touched them they must be burned, for books have a way of
preserving germs of disease, and must be used only by people who are not
ill with anything infectious or who are perfectly well.
Do I think books should be covered? To save the bindings, you mean? It
depends on how very clean and dainty are the hands which hold them.
Smooth white paper makes a good covering, and is easily renewed, and
most publishers in these days provide attractive covers for the
beautiful books they sell.
As December finishes the period for their subscriptions, will the
friends who accepted the Baby boxes a twelvemonth ago kindly send their
boxes as soon as possible to Mrs. Sangster, care of HARPER'S ROUND
TABLE, Franklin Square, New York?
[Illustration: Signature]
[Illustration: THE CAMERA CLUB]
Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly
answered by the Editor of this column, and we should be glad to
hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFTS.
Summer has gone, with all its delightful outings, but the amateur
photographer, if he has been wise, has not only many photographic
souvenirs as reminders of his vacation, but has also abundant material
for making his friends glad at holiday-time.
A dozen, or even six or seven, finely finished prints, mounted in an
attractive way, make a most acceptable gift, and one which the recipient
is sure not to have duplicated.
Blue prints, which are the cheapest and easiest form of photographic
printing, are just the thing for waterscapes. If one's outing has been
by the lake or seashore, select six or eight of the prettiest
waterscapes, something which would make a sort of series. Do not print
them all the same uniform size, but select different-shaped mats for
each one. One picture may look better vigneted, another would not be
pretty printed except in a circle, and still another would need to be
printed in a long narrow oblong to make an attractive picture. Choose
the mat which best fits the picture. All styles and sizes may be bought
at the dealer in photographic goods, or one may make the mats himself. A
pretty mat is made by taking a piece of post-office paper and marking an
irregular opening large enough to take in the picture; tear the paper on
the pencilled lines, peeling it so as to leave it thinner at the edges.
Any-shaped opening may be made, and a picture which has a spot or
scratch which would mar it if shown in the print may be blocked out in
this way. Pictures printed in this way are very pretty, and something
out of the ordinary way of printing.
Having the pictures printed, the selection of the card mount is the next
consideration. The mount should show at least an inch or more margin all
round, and one may buy the plain mounts and punch eyelet-holes in the
edges to fasten them with, or else the regular album leaves, which have
holes for fastening together. The album leaves are really better than
the cards, as the edges having the eyelet-holes are finished with cloth,
which prevents the card from breaking.
Under each picture letter a title or an appropriate quotation, using
either ultramarine or cobalt blue water-color. Either corresponds with
the color of the finished print.
The cover may be of rough water-color paper, and decorated with the
brush in blue, or an opening may be cut in the cover, and a tiny blue
print set back of it like a picture in a frame. In such a case there
would need to be two pieces for the front cover, glued at the edges. Tie
the whole together with a heavy blue silk cord the color of the blue
prints, or with two-inch-wide blue ribbon with a butterfly bow.
DON'T WORRY YOURSELF
and don't worry the baby; avoid both unpleasant conditions by giving the
child pure, digestible food. Don't use solid preparations. _Infant
Health_ is a valuable pamphlet for mothers. Send your address to the New
York Condensed Milk Company, N. Y.--[_Adv._]
ADVERTISEMENTS.
Postage Stamps, &c.
50 Distinct Countries
135 Different Varieties
53c. by letter, post-paid.
If on sheets, $2.00. Two packets for a dollar bill. Holiday Offer: 211
Presents valued at $100.00 distributed among purchasers. Particulars and
a rare stamp sent for 3c.; 100 mixed stamps, 10c.
A. L. Lewis, 2 Maltland Place, Toronto, Canada.
[Illustration]
100 all dif. Venezuela, Bolivia, etc., only 10c.; 200 all dif. Hayti,
Hawaii, etc., only 50c. Ag'ts w't'd at 50% com. List FREE! =C. A.
Stegmann=, 5941 Cote Brilliante Ave., St. Louis, Mo
500 Mixed Australian, etc., 10c.; =105 varieties=, and nice album, 10c.;
15 unused, 10c.; 10 Africa, 10c.; 15 Asia, 10c. F. P. Vincent, Chatham,
N.Y.
FINE PACKETS in large variety. Stamps at 50% com. Col's bought.
Northwestern Stamp Co., Freeport, Ill.
FINE APPROVAL SHEETS. Agents wanted at 50% com. =P. S. Chapman, Box 151,
Bridgeport, Ct.=
STAMPS! 100 all dif. Barbados, etc. Only 10c. Ag'ts w't'd at 50% com.
List free. L. DOVER & CO., 1469 Hodiamont, St. Louis, Mo.
An important trifle--The DELONG Patent Hook and Eye and trifles make
perfection.
See that
hump?
[Illustration]
Richardson & DeLong Bros., Philadelphia.
[Illustration]
Highest Award
WORLD'S FAIR.
SKATES
CATALOGUE FREE.
BARNEY & BERRY, Springfield, Mass.
BREAKFAST--SUPPER.
EPPS'S
GRATEFUL--COMFORTING.
COCOA
BOILING WATER OR MILK.
HOOPING-COUGH
CROUP.
Roche's Herbal Embrocation.
The celebrated and effectual English Cure without internal medicine.
Proprietors, W. Edward & Son.
London, England.
E. Fougera & Co., 30 North William St., N.Y.
[Illustration]
PRINTING OUTFIT 10c.
Sets any name in one minute; prints 500 cards an hour. YOU can make
money with it. A font of pretty type, also Indelible Ink, Type, Holder,
Pads and Tweezers. Best Linen Marker; worth $1.00. Sample mailed FREE
for 10c. stamps for postage on outfit and large catalogue of 1000
Bargains. Same outfit with figures 15c. Larger outfit for printing two
lines 25c. post-paid.
Ingersoll & Bro., 65 Cortlandt St., N. Y. City
DEAFNESS & HEAD NOISES CURED
by my INVISIBLE Tubular Cushions. Have helped more to good HEARing than
all other devices combined. Whispers HEARd. Help ears as glasses do
eyes. =F. Hilcox=, 853 B'dway, N.Y. Book of proofs =FREE=
CARDS
FOR 1896. 50 Sample Styles AND LIST OF 400 PREMIUM ARTICLES FREE.
HAVERFIELD PUB. CO., Cadiz, Ohio.
[Illustration]
An Appeal for a School-house.
Come, dear readers of the Table--Ladies, Knights, Patrons, and their
friends--let us make possible the laying of the corner-stone of Good
Will School next spring. The task is not a difficult one. It can be
accomplished in this way:
Get one subscriber to HARPER'S ROUND TABLE. Remit the $2 for it for one
year. Attach the accompanying Coupon. Say in your letter that you wish
the 50 cents turned into the Fund. And the thing is done. The Fund is
complete. The corner-stone will be laid. The boys will have an
Industrial school-house. The Order will have performed a grand, a
chivalrous deed.
At this holiday-time every person who reads these lines has it within
his or her power to build this school-house. Because, if _you_ get the
one subscriber, the house will be built. If you do not, it will not--not
now. All depends on you.
Go out and ask your friends about it. Ask them to help you get the
subscriber. Your parents and teachers will help you. Ask them to do so.
Set your heart on getting this one subscriber. Go to a Sunday-school or
church committee, a day school, some well-to-do man or woman who has
young persons in the household. Ask the well-to-do neighbor. Relate the
merits of the paper, and show a sample copy and Prospectus. We furnish
them free. Ask us to do so.
But do more than this. Relate the story of Good Will. Tell the person
whom you are asking to subscribe why you want the subscription, and why
you want it now. Tell him or her that Good Will Farm, while in Maine,
takes boys from any part of the country, and is therefore not a local,
but a national enterprise. Say that it is a house for an Industrial
school that the Order is to build. The Farm is in good hands, and the
school itself will be well conducted. Our task is only to put up the
building, not to conduct the school. Say that during the last few
years--two or three--more than 700 poor boys have applied for admission
to Good Will, and had to be refused it for lack of room. These boys were
deserving. Say further that if you get the subscription the school will
be built, and, by turning a house now used for the school into a
dwelling, more boys can be taken--boys of five, six, and seven years of
age, who are now homeless, may be given homes, school advantages, and a
chance to become useful Christian men.
During the next two weeks will _you_ get this subscription? Talk it
up--and get it. The appeal is not made to the Order. It is made to
_you_. If you do not wish to cut out the coupon, make a pen one nearly
like it, ask us for duplicates, or send on the subscription without a
coupon, simply saying that you got it to help the school, and that you
want 50 cents of the $2 given to the Fund. Be sure to give the
subscription address, and your own name for the Honor Roll.
Come on, dear friends, let us build this school-house.
THIS COUPON
Will be received by the publishers of HARPER'S ROUND TABLE as
[Illustration]
when accompanied by an order For a NEW subscription to HARPER'S ROUND
TABLE and One Dollar and Fifty Cents. The intent of this Coupon is to
pay you for inducing another person, not now a _subscriber_, to
subscribe for HARPER'S ROUND TABLE for one year. This Coupon has nothing
whatever to do with your own subscription; that is, with the copy you
expect to read next year, it matters not in whose name it be ordered,
and will not be accepted as payment for any part of it. It is good for
its face in the hands of any person who performs the work indicated,
whether said person is a subscriber or not. HARPER & BROTHERS.
* * * * *
A Drive in Switzerland.
We have been passing three weeks of our summer vacation at
Mühlenen, a tiny village in the Bernese Oberland, where there are
so many interesting things to write about that the only trouble is
to know with what to begin. One beautiful drive we took would, I
think, interest our Table, so I shall do my best to describe it.
Mühlenen lies in a lovely and fertile valley called the Frutigthal,
through which winds a rushing river, the Kander. A great deal
higher up than Mühlenen, about nineteen kilometres away, is the
village of Kandersteg, 1156 metres above the level of the sea, and
just at the entrance of the celebrated Gemmi Pass. To this little
village, one cloudless summer day, we--my aunt, a dear friend, my
sister, and myself--decided to drive, and, what is more, we
determined to be unconventional, and go without a coachman. In
Switzerland a lady never drives herself, and it is even seldom that
a gentleman does so, but we knew that people would shrug their
shoulders and say: "Ah, well! they are only Americans," in a tone
that implies, "they know no better, and are up to anything wild and
dangerous," so we have gone alone from time to time during the past
year.
At half past seven we were safely installed in the "Einspenner," as
they call the one-horse vehicles there, and Lenore, being driver,
tried her best to crack the whip in a professional way, ejaculated
"hui! hui!" and wound up the brake. In German Switzerland one must
say "hui hui" to make a horse go, while in the French cantons
"allez houp" is the usual way. Our Table probably knows that every
carriage has a brake, which is put on at every slight decline with
the greatest care. As we came into the main road to Frutigen all
eyes were turned towards the beautiful Blümlisalp, which rose in
its grandeur before us, and no wonder, for it is a sight one never
tires of. Before us lay the peaceful green valley, the picturesque
old peasant houses dotted about, and to the left the quaint little
village of Reichenbach, with its old church-tower bearing the date
1546. On the right, rising about 300 feet away, the dark Niesen
towered up towards the sky, at its base the Kander, whose music
lulls us to sleep every night, and straight before us the
Blümlisalp, Gerihorn, Wildstrubel, and many other mountains.
We drove on to Frutigen, passing many sheep, cows, and goats, being
driven by peasant owners to the cattle market which was to be held
next day. Most of these peasants laughed at our driver, making some
good-natured remark, others passed nodding "Gott grüss Ihnen" (God
greet you), as is the custom. Frutigen is the most important
village in the valley, and is also quite modern looking. A large
fire there some time ago burnt up a great many houses, which have
been replaced by stone buildings which look very stiff and ugly in
comparison to the wooden chalets. Just on the other side of
Frutigen is a hill on which the ruins of the old castle of
Tellenburg are to be seen. Fellen was the old German word meaning
tax or tribute, and the people of the valley had to pay tribute to
the barons who lived in the castle. The last baron, Anton von
Thurm, was deeply in debt and sold the whole valley to Bern for
6200 Gulden.
About an hour from Frutigen is the "Blauseeli," or little blue
lake, which I once described in a letter to the "Post-office,"
before our Order existed. A little further on is another ruin,
exceedingly picturesque, and situated just as I imagined a castle
should be, on a high, almost inaccessible rock. The owner was also
Anton von Thurm, a wild, cruel tyrant. He and his followers were
greatly feared throughout the valley, and yet the people had to pay
him tribute. Once he had the fine idea to exact a herd of young
cattle from them as that year's payment, and when the peasants
begged and implored him not to, he simply laughed them to scorn.
The people held a counsel and decided to kill the wicked baron.
They decorated the asked-for cattle, dressed themselves in their
Sunday best, and started off to the castle apparently peaceful,
happy, and resigned, but in reality each with a hidden weapon. The
baron heard in some way that there was a plot against him, and at
the last minute fled over the border, back to his castle in the
canton of Valais. The people arrived only to find the Felsenburg
deserted and the doors closed against them. Filled with rage at
being robbed of their prey they beat in the doors and destroyed the
castle completely, leaving it the ruin we now can see. I think they
served the Baron Anton right.
After passing the Felsenburg the road goes up in zigzags to the
Kander Valley. All the way we had a most beautiful view of the
whole Frutigen Valley with mountain chain of the Viesen in the
background. The houses began to be very interesting now, for almost
all have texts or inscriptions burned on the outside, as well as
dates. We stopped to read some of them, and I copied this one for
the Table.
Gebauen durch Johannes Brosser und sein Ehgemahl Maria Ogi. 1m 1556
Jahre. David Würner Zimmermeister war.
Gott bewahre dieses Haus,
Und die da geben ein und aus.
This last is evidently original poetry, meaning, "God protect this
house, and those who go in and out of it." Some of them are texts
from the Bible, and I think the idea very beautiful. Others have no
texts nor verses, but tell who built the house, who owned it, and
some give a long list of the people who lived in it, what their
profession was, etc. One house evidently was the first work of some
proud young carpenter, for he wrote, "Johann Hari was carpenter and
twenty-two years old."
I said we stopped the horse to read these texts. How most of the
Knights and Ladies would have laughed could they have seen _how_ we
stopped him. If I saw an interesting looking house, I had to say
that I wanted to read what was on it quite a while before we came
to it. Then Lenore would brace herself and pull up the horse, but
instead of stopping like a well-bred animal he would walk on and on
till finally, when Lenore had no "pull" left in her, he would stop.
Not that he was a fiery, spirited horse. Alas! no. It was just as
hard to make him start after he had once been persuaded to stand
still, and as for trotting-- We all combined our voices in a loud
"hui, hui," at the same time flecking him continually with the
whip, to make him go out of a creeping walk.
At Kandersteg we went to the Hotel Gemmi for dinner, and while
waiting till it was ready amused ourselves by reading the queer
verses written all over the dining-room walls. At another table
were some travellers, two of them unmistakably American, and it
sounded very homelike to hear "all right," instead of "quite so." I
was buying photographs for my collection later, and an English lady
came up and spoke to me. During the conversation I said something
about America. "Are _you_ American?" she said, incredulously. Upon
my replying in the affirmative she went on, "Why, r_ee_ly you have
no accent at all." We arrived in Mühlenen at seven o'clock in high
spirits, and much delighted with the beautiful day.
WINTERTHUR.
MARIAN GREENE, R.T.F.
* * * * *
Getting Behind the Scenes.
Could you inform me if there ever was such a boy as Diego Pinzon,
and if so, was he in the crew of the _Pinta_? Was Martin Alonzo
Pinzon the proprietor of the _Pinta_, as stated by Mr. Coryell, or
Gomez Rascona and Christopher Quintero, as stated by Justin Winsor
in his _Christopher Columbus_?
GENEVA, FLA.
LEO REHBINDER, R.T.F.
I did not say or mean to convey the impression, in _Diego Pinzon_,
that Martin Alonzo Pinzon was the proprietor of the _Pinta_. I use
the words, "* * * the _Pinta_, as the vessel of Martin Alonzo was
named." I meant the vessel of which he was captain. The phrase is
not definite, but is usual. The _Pinta_ belonged to Gomez Rascon
and Christoval Quintero, and had been pressed into the service of
the expedition.
I have no knowledge that a boy by the name of Diego Pinzon was one
of the crew of the _Pinta_; but I took the liberty of shipping him
for the voyage, because there were several boys of his age who went
on the expedition, and because there were several Pinzons in the
crews of the three vessels. I have no doubt that there was more
than one Diego on the expedition. I am certain there were several
Pinzons; and so I make my combination of Diego Pinzon.
CORNWALL, N. Y.
JOHN R. CORYELL.
[Illustration: STAMPS]
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin
collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question
on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondent should address
Editor Stamp Department.
There seems to be no end of changes in the printing of the current
United States postage stamps. It has just been discovered that all the
plates of the 2-cents, from No. 171 upward, have had the guidelines for
cutting the complete sheet of 400 stamps into four sheets of 100 each
changed, so that now on each sheet of 100 stamps the inside corner
stamps have an extra red line parallel with two of the sides (see
diagram in ROUND TABLE No. 830). This makes four distinct varieties of
the red stamp, which every collector can easily find. The same principle
will probably be applied to all the other stamps now current.
And still another variety, or curiosity, has just been noticed. The
left-hand sheet of the present 15-cent stamp (Plate No. 52) is marked on
the margin W. F. G., W. L. C. These initials appear on the upper margin
of the sheet, immediately above the first stamp. To the left, on the
margin, appear the initials C. S. This is another variety easily
obtainable by almost every collector. Of course the stamp must have the
entire margin of the sheet, or, still better, keep the entire strip of
the top row of ten stamps.
This interesting variety was first seen by a gentleman who is not a
collector, but, having unusually sharp eyes, called the attention of a
veteran collector to the same.
Speaking of plate-numbers, which are the fashion at present, reminds me
that the finest collection of these ever made up was exhibited to the
members of the New York Philatelic Society at its last meeting. At the
same meeting another member exhibited his West-Indian, and still another
his Australasian. Each collection was simply superb. Thousands of
dollars were spent in making up the West-Indian and the Australasian
collections to where a hundred had been spent on the plate-number
collection, and yet each collector had something the others had not, and
every one present was greatly pleased by an inspection of all three.
FRED. L. HAWTHORNE, Kingston, Jamaica, wants to exchange stamps,
seeds, etc., with collectors in the U.S.
A. M. J.--Similar questions to yours as to values of coins have
been answered several times. When a coin is so worn that the date
cannot be read it is usually worthless.
J. HALL.--A pair of 20-cent St. Louis stamps was sold for $5000 to
a collector in the East about a month ago.
F. H. CHURCH, Boonville, N. Y., wishes to exchange stamps, birds'
eggs, etc.
F. KELLER.--The 30-cent Ceylon is worth 12c., the 25-cent Straits
Settlements 15c., the 1-cent Shanghai 5c.