CHAPTER XX.

MISGIVINGS.

It was two days later a small brown horse crunched his way through the deep fall of snow that lay upon the hills to the westward of the Passaic River.

His rider drew up at the foot of a hill, and slapped his thigh, to start the circulation in his half-frozen fingers. "I know the country hereabouts," he said. "Seven miles further on lies the Hewes estate, and beyond that Stanham Manor. From the crest of yonder hill I can look down upon the dear old place. And what if they should recognize me?" he went on. "What foolishness it was to undertake a trip like this! All the information I have obtained so far I could put into a thimble." He was sickening of the adventure. If it were not for the Frothingham stamina he would have backed out and tried his best to retrace his steps. "I will be surely able to pick up something worth hearing at the Hewes place," he went on, half aloud. "If I could only find out the number of the American forces at Princeton or Morristown it would pay me well for my trouble."

The horse, with its flanks steaming, had halted knee-deep in the snow during this soliloquy. William drew his cloak about him and dug his heels into the ribs of his steed. After plunging for half an hour through the heavy unbroken road he reached the top of the hill. Below him stretched the land that had belonged to the old rival company. His eye first sought the country further on. Above the little hill he could see the tall chimney that his own father had built in the old colony days. The smoke was pouring upward, and floated out in the higher air in a thin cloud much in the shape of an open mushroom; not a breeze was stirring; and further to the south another column of smoke marked the position of the Hewes foundries in the hollow.

Yes, and there it was, the old Manor House. He could see the dark patches of the pines about it, and almost imagine he could hear the roar of the water-fall. His eyes traversed the woods and the hill-side nearer. To the right should be the large mansion of Colonel Hewes. The panting horse was again reined in suddenly. There was nothing there where the Hewes house had stood but blackened walls and some stark timbers, whose outlines were softened by the new-fallen snow.

William felt a sense of sorrow besides one of fear and astonishment. He had intended to make his first venture of obtaining news at the house of Colonel Hewes. Now there was nothing to do but to press on and make a bold stroke. He would have to go to Stanham Mills. It would be impossible, weary as he was, to turn back. It would soon be dusk.

Once more he struck the colt with his heels, and descended the hill-side. At the bottom a small stream had to be forded. The tired horse plunged in, and had gone but a little way through the shallow when he stumbled and pitched forward. William flew over his head amongst the rocks and ice. Angry and stunned, he rose to his feet. There was a numb feeling at the elbow-joint of his right arm.

"Fortune is not smiling on me," he said, grimly, feeling the joint with his fingers. "Here is a nice mess if I have broken anything."

It was merely a serious dislocation, but by placing his hand between his knees he pulled the joint back into place. It caused him great agony, and if he had not been above the average in strength it would have been impossible for him to straighten it. His head hurt him also from its contact with a stone, and he felt sore and miserable as he managed to clamber back into the saddle. He had ridden but a little way when the pain in his arm necessitated another stop. With his handkerchief he made a sling, and hooked it about his neck.

"I would give a great deal for some of Aunt Clarissa's liniment," he murmured, grimly.

Just as he came across the well-travelled road that led to the Hewes foundries a man on horseback came toward him from out of the hollow. The snow flew from his horse's heels, and as soon as he caught sight of William he waved his hand.

"Hilloa!" he shouted. "Welcome back!" It was Colonel Hewes's cousin, the renowned rifleshot. When he was quite near he pulled his horse down to a walk. "George, dear boy," he said, "Lord knows I am glad to see you safe."

There was nothing else for him to do, although William's face flushed hotly at the idea of the deception he would have to practise.

"Are they all well?" he asked.

"Yes, marvellously so," was the rejoinder; "and there is much to tell about."

William controlled himself with an effort.

"Did you notice that our house was burned?" Mr. Hewes went on. "It caught fire at night. We narrowly escaped with our lives. Now we are guests at Stanham Manor, and are having very pleasant times. What a royal welcome you will have! But tell me, how did you escape? What news do you bring? What is Howe going to do with his army, and do our good friends in the city prosper?"

William smiled. "You are asking more questions than I can answer all at once," he said. "Now, one at a time. I escaped with little difficulty."

"But you are wounded!"

"It is nothing. It will be all right in a few days. There is little news, for I was placed in a position to gather nothing worth relating, as you may know. What Howe is going to do with his army is more than I can conjecture. In fact, I do not think he has made up his mind. There are comfortable quarters in New York."

"They are living on the fat of the land, I hear," said Mr. Hewes.

"Yes, and our friends are prospering."

"Well, it is good to have you home again," said the tall man. "My cousin, the Colonel, is away at Morristown, but we will have as a guest to-night--your guest, I might better say--a young officer, who is on his way from the army of the north to General Washington. He is carrying despatches of great moment."

William's heart leaped. Luck might be changing. Here at last would be an opportunity to gain reliable information that would help the royal forces.

"You are looking tired and worn, my boy, and I will promise to ask you no more until you have had a rest and something cheering," said Mr. Hewes. "That nag of yours is about done for, I should say."

"The roads are very bad," returned William, who, to tell the truth, was feeling the effects of his fall, and was dizzy and uncomfortable. "You are hard at work, I see," he added, turning the subject, and nodding in the direction of the smoking furnaces.

"Yes, yes, indeed," was the rejoinder. "Making good Yankee cannon-balls, and even your own foundry has been turning them out every day. We have pleased the Commander-in-chief mightily, I can tell you."

They had entered the familiar lane. The water was roaring under the ice at the edge of the dam. A group of workmen caught sight of the two riders from the doorway of the mill, and set up a cheer. They had been sighted from the house also, and a cluster of figures was waiting at the foot of the big white wooden pillars. Aunt Clarissa was there, and his sister Grace, and a broad-shouldered young man in a uniform of blue and buff. The servants ran out from the big wing and clustered about the roadway. Old Cato, hatless, came running down the road. When he approached within a few feet he stopped and faltered.

"Wy, Mas'r William! you, you--"

"Cato," said Mr. Hewes, "what's the matter?"

"Wy, it's Mas'r George, ob course; dis ol' nigger's goin' plumb crazy." Cato laughed.

Still something had happened to dampen the old colored man's effusion, and he grasped the hand extended to him with an assumption of being too much overcome for words.

As William slid from the saddle his dizziness had increased. He had had nothing to eat all that day, and the fall had been heavier than he had at first supposed. The sight of his little sister Grace, grown to this tall beautiful young creature, unnerved him, and when she turned her face up to his and put her arms around his neck, tears came into his eyes and he sobbed weakly.

"Poor boy!" said Aunt Clarissa, coming up, as he rested his head on Grace's shoulder and walked towards the door. "He has suffered much. Oh, those prisons! The stories I have heard. Dear George, forgive me. I have been both hard and wrong."

It was evident that Aunt Clarissa had suffered also, and her face had softened in a wonderful degree. William was almost tempted to make a clean breast of everything there and then, when the horror of his real position struck him forcibly. Words would not come; he felt a strange sinking at his heart; he stumbled, and would have fallen but for Mr. Hewes's extended arm. For the first time in his life he fainted.

He awoke, he knew not how long afterwards, feeling warm and comfortable, in a great high bed in what had been his uncle Nathan's room. A candle was burning dimly at his side, and faithful Aunt Polly was sitting fast asleep in a great rocking-chair. Well he knew how soundly Aunt Polly slept. Again he almost sickened at his false position. He could not stand it. What meant Aunt Clarissa's welcome? And how things had changed! One thing was left to him, and but one--flight. Anything rather than to sail under wrong colors and to deceive those who loved and trusted him.

He arose, and taking his clothes from the chair, stepped softly into the hallway and dressed quickly. Then he stole down stairs. The moonlight from the outside flooded the great hall. With a frightening start he saw hanging over the back of a great chair a pair of heavy saddle-bags. They belonged to the transient guest--the young American officer, most probably. He lifted the flap. Heavy papers tied and sealed with great blotches of red wax were there.

Was it dishonest? His hands fairly trembled. "'Tis for the King," he said, beneath his breath; but he stopped suddenly and slipped the papers back into the pouch. "I could not touch them if they contained secrets worth all kingdoms," he said. "I will go back empty-handed. I had rather fail."

There was a stir over in the direction of the fireplace, and to his surprise he saw old Cato shuffling noiselessly toward him. The old man picked up the saddle-bags without a word.

"Where are you going with that, Cato?" said William, astonished that the latter had not spoken.

"Jes goin' to take care ob dem, sah," was the reply.

"Leave them here. They are safe enough," said William, feeling half ashamed of himself, as he spoke the words.

"No, sah; scuse me," was the old man's reply. "If Mas'r William Frothingham asks dis ol' nigger fur his head he ken have it, but old Cato ain't goin' to give dese 'spatches to no British officer."

William leaned back against the mantel-piece. Had the others found out also?

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

IF WE COULD MOVE TO MARS.

BY GARRETT P. SERVISS.

It is not necessary to consider the various reasons that would impel many inhabitants of the earth to go to Mars if they had the opportunity. But no one can doubt that the first train for Mars, or the first balloon, or the first electric liner sent out by the Universal Celestial Transportation and Safe-Delivery Company, Mars Division, would be booked to its utmost capacity. Curiosity alone would suffice to crowd it, and it is certain that the Anglo-Saxon race, which has furnished most of the great travellers, would be fully represented in the throng of adventurers bound for another world.

When Mars is nearest to the earth its distance is no less than 36,000,000 miles. But if we set our speed to match that of an electric impulse flying through the Atlantic cable--say 15,000 miles per second--we should be there in just forty minutes. Good enough for time, but how about guide-books?

Well, as to that, explorers must expect to find their own way about. Marco Polo had no Baedeker. And, besides, we are not altogether left without guidance, such as it is. We have to thank Signor Schiaparelli for some very beautiful charts of Mars, which he has made with the aid of his telescope at Milan; and other astronomers have drawn charts of Mars also. It is true that all these are filled with glittering generalities, and in some respects are contradictory; yet upon the whole they really form a more complete map of the entire surface of Mars than anybody had of the earth in the time of Columbus.

On approaching Mars we should behold a world looking in some respects remarkably like the earth, having seasons resembling ours, with torrid, temperate, and frigid zones; turning on its axis like our globe, and in nearly the same time; showing in winter broad white caps, as of snow, covering its polar regions, and presenting many appearances suggestive of continents, oceans, islands, and peninsulas. As we watched it slowly turning under our eyes, we should see on one side, south of its equator, a huge, staring eyelike-spot, which Schiaparelli has named the "Lake of the Sun," and on the opposite side, reaching from the southern hemisphere into the northern, a great, dark, crooked area, somewhat resembling North America in shape, and known to astronomers as the "Hour-glass Sea." And then all the globe beneath us would appear to be mapped with delicate reds and yellows and grays and blues; long waving curves and sharper indentations would make their appearance in what look like coast-lines; and presently, running east and west and south and north, and passing "beyond the horizon's utmost rim," a network of dark-colored lines, like a vast web covering the planet, would be seen. These are the famous "canals."

But while we were wondering what this could mean, we should be struck by another unearthlike thing. Being accustomed to dwell on a globe three-fourths of whose surface is covered with water, it could not escape our notice that the world we were approaching had far more land than water. Indeed, it is likely that we should find that the "Hour-glass Sea," and many of the other so-called seas of Mars, are only part of the time filled with water, and that even then they are not like terrestrial oceans, but rather vast swamps, choked with rank vegetation suddenly awakened to life by periodical inundations supplying moisture to their roots. Visiting them at another time, we should find only deserts with cracked soil baking in the sun. At any rate, some of the discoveries made with great telescopes in 1894 suggest these things.

In the equatorial regions, where the earth is richest in all forms of life, it is not improbable that we should find Mars covered with one vast Sahara. We should have to go to the poles to discover anything like seas. When the snow-fields around the south pole began to melt away with the on-coming of summer, an opportunity would be given us to behold a spectacle that the earth cannot match. As the snow melted, the water thus formed would collect into a shallow sea, which would constantly tend to empty itself by flowing off toward the equator. Very likely Mars is a remarkably flat world, and the water from the pole would encounter little opposition to its movement.

Then would come a sight that would open our eyes with amazement. Looking toward the equator, we should see only barren red lands and the dry and dusty basins of ancient seas; but the wave of snow-water from the antarctic circle, running through ready channels and percolating the thirsty soil, would be like the spirit of life moving upon the face of a dying world. At its touch vegetation would sprout and spring and wax great, with the magic rapidity that we sometimes see exhibited on the earth; the hard soil at its roots would fall apart and dissolve with moisture, and in a few weeks, where only the naked bones of the planet had been visible before, we should be able to wade neck-deep in seas of verdure, with long grasses waving softly in the vernal wind, and sweet flowers stroking our faces.

The observations made by Mr. Percival Lowell and Professor W. H. Pickering during the last opposition of Mars seem to lend probability not only to such conjectures, but to others which are now to follow.

We have imagined ourselves watching on Mars the progress of the life-giving water spreading from the south pole during the spring and early summer of that hemisphere of the planet. But we have noticed its effects only in the great depressed regions that may once have been actual seas. How about the still greater regions which nobody has ever supposed to be seas, and which appear on the charts of Schiaparelli and others under the name of continents? If Mars has not water enough to keep its sea-beds permanently covered, its dry lands must thirst indeed! Let us go, then, to that strange region where lies the so-called "Lake of the Sun."

As we cross the red continents, hot and blazing in the merciless sunshine, we begin to meet the "canals," but, behold! they are not canals! They are broad streaks or belts of vegetation, intersected with numerous tiny water-channels, like the valley of the river Po or the flat meadows of Holland, and the water comes from the vast swamps formed, as we saw, by the polar inundation.

Now our interest rises to the dramatic pitch, for here is the work of hands, here are evidences of intelligent design, and here, if anywhere on this distant world, we must expect to meet its inhabitants. I shall not undertake at this point to describe the appearance that those inhabitants might present. But let us imagine that we put ourselves under their guidance.

It is probable, for a reason which I shall mention presently, that our Martian friends would turn out to be exceptionally intelligent. They might guess, then, that we would have a rather poor opinion of their world of floods and deserts, and for that reason they would lead us at once to its finest scenes. Through the corn-land and the vine-land of their irrigated belts, traversing the sandy wastes with strips of green, they would doubtless conduct us along magnificent shady roads to one of the numerous crossing-places where two or more of the fertile bands meet, and where our astronomers on the earth have noticed that there is always an oval dark spot, which some of them have thought must mark the site of a lake.

But as we approach one of these spots the spires and roofs (or what answer on Mars for spires and roofs) of a town make their appearance. And quickly we find ourselves in strange streets and avenues, surrounded by throngs of such people as the wildest traveller's tale has never pictured on the earth. We are led to a lofty outlook, from which we can see far across the level country, and behold the radiating belts, along which alone the land is fruitful, stretching away in every direction, and at each crossing-place widening into an island of green dotted with the dwellings of a town or city. The red glare of the leafless and waterless wilderness, contrasting with the emerald lines that intersect it, makes a scene of overwhelming strangeness. In the remote distance our guides point out to us the metropolis of this part of Mars, placed in the broadest of the verdant spots, where our charts show the "Lake of the Sun," and surrounded by an immense system of irrigated belts, running out across the desert to the distant sea-swamps on all sides like the spokes of an enormous wheel, and so conspicuous that the Lick telescope and other telescopes have shown them from the earth. Every one of those lines is sucking moisture from the polar overflow, and storing up subsistence for the great city and all the inhabitants of the land.

For this is not merely the harvest season on Mars; it is the time when every thought is on the future, and every energy is bent to the preservation of life upon the planet. Did we think that we had learned how to make the earth yield to us the full measure of its fertility? Bah! We had to come to Mars to find out that science. If we should return to this scene in a few months the story would be plain. Then the desert would have resumed its sway uninterrupted; the swamp oceans, half water and half leaves, would have returned to dust; the irrigating ditches would have dried up, and the productive belts would be like so many narrow bands of prairie that had been swept with fire. At such a time the "canals" of the planet Mars disappear from the sight of terrestrial astronomers, and the so-called "oceans" turn pale.

Then we may imagine the inhabitants of that most singular planet reaping the fruit of their foresight and industry; then is the season of social joys in the Martian metropolis on the site of the "Lake of the Sun"; then men go no longer forth to the fields to toil for the future, because that future for which they worked has come, and there is to be no more toil, until once again, with the slow swing of the seasons, the southern pole, burdened under its accumulated winter snows, beholds the sun, and at its touch dissolves into life-giving water.

So much for some of the broad features of life on Mars as recent discoveries permit us to picture them, although it should be borne in mind that astronomy, as a science, does not assert--though it does not deny--that there is life at all on Mars. It allows us to draw our own conclusions. Now, then, continuing the supposition that there may be inhabitants on Mars, let us consider some other queer things that we should probably behold and experience on paying them a visit.

Mars is small compared with our world, its diameter being only about 4200 miles, and its surface between one-third and one-fourth as extensive as the earth's. Knowing its size and density, we can calculate how great its gravitation is--in other words, how much bodies weigh on its surface. If we tip the scales at 150 pounds on the earth, we should find that our weight had been reduced, in going to Mars, to about 67 pounds. It is hardly possible to tell exactly how we should behave in such circumstances. Doubtless we should feel as if we were walking on air, or as if we could jump over a house, for our muscular strength would remain the same. Imagine the feelings of an elephant suddenly removed to Mars!

But the most singular effect that we should behold of this comparative lack of weight on Mars might be upon its own inhabitants. The chances are not small that we should find ourselves amid a lot of giants there, averaging about fifteen feet tall. It is easy to prove that on Mars a man of that height would, in proportion to his muscular strength, be no heavier or clumsier than our average descendant of Adam is. Yet he would be absolutely stronger and able to perform harder work. Then, too, the things he had to lift would be far lighter, bulk for bulk, than similar things on the earth. Accordingly, during our visit to one of those "irrigation belts" that Mr. Lowell has imagined, we might behold feats of strength in the digging of ditches and the garnering of the fruits of the soil that would fill us with astonishment.

And that leads us to something else rather queer. There are reasons for thinking that a small globe like Mars might, because it would cool faster, get into a habitable condition sooner than the earth. If so, the people of Mars may have family trees that would put our longest genealogies completely into the shade, and their history as a race may exceed ours by an enormous length of time.

HOW MAGIC IS MADE.

BY HENRY HATTON.

II.

Another trick with handkerchiefs is that known as "Easily seen Through," from the transparent box which plays an important part in it.

As this box is of glass, top, bottom, and sides, it hardly seems possible that anything could be concealed in it, and yet-- But let me describe the trick in full.

The box, which is about four inches square, is held up so that it may be seen, and is then placed on a table and covered with a large handkerchief. Taking a piece of newspaper of the size of a sheet of foolscap, the performer twists it into a cornucopia, or paper cone, such as the grocer wraps sugar in for his customers, and gives it to one of the audience, who has volunteered to assist on the stage, to hold. Seated on a chair, the assistant holds the cornucopia at arm's length. The performer drops into its open mouth three small squares of silk--red, white, and blue, respectively--and with a borrowed cane or umbrella pushes them well down; he then closes the paper horn by folding over the mouth. To do this necessitates taking it from the assistant for an instant, and when it is returned, the larger end is given to him. With the injunction to keep it well away from his body lest he be suspected of collusion, the performer announces: "I shall now pass the handkerchiefs invisibly from the paper horn, which the gentleman holds, to the little glass box." Here he stops abruptly, and pretending to have heard a remark from the audience, continues, "Oh no, they are not there yet," and removes the handkerchiefs from the box to show it is still empty, and almost immediately covers it again. A moment later, however, when he whisks off the handkerchief, the three squares of colored silk are seen in the box, while the cornucopia, on being opened, is found to be empty.

Although some address on the part of the performer is necessary in order to give brilliancy to the trick, the secret lies in the box and the cornucopia.

The box is made with a double bottom of glass, and between this and the real bottom are duplicate squares of silk. This silk--and this remark applies to most of the "handkerchiefs" used in conjuring--is of a very light, flimsy character, either _marcelline_ or a thin quality of Japanese, and takes up but little room. A catch at the back of the box, worked from the outside, which the performer touches when covering the box, releases the false bottom, and this, impelled by a spiral spring attached to the hinge, instantly flies up, and lies flat against one side, while the elasticity of the silk squares causes them to fly up and partly fill the box.

The cornucopia is made of two sheets folded in the centre, as shown by the dotted lines in the diagram, and glued together at three sides, A, B, and C. Picking up the paper with his left hand, so that the bottom part B comes between the thumb and fingers, the performer catches the corner F with his right hand, and brings it over to the point D. Then the half, E, A, F, is drawn over till the corner E touches G, as in Fig. 2, and finally the corner H is thrown round the other parts; the point is given a twist, and the cornucopia is complete, as in Fig. 3.

Placing his hand inside, the performer opens the space between the inner and the outer paper, smoothing it down so as to appear like the proper opening. It is in this opening (between the papers) the silk squares are placed and pushed down. The performer folds the top once over, and gives it to the assistant to hold, with his fingers over the fold. When the time arrives, the performer unrolls the cornucopia from the bottom point, and spreading out the paper, it appears to be empty, the thin texture of the silks concealed between the paper making them inconspicuous.

There are two pretty variations of this trick. In one, the last handkerchief of the three is passed from the hands to the box; in the second, two cornucopias are used, dispensing with the box.

As in the first there is no resort either to the short cord used in the "Evanescent Handkerchief," or the hand-bag of the "Mission of a Plate," it may prove of interest to the amateur.

The handkerchief--preferably the red one--is first gathered into both hands, and then, to allow of the performer turning up his sleeves, is transferred to the left hand. All this time an end is seen protruding, yet when the hand is opened it is empty, and the handkerchief has vanished.

The solution is simple: a small loose piece of silk about two inches square is picked up with the handkerchief; the latter is carried off with the right hand in the act of apparently transferring it to the left, into which only the little piece is put. In turning up the left sleeve the handkerchief is wrapped in the fold, and finally the piece of silk is rolled into a tiny ball and concealed between the fingers, and dropped on the table at the first opportunity. The trick is not generally known, and is useful as a change from older methods.

In the second variation the cornucopia into which the handkerchiefs are passed is made by pasting together two sheets of paper at all four sides. Between these papers are hidden the duplicate handkerchiefs. Instead of opening this cornucopia at the conclusion of the trick, the performer merely tears it in two and pulls out the handkerchiefs. As I have known a performer of long experience to be puzzled by this trick, I can conscientiously recommend it. It has the advantage, too, of doing away with the glass box, which, when properly made, costs four or five dollars.

Guibal generally follows the trick just described with "The Transit of the Cards." In this he is assisted by two of the audience, one of whom he dubs "the glass box," and the other "the paper horn," claiming that the trick, though done with cards instead of handkerchiefs, is virtually the same as the preceding one.

To one of these assistants, who must not be confounded with confederates, he hands a pack of cards to be counted aloud. This operation concluded, he asks: "How many cards did you say there are--thirty-two? I knew it, but I want my audience to know it too."

He gathers up the cards, and as he takes them in his hands he passes the little finger of his left hand between the five top ones and the rest of the pack.

"Now, sir," addressing the glass box, that is the assistant on his right, "be good enough to empty the outer breast pocket of your coat. Good. Cut this pack."

As he says this he palms the five top cards, and lays the rest of the pack on the table, which is between him and the audience.

When the pack is cut, the performer requests the assistant to put the cut in his breast pocket, to cover the pocket with his hand, and on no account to remove it.

Pointing to the remainder of the pack lying on the table, he requests the paper horn, the assistant on his left, to count it. Let us suppose there proves to be nineteen cards. "Good," he exclaims. "You, sir, will please put these in your pocket." At these words he bunches the cards together with the right hand, adding the five palmed ones.

When the paper horn has emptied his pocket, and placed the cards therein, the performer continues: "You, the paper horn, have nineteen cards, and you, the glass box, necessarily have thirteen, since the sum of nineteen and thirteen equals thirty-two. Now, gentlemen, keep your hands on your pockets, and see that not a card enters or leaves without your knowing it."

"Will you, madam," addressing a lady, "select one of the three mystic numbers, 4, 5, or 6?"

Should 5 be the number chosen, the trick is done, for the performer has only to command five cards to pass from the pocket of the glass box to that of the paper horn.

But if 4 or 6 is selected a little subterfuge is necessary. Let us suppose 4 is chosen.

Turning to the lady, the performer says: "You take number 4? You are sure you would not prefer 5 or 6? No? Be it so. See what I shall do. I shall cause four of the cards which are in the pocket of the glass box to pass invisibly into the pocket of the paper horn. To do this, however, I must ask this gentleman on my left to give me one card from his pocket that the others may learn the road they are to follow."

Taking this card, he gives it to the assistant on his right to put into his pocket. "Now," he proceeds, "one, two, three, four, pass! Count your cards, sir"--to the paper horn--"and see if you have not twenty-three, as you certainly ought to have, since nineteen which you had and the four which have passed make exactly that number."

Of course this proves to be right. Then the glass box is asked to count his cards, and he is found to have nine, since, as the performer explains, four of his original thirteen have left his pocket and gone over to the majority.

Had number 6 been chosen instead of 4, one card would have been taken from the glass box and given to the paper horn "to show the others the way."

Here is a clever little trick which will pass very well for "Thought-Reading" and is quite puzzling. I believe it has also the advantage of never having been explained in print.

Before beginning, the performer gives three sealed envelopes to one of the audience to hold. He then borrows a watch, a ring, and a knife. Three of the audience are asked to act as a committee, and to them are given the borrowed articles, with a request that they leave the room, when each is to select one of the articles and hide it in his pocket. Before they go, however, the performer takes a number of cards from a pack, gives one card to one of the committee, two to a second, and none to the third. These they are to put in their pockets, each remembering how many cards have been handed to him.

When they return to the room, the performer, without asking a question, collects the sealed envelopes, and hands one to each of the committee. On opening them, each finds inside his envelope a card bearing the name of the article he has selected.

With careful attention and a fair memory any one can do this trick--provided he knows how.

In the first place, he must be able to distinguish in which of the envelopes is each of the three cards; this may be done by pricking with a pin one corner of one envelope for the watch, two corners of a second for the ring, and leaving the third envelope intact. The advantage of this system is that the marks are not noticeable, and may be recognized by the touch.

In taking the cards from the pack, the performer, although apparently choosing at haphazard, is really careful to take exactly twelve. These are placed on top of the pack before beginning the trick, and the thirteenth card has a tiny corner clipped off, so that there may be no mistake about the number, as the success of the trick depends upon having it exact. The committee-men are numbered, mentally, 1, 2, and 3 by the performer, who must remember their respective numbers.

To No. 1 he gives one card, to No. 2, two cards, and to No. 3, none. Over the remaining nine cards he slips a rubber band, so that they may not get mixed with the others, and hands them to No. 1 to keep.

When the committee-men have retired and selected the articles, the performer calls to them: "From the cards secured by the elastic let him who has the watch take as many as I gave him originally; let the one who has selected the ring take twice as many as I gave him, but the one who has the knife is to take none."

When the committee returns the performer collects the cards bound together by the elastic, and sees at a glance just how many are left.

Then he refers--mentally again--to the following, which, though it means nothing, in this case means much.

1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 Ante | Diem | Dea | Ista | Estin | Armis 1 2 | 3 2 | 2 1 | 3 1 | 2 3 | 1 3

The upper row of numbers refer to the cards left in the elastic; the lower row shows the borrowed articles according to their value, that is, 1=watch, 2=ring, 3=knife. The words show the numerical value of the vowels, a, e, i.

If one card is left, the performer knows that the watch has been chosen by committee-man 1, the ring by No. 2, and the knife, consequently, by No. 3. Should there be five cards left, the knife has gone to No. 1, the watch to No. 2, the ring to No. 3.

Having found out just how the articles are distributed, the performer gives out the sealed envelopes, makes his bow, and gracefully retires.

BY GASTON V. DRAKE.

IV.--FROM BOB TO JACK.

DEAR JACK,--I guess this letter will reach you about the same time as the other. We did pass the _Paris_ but it was after dark and I couldn't catch the Captain's eye, so the other letter won't be mailed to you a bit earlier. This will be just a P.S. to that. I've had a fearfully exciting time since I wrote to you last. I didn't see Chesterfield for two whole days after that morning and I began to get kind of worried about him, but this morning, which is very rough he turned up again dripping wet. I thought it was one of the waves that have been breaking over us all the time that had wet him, but he said no, it was falling overboard. He was fixing one of the ropes down by the stern yesterday morning when the ship gave a fearful lurch and sent him flying head over heels into the ocean, but he fortunately had enough presence of mind to grab hold of the lead line that runs astern in connection with a little dial to show how many knots an hour the boat goes. It's a funny sort of machine. It's so fixed that being pulled through the water makes the rope revolve, and the faster the boat goes the faster the rope goes around, and every time it goes around it registers a point on the dial on the stern-rail. It was this bit of rope that Chesterfield caught when he fell, but it was an awful prediggerment for him to be placed in because he had to revolve with it, and he got so dizzy that he nearly had to let go, but when he realized that if he let go he'd be drowned he held on and gradually hauled himself up the rope until he got himself aboard again. Of course when he got on board again he'd been whizzed about so much that he couldn't stand up or walk straight, and when the Captain saw him staggering up the deck he falsely accused him of having had too much brandy in his mince pie and ordered him below for twenty-four hours in irons, which is an awful disgrace, and Chesterfield is too much of a gentleman to stand unjust disgrace, so this morning when he was allowed to go free again he felt so badly that he went up into the bow and jumped overboard, preferring to die. But just as he jumped another big wave came along and washed him back on board again, and he has decided to live, which I am glad of because he is a very fine fellow.

He says this is his last trip on this boat. As soon as we land he's going down to Venezuela where he has ten millions of hoarded treasure buried in a swamp. He's going to dig it up and buy the whole of some Island out in the Pacific Ocean and settle down as a King and he's promised if I ever visit him to give me a reception worthy of an Emperor. There is only one trouble, he says, about it all. With all his millions buried in Venezuela he hasn't got enough money with him to pay his fare, but I fixed that. I've lent him the two gold pounds papa gave me, which he says, will help him out with what he hopes to get for looking after the chairs--most people give him fifty dollars, he says, for doing that, and there are six hundred passengers on board, which makes $30,000. I think that's a good deal of money, but he says it's only a bagatelle for a man who wants to go to Venezuela. He's going to pay me back my two pounds after he's dug up his money in Venezuela, and he told me not to say anything to dad about it but surprise him next winter when I get the money back with a thousand pounds interest besides.

There's one nice thing about travelling at sea. Coming this way we gain a half an hour everyday. That is, at this time to-morrow morning it will be half an hour later and that's first rate when you wake up on a rough morning at eight o'clock and find out that it isn't eight o'clock at all, but half past, and you can get your breakfast right away. The idea of it is that travelling East the sun goes down earlier every night and of course it always sets on time wherever you are and you've got to fix your watch according to it. Chesterfield knows a man who kept on going around and around the world until he'd shoved Christmas forward six months, and didn't realize what had happened until he was wakened up by the boys celebrating the Fourth of July. It sounds like a queer story, but Chesterfield says it's true, and the way ships' time is arranged it seems to prove it. It takes a trip all the way round the world to knock off a day though, so it's not as easy a thing to upset the calendar as you'd think. Chesterfield says that if a man could live long enough to go around the world three thousand six hundred and fifty times going west he'd be ten years younger than his own twin brother at the end of that time. I asked dad if that was so and he said he guessed it was, but he really didn't know and to find out he put the question to a very extinguished editor of a Brooklyn paper who is on board and he said of course it was, that he knew a man who had done it. He said that the man was an editor of a Philadelphia paper and that that was why that particular paper was ten years behind the times. Dad laughed at this, and so did I, though I don't know why. Maybe it was a joke--though the extinguished Brooklyn editor said it very solemnly.

We expect to come in sight of land to-morrow and I must say I'm glad of it. The sea is all very fine, but the rough weather you're apt to get makes what you eat disagree with you and I want to get some place where you can eat a dinner and enjoy thinking about it afterwards.

As soon as we get to London I'll write again and tell you all about everything.

Yours ever, BOB.

P.S. Chesterfield says he thinks Sandboys would make a good Prime Minister for his new Kingdom in the Pacific. He says he'll give him ten dollars a week and Saturdays off if he'll do his Prime Ministering for him. You might speak to Sandboys about it.

THE SOAPY SEA.

When first beside the turquoise sea Stood Mabel, fair and sweet, And saw the billows breaking free Like snow-drifts at her feet,

She murmured, "Do these soapsuds leap And roll from morn till night, Way up the shore, to wash and keep, It always silver white?"

Of all track-athletic events the sprints are the hardest to train for, yet the easiest to perform. Being the easiest, there are consequently many more athletes running the 100 and the 220 than there are competing in any other single event; but of all the competitors there are comparatively few really first-class men. To become such requires long and patient and careful training, and a greater mastery of form than in almost anything else.

It is a difficult task to tell on paper just what a man should do who wishes to make a specialty of sprinting. There are so many small points of importance that vary with individuals, that only a general description and a few broad suggestions can be given here. At the same time, whoever accepts these suggestions and heeds them may feel confident that he is working along the right lines, and that if he will follow the advice here set down he will put himself into condition to make rapid strides of progress as soon as he comes under the management of a trainer.

It has already been said in this Department that no one ought to begin to train for any athletic event much under the age of sixteen. Until that time few boys are sufficiently developed physically to be able to stand the strain of regular athletic work. At that age and afterward, however, the muscles become firm, and are amenable to development and capable of continuous careful exercise. You will hear a great deal of talk about "wind" and "breathing" and "lungs" and kindred subjects when you first begin to train as a runner. Pay no attention to these "wind" advisers. Your wind and lungs will take care of themselves. In the first place, the lungs are not at all the organs that you want to think of in this connection; it is the heart. The heart is the organ that is affected by running. Run a hundred yards, and you will find your heart beating faster than when you started. The exertion of sending the blood more rapidly through the body is the cause of this. Therefore a sprinter should first feel confident that he has a strong heart, and then he may set to work with no misgivings about his wind.

It is not the lungs that are affected by cigarette-smoking. It is the heart. Take any smoker, and you will find that his heart beats to a different measure from that of an abstainer. For this reason sprinters should avoid tobacco. Another old-fashioned and exploded theory is that the athlete should run with his mouth shut. That is not necessary at all. In fact, sprinters are taught nowadays to run with their mouths open, and every first-class man in the event does so. It must be plain to every one that a man can get more air into his lungs, and thus facilitate the working of the heart, by inhaling through his mouth than through his nostrils. Of late all the best long-distance runners have adopted this breathing method, and find it best, and in the illustrations of long-distance runners to be published in an early issue of the ROUND TABLE these men will all be seen to have their mouths open as they run.

The training for the 100 yards and that for the 220 are almost identical, for an athlete who runs one of these events almost invariably becomes proficient in the other. In fact, the 220 is a long sprint--the word sprint meaning to run at full speed the entire distance of a race. The most important feature of sprinting, of course, is the start, and no runner can become too proficient in this. Up to within five or six years the standing start was universal, but in 1889 or 1890 Lee of the New York Athletic Club introduced the crouching start, and since then that has become the standard in America. In England some of the professionals use it, but not until the London Athletic Club men came over here last fall did British amateurs recognize the value of the crouch and adopt it. But they did adopt it after the international games, and no doubt the crouching start will soon become general among English amateurs.

The position for this start is somewhat difficult to acquire and master, but once this is accomplished an athlete is certain to knock off one-fifth of a second from his best previous record. The first thing of importance is to fall into an easy position, with the hands on the scratch-line and the starting foot from six to nine inches back. The other foot should be from 2 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. 9 in. further back. The runner should be raised up on his toes in an easy, springy attitude. The first illustration shows exactly how that position is taken. Many runners lean on their knuckles, but a better way is to have the hands open, and to rest on the extended fingers. This gives more spring. In order to do this and to keep hold of the running corks, fasten a rubber band at each end of these, and slip this over the back of the hands.

When the starter gives the word to "set," the runner should lean forward as far as he can without losing his balance, his head lifted so that he can get a full and clear view of the track ahead of him. When the pistol sounds he shoots ahead with all the force of both legs, but his first two strides are taken in a crouching position. Do not attempt to stand erect at the very start. Let the head and shoulders rise along a slanting line to their proper altitude, or there will be an infinitesimal but still noticeable loss of time. As soon as the runner has got into an erect position, however, and into his pace, he should run with only the very slightest forward inclination of the body, but with the chin thrust well out. The second illustration shows this well. The arms should be swung across the body rather than alongside of it. This gives better form and makes an easier stride.

Never look backward while running. Many a race has been lost by that very act. Pay no attention at all to the other competitors, but go it for all you are worth, regardless of your rivals. Breathe naturally. Do not begin to stop until you have passed the finish-line, but, this done, throw up your hands and try to run up into the air. The third illustration demonstrates that idea. The man who naturally has a long stride has an advantage over his fellows, but the man who has not a long stride need not attempt to increase his spread of pace. An athlete can run much better with his natural stride than with an adopted gait. Of course, when jogging for practice, it is best to lift the legs as well up as possible, and thus develop whatever capabilities for a long stride you may have, but do not strain yourself by trying to overdo the thing. The foot should always come down straight upon the ground--that is, flat. I do not mean by this that the heel should touch, for it must not by any means. Yet a man does not run on his toes; he runs on the ball of his foot; and in order that the spikes of his shoes may enter the track to the best advantage the sole should strike flat, that the nails may dig well in and secure a firm hold.

For a beginner who has never undertaken any systematic training in sprinting, and who desires to become proficient in it, I should recommend the following schedule, to be carefully carried out for three weeks:

_Monday_.--Practise the start six times, running at speed only about twenty yards from the scratch. Rest between each attempt, and end up by jogging fifty yards, finishing up the hundred at speed.

_Tuesday_.--Jog a quarter of a mile for the purpose of developing the stride.

_Wednesday_.--Run seventy-five yards at speed; rest, and then run fifty yards at speed.

_Thursday_.--Practise the start ten times, running as before, not further than twenty yards each time; jog 220 yards slowly for stride.

_Friday_.--Run fifty yards at speed twice, with a rest between.

_Saturday_.--Run a trial 100 yards on time, and, after a rest, jog around the track for 220 yards.

To an ambitious young athlete who feels he is a future record-holder this schedule may seem altogether too light. There are no words strong enough, however, with which I can urge him not to attempt to do a bit more at the beginning. What is more, at the slightest sign of fatigue at this work, quit for the day.

For practising starts, where a pistol is unavailable, get some one to snap two boards together. Don't start by oral command. Get in the habit of getting off the mark at the crack of a pistol, or to a sound as nearly similar as possible. The jogging around the track should be taken very slowly, and is intended purely as a leg exercise and to develop the muscles of the calves and thighs. A long loose jog will lengthen the stride. When preparing for a contest lay off altogether the day immediately preceding it, and don't run your distance against time for three or four days previously. Run only fifty yards at those times if you are going into the 100, and try 150 if you intend entering the 220. In a 220 race you will find that you can make a stronger finish if you ease up a trifle for 5 or 10 yards at the 200-yard mark--although this is merely _comparatively_ speaking, for this race is a dash from start to finish. It will be better not to experiment with this suggestion until you become a pretty good judge of your pace.

The proper costume for a runner is a light jersey shirt with no sleeves, and china-silk running trousers that barely reach to the knees. If china silk is unavailable, cambric or cotton will do very well. Corks may be purchased of any dealer in sporting goods. Working shoes should be made of horse-hide, with no heels, and six spikes in the toes. The athlete should also have a pair of calf-skin shoes of the lightest possible make for use only in competition. While at work it is well to wear light socks, as these make the shoe fit more snugly; but in a race wear "pushers"; these are made of chamois, and cover the toes from the instep downward.

The interest in the big in-door games to be held at the Madison Square Garden on March 28th seems to be increasing every day. Not only have most of the prominent athletes of the New York schools already entered or signified their intention of entering, but many sportsmen from a distance will be on hand to try their powers against the home talent. The Hartford High-School will send three representatives to the meeting. Luce, the Captain of their track-athletic team, will enter the half, the quarter, and the 220. He won the quarter in the Connecticut H.-S.A.A. games of 1894, but only took second in the event last year on account of having gone stale. His best time is 51-2/5 seconds; his records for the half-mile and the 220 are 2 minutes 7 seconds, and 23-2/5 seconds. These, of course, are out-door records. F. R. Sturtevant will enter the pole vault and the running high jump. He has an in-door record of 9 feet 8 inches in the former event, and can clear 5 feet 7 inches in the jump. He has held the championship of the Connecticut H.-S.A.A. in these events for the past two years. J. W. Bradin, the third Hartford man, has not made a very strong showing in athletics as yet, but he is full of promise. He took third in the quarter at the Connecticut H.-S.A.A. games last year, and will enter that event in the Madison Square Garden games.

The baseball schedule of the New York Interscholastic League has been formulated, and was announced at the last regular meeting of the association. As was the case last year, the competing teams will play in two sections, and the games will be held on the following dates:

FIRST SECTION.

April 6--Drisler _vs._ Barnard. April 10--Condon _vs._ Cutler. April 15--Barnard _vs._ De La Salle Institute. April 20--Condon _vs._ Drisler. April 24--Cutler _vs._ De La Salle. April 29--De La Salle _vs._ Drisler. May 4--Barnard _vs._ Condon. May 8--Cutler _vs._ Barnard. May 13--Condon _vs._ De La Salle. May 18--Cutler _vs._ Drisler.

SECOND SECTION.

April 8--Woodbridge _vs._ Hamilton Institute. April 13--Columbia Grammar _vs._ Trinity. April 17--Hamilton _vs._ Berkeley. April 22--Columbia Grammar _vs._ Woodbridge. April 27--Woodbridge _vs._ Berkeley. May 1--Berkeley _vs._ Trinity. May 6--Hamilton _vs._ Columbia Grammar. May 11--Trinity _vs._ Hamilton. May 15--Columbia Grammar _vs._ Berkeley. May 20--Trinity _vs._ Woodbridge.

The winner of the first section will play the winner of the second for the League championship on May 27th, and all games will be played at the Berkeley Oval. Should there be a tie in any section, the Baseball Committee will assign a date for the deciding game.

THE GRADUATE.

This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.

"Why should that old lady care," I heard a girl say the other day, "whether or not her hair is turning gray? What possible difference can it make of what color is the hair of an old, old woman? Why, she mast be almost eighty!"

In the case in question the lady criticised was on the borderland of seventy, but to sixteen she might as well have been a hundred. Age and youth are relative. To the very young years count for more than they do to the older, who have lived longer, and have learned that the soul does not grow old with the body. I myself feel pity for elderly people who are ashamed of their age, and are so weak as to try to hide it, but I don't quite like to see young girls unsympathetic. Try, if you can, to fancy yourselves in the position of some of your elders--of women who remember, but do not look forward. As you go tripping on, with light steps, imagine what it would be to totter a little, to see dimly, to hear faintly, to feel worried at every little pain and mishap, to reach the days when "the grasshopper is a burden." No, you cannot do it. You are too full of life and gladness and energy. You are young, and youth is charming.

All this should make you very patient and gentle with old people. There is nothing more beautiful in this world than to observe the tenderness of some girls toward their aged relatives. Dear grandmother cannot thread her needles so easily as she used to do, and is sensitive on the subject; and does not like to be too obviously helped, to have attention called to her failing eye-sight, which she so much regrets and does not like to admit. There are two ways of meeting the difficulty. Mattie, a kind-hearted girl without much tact, will exclaim: "Oh, gran! what perfect nonsense for you to fuss over that needle! You know you cannot find the hole where the thread should go in; your eyes are too old. Give me the thing; I'll thread your needles!" The intention is most excellent, but the old lady is hurt and stifles a sigh. She had young eyes once, and she has the same independent spirit still. Edith, in the same circumstances, manages in another fashion. She simply threads a dozen needles, and leaves them all ready for grandmamma in her needle-book, saying, pleasantly, "It saves so much time, dear, in these busy days, to have one's needles all ready and waiting." Tact is a wonderful gift, girls, and well worth cultivating when it will help to make a saddened heart light, or to oil the domestic wheels and make them run smoothly.

Whatever you do, never suffer yourselves, girls, to show irritation or amusement at the foibles of an old lady or gentleman. One is as hard to bear as the other. The sweet girl who is thoughtful for and deferent in manner to the old people she meets wins the love and admiration of every one.

One rather peculiar thing about very old people is a failure of memory. They tell you a story to-day, and to-morrow they forget that they told it, and tell it over again. Now it really is not very hard to listen with a patient air and with interest to a tale you have heard before; it may be done, and it is worth the doing, if it adds a little pleasure to lives which are not as full of strength and cheerfulness as your own are.

MARGARET E. SANGSTER.

* * * * *

RECALLED STORMY TIMES.

"Well, that looks natural," said the old soldier, looking at a can of condensed milk on the breakfast-table in place of ordinary milk that failed on account of the storm. "It's the Gail Borden Eagle Brand we used during the war."--[_Adv._]

ADVERTISEMENTS.

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MONARCH

KING OF BICYCLES

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88 Reade St., NEW YORK.

NOT A DYSPEPTIC PEOPLE.

It is time that the old saw about Americans being a dyspeptic people was hung up. This has been a pet phrase with medical papers, some physicians, and professors of cookery altogether too long. The story has been repeated until we have acquired abroad the reputation of being a nation of dyspeptics, and if a nation of dyspeptics--then the producers of dyspepsia-provoking food.

Now it is not true that we are a dyspeptic people. On the contrary, whatever we may have been years ago, it is now a fact that we are the people freest from alimentary disorders upon the face of the earth. Further than this, the introduction of our hygienic foods among other nations is perceptibly increasing their health rate and adding to the longevity of their people.

There have been borrowed by our people from the French, English, and Germans the best cooking methods of each, and, combining these with American ideas, methods, and agencies, we have developed a school of cookery purely American, which is the perfection of culinary art, at once the delight of epicures and the hope of physicians.

In the aid of this reform no agency has had an equal influence with the Royal Baking Powder. It has been frequently remarked by the medical fraternity that the decline of those dyspeptic ailments which formerly prevailed among the American people was contemporaneous with the extended use of this article. The fact has likewise caused particular comment from both English and French hygienists. Professors Kahlman and De Wildes of the French Academy coincide that the Royal Baking Powder is the most important of cooking devices because of the essentially hygienic properties which it adds to the food, while Dr. Saunders, an eminent specialist, and the head of the Health Department of London, is an enthusiastic advocate of the "Royal," which he says is "a boon to mankind."

We are not a dyspeptic people, and the chief reason is because of our better, purer, and more wholesome bread.--_Journal of Health._

BREAKFAST--SUPPER.

EPPS'S

GRATEFUL--COMFORTING.

COCOA

BOILING WATER OR MILK.

A Request.

Readers of _Harper's Round Table_ will please mention the paper when answering advertisements contained therein.

FREE.

Comic return envelopes. Sleight of Hand exposed. List of 500 gifts. Album of cards. Send 2 stamps for postage. Address Banner Card Co., Cadiz, Ohio.

This Department is conducted in the Interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain much valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L. A. W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.

Among the most difficult questions to answer, because it is always so varied, is that which involves how much, how long, how far the impersonal "I" should ride. I do not write this in the spirit of ridicule at all, for evidently the many inquiries received are sent in all seriousness, and even if this were not so the subject is such a serious one that it would demand earnest attention. It may be said that any particular person can ride, or rather may ride, just so far on a wheel as his physical powers and his physical training will permit him to without completely exhausting him. This is, of course, entirely relative, and there are at the same time cases where a man may exhaust himself without fear of injury, and other cases where he must stop long before he approaches the point of exhaustion, unless he wishes to take the chance of severe injury. Each person, in other words, must be his own judge of what his distance and speed may be, unless there is some one near to watch and advise him competently.

Having stated the general case, let us particularize. An average afternoon ride for a business man who does not train regularly is twenty miles, without much of a stop anywhere from the first to the twentieth mile. An average ride for a woman who probably never has taken much exercise is ten miles, with several dismounts, to walk up most hills, and get the variation on the muscles furnished by a little walk. An average ride for a young man in school or college who has been in pretty good condition for some time, if not absolutely in training, is from forty to fifty miles in an afternoon, without much stop. An average ride for a girl of healthy out-door life and training--for there is always a certain amount of physical training in out-door life--is twenty miles in a day, with several stops. Here are four grades, so to speak, which merely give us a basis to work on. Now as to the time occupied. In the first, the man's twenty-mile ride, it would be safe to say two hours should be occupied in doing the ride. In the second, or woman's ten-mile ride, about an hour and a half altogether would be required. That is to say, she will wheel at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour to occupy a good fifteen minutes in walking. The third case, that of the young man in training doing fifty miles, ought to occupy under four hours, or, at any rate, not much more than four hours; thus starting out at one o'clock in the afternoon, he should do his fifty miles and be at home again by five. Finally, in the girl's twenty-mile ride, with its more or less frequent stops for a walk, two to two and a half hours should be employed. If you happen to belong to any one of these four classes, very probably you cannot easily do the amount set down here as the average for that class. It will be found, however, that these figures in the end will strike the amount nearly at the general average. The fact that you cannot do the amount without becoming exhausted at the moment and stiff the next day simply means that you are not yourself up to the average. This is nothing to be discouraged over, as it is a very simple matter to reach the average by a little training--that is, a little steady riding for a week or two--unless, of course, there is something organically defective about you.

The important point in all this--for we cannot stop to go into details--is that bicycling does not depend on the amount of ground covered, nor upon the speed with which you cover it, but upon the pleasure of being out-of-doors, and of moving along over the ground to the comfort rather than the discomfort of your body, and, consequently, of your mind. Hence, if you are planning out a trip for some holiday, for example, or for a holiday of more than twenty-four hours, do not think out a trip which will be a record for distance covered. Yet that is the point of most of the inquiries received by this department. "Please tell me whether I can do seventy miles a day for a week. I am going to spend my vacation of a week on my wheel, and want to take as long a trip as possible. Can I do 500 miles in the week without becoming sick?" This is, of course, an imagined case, but it is representative of what is often considered the point of a trip of this sort. There never was a greater mistake made. The point of a week's bicycle trip is, or should be, fun, unless the absolute object is a road record for so many hundred miles--fun and amusement and health; and therefore you must not ride so far that you begin to make work of it, nor so short a distance that you do not get the pleasure of the exercise. You should not tire yourself by riding up absurdly steep hills; you should not make yourself disgusted with wheeling, or your doctor disgusted with you, by trying to keep up with a better rider, or trying to beat some professional bicyclist's record. Let the pace and the distance disappear from among the factors that make up a bicycle tour.

A NEWSPAPER MAN'S PROTÉGÉ.

An old newspaper man told the following story not long ago, which is interesting, in that it shows what pluck and ambition will do for a boy: "Several years ago I was detailed to cover some disastrous floods in the lower part of the State. After travelling slowly all the afternoon, about dusk we began getting into the flooded district. The conductor of the train expressed some fears about the condition of the track, so when the train reached Boylston, I hunted up the telegraph operator to learn what the chances were of reaching the scene of the floods.

"While discussing the probabilities, the train-boy came up and called out to the operator, 'Oh, Mr. Jackson, have you that shorthand book you promised me?'

"When he had gone the operator apologetically said, 'The boy is studying shorthand, sir.'

"'Rather a bright boy,' I remarked.

"'Oh yes; he knows a deal of shorthand already, and he can send on the wires almost as good as I can.'

"That sort of boy aroused my curiosity. I got hold of him when the train started, and found out a little of his history. Nothing extraordinary, you know; a country lad of poor parentage endeavoring to earn his living. Well, we were rolling along, it seemed to me very rapidly, when I felt the car give a lurch; then came a terrific bumping, and as the thought flew through my mind that the rails had spread, the car toppled over on its side with a crash. I came out of that wreck bruised and battered, with a broken leg.

"They got me into a house close by, and later I heard that fifteen people lost their lives. While waiting for the doctor I wondered how I could get the news of the disaster to the office. I thought of the train-boy. Just the chap, and I got one of the men in the house to search for him. In a short time the boy came, for luckily he had escaped with a few scratches. I explained to him what I wanted. Well, gentlemen, that boy knew everything about that accident, even to the number of spikes in the spread rail, and he took my copy down in shorthand like a professional.

"Before I got through I gave up, fainted, you know, and I never learned until some time after how the matter came out. It seemed from the dictation I gave him he got enough of an example out of it to enable him to finish the rest of the story in the same style, and got it over the wires in time for the edition. They never knew at the office that the story of the disaster had been sent by a train-boy until a couple of days later, when the corrected list of the killed and wounded reached them. As the boy failed to put my name on the list he sent in, and receiving what they thought was my report, they had concluded I had escaped. Several weeks after, when I was able to get about, I hunted up the lad, and made him a sort of protégé of mine; he is now a brilliant man in the profession!"

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.

PREPARATION OF TINTED SENSITIVE PAPERS.

NO. 3.--ANOTHER WAY OF OBTAINING VIOLET TONES.

In paper No. 2 directions were given for making violet tones in prints by sensitizing prepared photographic paper with nitrate of uranium, and developing the image with a chloride-of-gold solution. The French have a process of making violet tints much softer in tone than these, and which resemble delicate engravings. It is some trouble to prepare the paper, and a beginner would perhaps not be successful the first time trying, but the prints are so beautiful that it is worth while to learn how to make them.

Take a sheet of best photographic paper--Rives is very good--and coat it with the following solution: Hydrochlorate of ammonia, 1 oz.; rock candy, 1 oz.; distilled water, 20 oz. Dissolve the candy in the water, which may be slightly warmed if necessary, then add the chlorate of ammonia. Dip a piece of blue litmus paper in this solution, and if it turns it red add a few drops of ammonia water till it does not turn the litmus paper. Put the solution into a large flat tray, and float the paper on it for five minutes; drain, and hang up to dry. After the paper is dry, sensitize it with a solution made of 1-1/2 oz. of nitrate of silver and 10 oz. of distilled water. Float the salted paper on this bath for five minutes, and then dry. As soon as the paper is dried it is ready for printing. This is a printing-out paper, and the prints should be made as deep as for aristo or albumen paper.

Place the prints in a dish of soft water, to which has been added a few drops of ammonia water. Leave them in only a minute, and wash at once in several changes of clear water. The toning solution is made with Sel d'Or, 7-1/2 grs., distilled water, 15 oz., hydrochloric acid (pure), 1 dr. As soon as the prints have washed sufficiently place them one at a time face up in this solution, and tone till the prints have a deep purple tone in the shadows and a creamy white in the high lights. Wash well, and place in a fixing bath composed of 3 oz. of hypo and 16 oz. of water. Leave in this bath for half an hour, till the purple tones have faded somewhat; wash well in running water, and place them in a dish of clean water, and leave them for twenty-four hours. On taking them from the water they must be coated with albumen in order to avoid the dull appearance which the print would have if dried in the usual way.

Have a solution of equal parts of albumen and water, and as soon as the prints are taken from the water blot off the moisture with a piece of fine white blotting-paper, and brush the surface of the print with the mixture of albumen and water, using a flat camel's-hair brush. Pin them to dry on a flat board placed in an upright position. The reason why prints which are not squeegeed on to glass or a ferrotype plate should be dried in a horizontal or upright position is because, if they are dried flat, drops of moisture are apt to settle on the face of the print, and either cause distortion--that is, the print does not dry evenly--or the water leaves spots on the face of the print.

Any one who has seen some of the imported French prints in violet tones knows how exquisite they are, and while the process is some trouble, and the paper needs careful handling, after one has prepared two or three kinds of sensitive paper by more simple methods he will find this comparatively easy, and will be delighted with the result.

SIR KNIGHT RAY MEAD, WINONA, WISCONSIN, asks for a good formula for a developer to use with films. The following will be found to give excellent negatives: Solution No. 1. Water, 10 oz.; sulphite of soda, 2 oz.; eikonogen, 165 grs.; hydroquinon, 80 grs. Add enough water to make the solution up to 16 oz. Solution No. 2. Water, 10 oz.; carbonate of potassium, 1 oz.; sodium carbonate, 1 oz.; and enough more water to make the solution up to 16 oz. For developing take 1 oz. of No. 1, 1 oz. of No. 2, and 4 oz. of water.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Ornamenting

It recently occurred to Tiffany & Co., the New York jewelers, to ornament a bicycle elaborately with gold, silver, and precious stones, believing that some wealthy customer would esteem so handsome a mount. They preferred to pay $100 each for

Columbia

Bicycles

For their purpose to using any other make of wheel. There must be no question of quality in a bicycle selected for such ornamentation. Therefore they chose Columbias

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Beautiful Art Catalogue of Columbia and Hartford Bicycles is free if you call upon any Columbia agent; by mail from us for two 2-cent stamps.

POPE MANUFACTURING CO.

Factories and General Offices, Hartford, Conn.

Branch Stores and Agencies in almost every city and town. If Columbias are not properly represented in your vicinity let us know.

Arnold

Constable & Co

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Infants' and

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French Caps.

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Hand-Made Guimpes,

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Postage Stamps, &c.

STAMPS!

=800= mixed Victoria, Cape of G. H., India, Japan, etc., with fine Stamp Album, only =10c.= New 80-p. Price-list =free=. _Agents wanted_ at =50%= commission. STANDARD STAMP CO., 4 Nicholson Place, St. Louis, Mo. Old U.S. and Confederate Stamps bought.

$117.50 WORTH OF STAMPS FREE

to agents selling stamps from my 50% approval sheets. Send at once for circular and price-list giving full information.

C. W. Grevning, Morristown, N. J.

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

LOOK HERE, BOYS! 50 stamps and hinges, 15c.; 100, 25c. Cheaper packets if you want. Sheets on approval. List sent free. Send Postal Card.

W. C. SHIELDS, 30 Sorauren Ave., Toronto, Canada.

105 Stamps, Java, etc., hinges, cats., album, 5c. Agents at 50% get _free_ 8 stamps and album. Bargain cats. free; 3 bbls. of stamps free. A. BULLARD &. CO., 97 Pembroke St., Boston, Mass.

310 foreign Bolivia, etc., 10c.; 100 different China, etc., 10c. Finest approval sheet, at 50%. Agents wanted. Large price-list, free. SHAW STAMP CO., Jackson, Mich.

125 dif. Gold Coast, Costa Rica, etc., 25c.; 40 U. S., 25c. Liberal com. to agents. Large bargain list free. F. W. MILLER, 904 Olive St., St. Louis, Mo.

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.

Stamps! App'l Sheets, 33-1/3 and 40% dis.; ref. req'd.

R. W. DeHAVEN, Box 4023, Station B, Phila., Pa.

Harper's Catalogue,

Thoroughly, revised, classified, and indexed, will be sent by mail to any address on receipt of ten cents.

ANOTHER PRIZE MUSIC COMPOSITION.

We have already announced the prizes for the best song settings to Mrs. Sangster's charming verses, "Our Little Echo." Here are awards for the Hymn Competition, "For Sowing and Reaping." We give the first-prize composition and the additional verses. The winner of the first prize of $5 is Mr. E. S. Hosmer, of Bristol, Conn., and of the second, Mr. W. H. Squires, of Philadelphia, both Round Table Patrons. Those whose compositions deserve special praise are: Christine R. Benedict, Harvey Reese, Blanche Elizabeth Wade, H. Hamilton Craig, Thacher H. Guild, Alice C. Banning, Helen H. Sohst, Harry R. Patty. Additional verses of "A Thanksgiving Song."

For parents who care for us day after day, For sisters and brothers, for work and for play, For dear little babies so helpless and fair, O Father, we send Thee our praise and our prayer.

For teachers who guide us so patiently on, For frolics with mates when our lessons are done, For shelter and clothing, for every day's food, We bless Thee, our Father, the giver of good.

For peace and for plenty, for freedom, for rest, For joy in the land from the east to the west, For the dear starry flag, with its red, white, and blue, We thank Thee from hearts that are honest and true.

For waking and sleeping, for blessings to be, We children would offer our praises to Thee; For God is our Father, and bends from above To keep the round world in the smile of His love.

Awards for Best Stories.

The most successful story contest the Table has ever had closed some weeks ago. Competition was restricted to those who had not passed their eighteenth birthday, and the limit of length, first announced at 1500 words, was raised to 2500. The prizes, three of $25 each, were increased by the addition of five $5 prizes. The success of the contest lies in the fact that the stories received were a great deal better than we ever received before, while the slightly changed conditions, without working injustice to any one, made the competition both easier and more liberal.

Conscientious judges read every word of every story submitted. Some stories of unusual merit were read half a dozen times. The number of well-written, probable, and interesting stories was most creditably large, and the making of awards correspondingly difficult. The three highest prizes are equal in value, but we place at the top, in point of excellence, "A Story of Strife," by Sir Knight F. M. McNaughton, aged sixteen, who lives in Quebec, Canada. Next, in rank we put "How Hector Saved the Train," by Sir Knight S. O. Rittenhouse, aged sixteen, of Lynn, Mass., and the third to "The Duke of Alva's Humiliation," by Sir Knight George C. Hirst, aged seventeen, of Philadelphia. Each is sent $25 in money.

Proofs of these stories have just been mailed to nearly three hundred persons, all under eighteen, who are to try to illustrate them. We want one illustration, and offer $10 for the best. Artists select their own subject after reading the stories. We allow them three stories in order to give them the best possible chance. We shall print the prize story that we happen to receive the best illustration for, and perhaps the other two. This Illustration Contest ends March 21th, but entries for it have now closed.

The five $5 prizes we award to the following, their excellence in the opinion of the judges standing in the order named--the best first, etc.:

"Quailin," by Lady Olive Arnold Dame, aged thirteen, of Medford, Mass.; "A Tale of the Football Field," by Sir Knight Lucien Memminger, aged sixteen, of Charleston, S. C.; "Putnam's Wolf," by Sir Knight Charles Frederick Hoffman, aged fifteen, of New York City; "A Wild-Goose Chase," by Sir Knight Harry T. Trowber, aged sixteen, of South Haven, Mich.; and "A Profitable Adventure," by Sir Knight Marion R. Gilbert, of Harrisburg, Pa.

Stories deserving, in our opinion, special commendation are: "A Last Chance," by Lady Frances S. C. James, of Mich.; "The Old Water-mill," by Lady Dell Whitney, of Wisconsin; "Three Chums and a Buffalo," by Sir Knight Egbert B. Heyser, of Missouri; "A Day's Fishing," by Sir Knight Preston K. Smalley, of Michigan; "Saving the Papers," by Sir Knight Rupert S. Holland, of Pennsylvania; "Balloon Voyage Round the World," by Sir Knight William Swanson, of Canada; and "The Little Cripple," by Sir Knight Edwin H. Andrews, of California.

The prizes, with our congratulations, have been forwarded, and the manuscripts of all stories returned to writers.

Answers to the Prize Puzzle.

Here are answers to Sir John R. Moreland's new-ideas puzzle. They are in two parts, 1, the numbers, and 2, the arithmetic:

1. A. D. 1572. 2, Raphael. 3, A. D. 70. 4, A. D. 1156. 5, Toucan (2). 6, Lincoln and Garfield. 7, A. D. 1015. 8, A. D. 1670. 9, Spina, a monk of Pisa. 10, Paulding, Van Wart, Williams. 11, "Jesus wept," "Rejoice evermore." 12, Drebel, a Dutchman. 13, King of Bourges. 14, 146. 15, 56. 16, "Citizen King." 17, John Hancock. 18, Francis Marion. 19, Stubb. 20, Deborah Simpson. 21, Paul Blouet. 22, Devil River. 23, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 24, B. C. 31. 25, "Sailor King."

1572x7=11,004+70=11,074-1156=9918x2=19,836÷2=9918-1015=8903+1670=10,573+5= 10,578÷3=3526+4=3530+6=3536-13=3523-146=3377+56=8433-11=3422+11=3433-13= 3420÷5=684-14=670+10=680-5=675-21=654-31=623-10=613--that is, 6.13=the sixth day of the week (Friday), and the 13th of the month--the proverbial unlucky figure.

* * * * *

Questions and Answers.

Henry W. Ticknor, R. T. K., Clanton, Ala., makes the following kind offer: "As I live 'way down South in the land of cotton,' I will send to any one who sends me five cents to pay postage some cotton seeds and instructions how to plant and tend them. Should any members respond who live outside the United States and Canada, they should send at least fifteen cents for postage."

* * * * *

Several members who have recently asked to have their names published as wanting correspondents are reminded that we cannot print such requests, since unscrupulous persons not infrequently use such addresses. We would be glad to grant you the favor were it possible to do so, and avoid this annoying consequence. Reader: The Table rarely prints poems on this page, and prefers not to criticise young "poets" publicly. Jos. L. Dwyer, 103 Porter Street, Detroit, Mich., wants to receive sample copies of amateur papers.

* * * * *

Who?--When?--Where?--What?--Why?

I wonder if you would like to try the game of "The Five W's, or Biographical Jumbles?" Provide each player with a pencil and a slip of paper (a half sheet of commercial note is a good size), then request each one to write at the top of the paper the first W, the name of some well-known historical character; fold the paper over to conceal the name, and pass it to his right-hand neighbor. Then each player writes on the folded sheet the second W, when did he live, and folding it again, passes it on as before. The third W, written in the same way, tells where he lived and died; the fourth, what he did; the fifth, why he did it; and the sixth and last folding gives the results or consequences of his life.

The paper must be folded at each writing, and no player must know what the others have written till the results are given, when each player in turn unfolds his paper and reads it aloud. Of course there are all sorts of incongruities and lots of fun over them, besides a grand chance to furbish up forgotten history, in straightening out the tangles, and setting matters right. Should the sheet of paper at first supplied prove insufficient, another may be easily attached with a convenient pin without unfolding. Of course, the more items of interest brought in the better. A prize may be given to the one who corrects the most mistakes, a tally being kept for the purpose.

A game of Geographical Jumbles may be played in the same way, by making an arrangement like this:

1. What--Name of country, city, river, mountain, etc.

2. Who--Inhabitants, celebrated people, etc.

3. Where--Situation.

4. When--Founded, antiquity, etc.

5. Why--Importance, productions, climate, historical associations

Try these games and you will like them.

H. E. BANNING. NEWPORT, R. I.

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. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.

The number of intelligent inquiries I receive each week is so large that all of them cannot be answered in the narrow limits of this column. Inquirers sending a _stamped and addressed_ envelope will be answered direct. Inquiries without prepaid and addressed envelopes will have to wait their turn.

The upper left-hand pane of 100-stamp sheet No. 170 contains both varieties of triangles (II. and III.). The first discovery was made in San Francisco, and dealers have been buying these sheets all over the country at $3 each. Several collectors managed to find a number of sheets in New York city, which they bought at face, and sold at fifty per cent. profit.

D. H. S.--I would advise you to ask your postmaster.

MRS. MAUD G. F.--The red stamps are the common 1851 issue. Millions were used every day for over five years. The blue ones are 1869 issue worth 25c. each. The Brattleboro, Vt., has the name of the town and initials of the postmaster. It is printed on buff paper in black ink.

MRS. E. V. B.--The $1 Colombian can be purchased for $8.

P. F. LISK.--I do not purchase stamps.

ROBERT PELTIER, Lycee Janson de Sailly, Paris, France, wants to exchange French stamps for U.S. stamps and others.

W. T. HELM.--The "Postal Service" envelopes are not stamps; they are franks. The one described is worth 20c.

ELIAS ALTER, New York City (gives no street address), and BURETTE SNYDER, Cape Girardeau, Mo.--Wish to exchange stamps.

R. C. MEGRUE.--All the proof specimens of U. S. stamps are more or less valuable. The "Department" proofs are worth more than the proofs of the regular issues.

G. G. STONE.--The 1c. Columbians can still be bought at many post-offices, hence there is no premium. Treasury Department used set is worth about $8.

E. L. DAVIS.--There is no way to restore the color of a stamp except where the color has oxydized. In that case a chemical which can be bought of stamp-dealers for 25c. per bottle, will restore the original color. Put your stamps on hinges, and you can change easily as often as you want. Hinges cost 10 to 15 cents per 1000.

G. R. MOFFITT.--Your stamp is from Montenegro, which has issued sets in 1874, 1880, 1893, and 1894.

F. S. PERKINS.--It is a medal or token, not a coin. No value.

S. C. R. OF K. B. K.--I cannot keep on repeating values of coins given in back numbers of the present volume. See the ROUND TABLE for December 17, 1895, and January 14, 1896. The rare pink is a 3c., not a 2c. stamp.

SERGEANT.--See answer to S. C. R.

L. B. HERSHEY.--The 3c. 1869 unused is worth 25c.; used, 2c.--that is, dealers ask those prices. They buy much cheaper.

D. BARNUM.--Your list of inquiries is too long for answer in this column. You have some very nice stamps, but there are no rarities in the list.

MRS. W. H. H.--See ROUND TABLE of December 17, 1895, and January 14, 1896, for prices asked by dealers for U. S. coins. What dealers pay I do not know.

H. MERRITT.--What you describe are not postage-stamps or stamped postage-envelopes. Before postage-stamps were used almost every postmaster had a hand stamp to mark "Paid," "Paid 5 cents," or "Paid 10 cents," etc., on letters for which he received postage in advance. Where not so marked the person to whom the letter was addressed had to pay the postage. I know very few collectors of these postmarks, as they have no money value.

G. M. ROSS.--The prices quoted in this column are those asked by dealers, not what they pay. That, of course, I do not know.

A. SCHMENGLER.--The 1861 3c. U.S. comes in hundreds of shades, from a pale washed-out color to a deep scarlet. Only one of these varieties has any value; that one is the "Pink," which is a brilliant color on a bluish background. It is very scarce. I have looked over tens of thousands of this stamp, and never found a copy of the true "Pink."

PHILATUS.

Some persons insist on having the costliest of everything. They do not buy Ivory Soap. Those who want the best do.

THE PROCTER & GAMBLE CO., CIN'TI.

THE

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CARDS

The FINEST SAMPLE BOOK of Gold Beveled Edge, Hidden Name, Silk Fringe, Envelope and Calling Cards offered for a 2 cent stamp. These are GENUINE CARDS, NOT TRASH. UNION CARD CO., COLUMBUS, OHIO.

SOME POPULAR BOOKS

"HARPER'S ROUND TABLE" FOR 1895