CHAPTER XXX.

JALAP AND THE DOGS SING A LULLABY.

"Harpooned a moose!" cried Phil and Serge together; for they had by this time discovered the nature of the sailor's "big deer." "And where did you get the harpoon?" asked the former.

"Found it, leaning agin a tree while I were out after firewood," replied Jalap Coombs, at the same time producing and proudly exhibiting a heavy A-yan spear, such as were formerly used by the natives of the Pelly River valley. "It were a trifle rusty, and a trifle light in the butt," he added, "but it come in mighty handy when it were most needed, and for an old whaler it are not a bad sort of a weepon. I'm free to say, though, that I might have had hard luck in tackling the beast with it ef he hadn't been already wounded. I didn't know it till after he were dead, but when I come to cut him up, I saw where he'd been bleeding pretty free, and then I found this bullet in his innards. Still, I don't reckin you'd have called him a mouse, nor yet a rat, if ye'd seed him like I did under full sail, with horns set wing and wing, showing the speed of a fifty-ton schooner. If I hadn't had the harpoon I'd left him severely alone; but I allowed that a weepon as were good enough for a whale would do for a deer, even ef he were bigger than the sun."

"It's a rifle-bullet, calibre forty-four," said Phil, who was examining the bit of lead that Jalap Coombs had taken from his "big deer." "I wonder if it can be possible that he is the same moose I wounded, and without whose lead I should never have found Cree Jim's cabin. It seems incredible that he should have come right back to camp to be killed, though I suppose it is possible. Certainly good fortune, or good luck, does seem to be pretty steadily on our side, and without the aid of the fur-seal's tooth either," he added, with a sly glance at Serge.

As soon as breakfast was finished, Phil and Serge slipped away, taking a sledge, to which was lashed a couple of axes, with them. They were going back to bury the parents of the child, who was so happily oblivious of their errand that he did not even take note of their departure.

The lads had no idea of how they should accomplish their sorrowful task. Even with proper tools they knew it would be impossible to dig a grave in the frozen ground, and as they had only axes with which to work, this plan was dismissed without discussion.

They had not settled on any plan when they rounded the last bend of the little stream and gained a point from which the cabin should have been visible. Then they saw at a glance that the task they had been dreading had been accomplished without their aid. There was no cabin, but a cloud of smoke rising from its site, as from an altar, gave ample evidence of its fate. A blazing log from the fire Phil left in its hearth must have rolled out on to the floor directly after his departure. Now only a heap of ashes and glowing embers remained to mark Nel-te's home.

"It is best so," said Phil, as the two lads stood beside the smouldering ruins of what had been a home and was now become a sepulchre. "And oh, Serge! think what might have been the child's fate if I had left him behind, as I at first intended. Poor little chap! I realize now, as never before, how completely his past is wiped out and how entirely his future lies in our hands. It is a trust that came without our seeking, but I accepted it; and now beside his mother's ashes I swear to be true to the promise I gave her."

"Amen!" said Serge, softly.

They planted a rude wooden cross, the face of which was chipped to a gleaming whiteness, close in front of the smouldering heap, and near it Serge fastened a streamer of white cloth to the tip of a tall young spruce. Cutting off the limbs as he descended, he left it a slender pole, and thus provided the native symbol of a place of burial.

As they approached the camp they were astonished to hear Jalap Coombs singing in bellowing tones the rollicking old sea chant of "Roll a Man Down!"

"A flying-fish-catcher from old Hong-Kong-- Yo ho! roll a man down-- A flying-fish-catcher comes bowling along; Give us some time to roll a man down, Roll a man up and roll a man down, Give us some time to roll a man down. From labbord to stabbord away we go-- Yo ho! roll a man down."

Jalap's voice was not musical, but it possessed a mighty volume, and as the quaint sea chorus roared and echoed through the stately forest, the very trees appeared to be listening in silent wonder to the unaccustomed sounds. Even Musky, Luvtuk, big Amook, and the other dogs seemed by their dismal howlings to be expressing either appreciation or disapprobation of the sailor-man's efforts.

The performers in this open-air concert were too deeply intent on their own affairs to pay any heed to the approach of the returning sledge party, who were thus enabled to come within full view of a most extraordinary scene unnoticed. Just beyond the camp, in a semicircle, facing the fire, a dozen dogs, resting on their haunches, lifted both their voices and sharp-pointed noses to the sky. On the opposite side of the fire sat Jalap Coombs holding Nel-te in his arms, rocking him to and fro in time to the chorus that he was pouring forth with the full power of his lungs, and utterly oblivious to everything save his own unusual occupation of putting a baby to sleep.

"Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho!" roared Phil and Serge, unable to restrain their mirth a moment longer. "Oh my! Oh my! Oh, Mr. Coombs, you'll be the death of me yet! What ever are you doing? Didn't know you could sing! What a capital nurse you make! What a soft voice for lullabies! The dogs, too! Oh dear! I shall laugh at the thought of this if I live to be a hundred! Don't mind us, though. Keep right on. Please do!"

But the concert was ended. Jalap Coombs sprang to his feet with a startled yell, and dropped the child, who screamed with the fright of his sudden awakening. The dogs, whose harmonious howlings were so abruptly interrupted, slunk away with tails between their legs, and hid themselves in deepest shadows.

"There, there, little chap. Don't be frightened," cried Phil, darting forward and picking up the child, though still shaking with laughter. "It's all right now. Brother Phil will protect you, and not let the big man frighten you any more."

"I frighten him indeed!" retorted Jalap Coombs, indignantly. "He was sleeping quiet and peaceful as a seal pup; and I were just humming a bit of a ditty that useter be sung to me when I were a kid, so's he'd have something pleasant to dream about. Then you young swabs had to come creeping up and yell like a couple of wild hoodoos, and set the dogs to howling and scare the kid, to say nothing of me, which ef I had ye aboard ship I'd masthead ye both till ye larnt manners. Oh, ye may snicker! But I have my opinion all the same of any man as'll wake a sleeping child, specially when he's wore out with crying, all on account of being desarted. And I'm not the only one nuther. There was old Kite Roberson who useter clap a muzzle onto his wife's canary whenever she'd get the kids to sleep, for fear the critter'd bust inter singing. But it's all right. You will know how it is yourselves some day."

Phil, seeing that, for the first time since he had known him, the mate was thoroughly indignant, set out to smooth his ruffled feelings.

"Why, Mr. Coombs," he said, "we didn't mean to startle you, but those wretched dogs kept up such a howling that we couldn't make ourselves heard as we neared camp. I'm sure I don't see how you could think we were laughing at you. It was those absurd dogs, and you'd have laughed yourself if you'd looked up and seen them. I'm sure it was awfully good of you to take so much trouble over this little fellow, and put him so nicely to sleep with your sing-- I mean with your humming, though I assure you we didn't hear a hum."

"Waal," replied Jalap Coombs, greatly mollified by Phil's attitude. "I warn't humming very loud, not nigh _so_ loud as I had been at fust. Ye see, I were kinder tapering off so as to lay the kid down, and begin to get supper 'gainst you kim back."

"Yes, I see," said Phil, almost choking with suppressed laughter. "But how did it happen that you were compelled to act as nurse? The little chap seemed happy enough when we went away."

"So he were, till he found you was gone. Then he begun to pipe his eye and set storm signals, and directly it come on to blow a hurricane with heavy squalls. So I had to stand by. Fust off I thought the masts would surely go; but I took a reef here and there, and kinder got things snugged down, till after a whilt the sky broke, the sun kim out, and fair weather sot in once more."

"Well," said Phil, admiringly, "you certainly acted with the judgment of an A No. 1 seaman, and I don't believe even your esteemed friend Captain Robinson could have done better. We shall call on you whenever our little pilot gets into troubled waters again, and feel that we are placing him in the best possible hands."

At which praise Jalap Coombs was greatly pleased, and said as how he'd be proud at all times to stand by the kid. Thus on the same day that little Nel-te McLeod lost his parents he found a brother and two stanch friends.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

UNCLE SAM AS A STAMP-MAKER.

BY FRANCES BENJAMIN JOHNSTON.

"Here, boys, is a piece of legislation which will add a new series of stamps to your collections," said Mr. Copeland, as he glanced up from his morning paper. "The bill transferring the printing of stamps to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has just become a law, and hereafter Uncle Sam will manufacture his own stamps, as well as his own paper money."

"Why, father, if they make them here, we can see just how it's done!" exclaimed Donald, the eldest of the Copeland boys, who, with his brothers Jack and Ezra, was now experiencing the severest stage of the "stamp fever."

"Huh!" grunted the latter--nicknamed "The Parson," from his old-fashioned ways and a solemn assumption of wisdom. "Perhaps they'll not let you know anything at all about it. Bobby Simonds told me that the big company in New York that has always made 'em is awful particular about letting people see their machinery and things; and Bobby ought to know 'cause his uncle's an engraver there."

"Are they going to make all the stamps here in Washington?" broke in May, the baby of the family. "That'll be nice for you boys,'cause you can get 'em cheaper at the factory, can't you?"

"That's just like a girl," laughed Jack. "Anybody would think they were going to sell stamps by the yard."

"Well, my boy," said Mr. Copeland, "your sister is right, in a sense, as under this act the Post-office Department will buy its stamps wholesale from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, at a nominal price per thousand, without reference to their face value. I think you also are mistaken, Parson, as the public will doubtless be as free to inspect the manufacture of stamps as they now are to see the process of bank-note-making. When the stamp-printing plant is established, there should be a great deal in it to interest you youngsters. What do you say to a tour of investigation some Saturday?"

Their father's suggestion delighted the children, who waited eagerly for the fulfilment of the promise.

This came on a bright October morning, when the little party climbed the hill beyond the towering Washington Monument, and reached the grim brick building which is known as the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Here they were shown into a small reception-room, and kept waiting, with a throng of other sight-seers, until a card from the chief procured for them a special guide through the building. As she led them through a long corridor, this lady explained something of the complete and ingenious system which is in force here to prevent fraud or loss to the government. No visitor is permitted inside the building without one of the guides especially detailed for this service, while the work of each of the hundreds of employe's is so carefully checked and recorded that even the most insignificant error is readily traceable. Ink, paper, the engravers' dies, the printers' plates, are all given out on properly signed receipts, and until all are accounted for, even to the tiniest scrap of paper, the employes who have handled them are not permitted to leave the building; so that only by a widespread plot could all these safeguards be successfully eluded.

The little party was now shown into a very long room, at one end of which was ranged a row of compartments like sentry-boxes. In each of these sat a silent engraver, bent over the small square of steel upon which he was cutting some part of the design for paper money or stamps. The plates from which the stamps were formerly printed are the property of the government, so that the old designs, with a slight modification, are still in use. This modification consists of a trefoil mark placed in the upper corner of the new stamps, which will serve to distinguish them from the old issues printed by the American Bank-note Company. The work of the engravers is necessarily so painstaking and slow that the original dies are considered too expensive to use in the printing-presses. Thus, after the engraver has completed a die, it is subjected to a hardening process, and the design multiplied indefinitely upon soft steel plates by what is known as the transfer-press. The children were shown a long row of these presses, as well as the great vaults where all the designs, dies, and plates are locked up after the day's work. From the silence of the engravers' department they were led into the din and clatter of the press-room below. Here they found the new steam-presses as well as old-fashioned hand-presses in operation, and were able to see every detail of the actual printing of stamps.

The hand-presses are worked by a plate-printer and one assistant, the printer first inking and polishing the engraved plate over a series of small gas-jets, after which it is placed on the press. His assistant now lays a dampened sheet of paper upon the plate, the printer gives the press a turn, and a sheet of bright new stamps is drawn out at the other side. This work is done quickly and accurately, but it is a very slow process compared with that of the steam-presses, which turn out sheets of four hundred stamps each at the rate of one hundred thousand stamps an hour. The steam-presses carry four plates on an endless chain around the sides of a large square, in the circuit of which the plates are automatically heated to the proper temperature, inked, wiped off, and printed. The blank paper is laid on the plates by one assistant, while a second helper takes out the printed sheet. The printer in charge of the press has the most difficult part of the work, which consists in polishing the plate with his bare palms after it has been mechanically inked. This must be done so delicately as to leave neither too much nor too little ink upon the plate, but only _just enough_ to give a clean, fine impression.

The presses clattered and clanked, and the children watched with breathless interest while a great stack of the dampened paper disappeared rapidly, sheet by sheet, through the press, reappearing again to be stacked in a second neat pile in the form of thousands upon thousands of new red two-cent stamps.

Besides the ordinary issues, the young investigators were much interested in seeing the printing of revenue stamps, of the long-strip stamps for cigar-boxes, and other tobacco stamps, and particularly the new two-cent stamps for playing-cards.

Having watched to their entire satisfaction the various movements of the great presses, the children began to feel that the object of their visit had been realized, and that there was nothing more to see. They were therefore somewhat surprised to learn that the _printing_ of the stamps is merely the beginning of the work upon them, and that a number of very important things must happen to these small squares of red, blue, brown, and purple before they are ready to be sold through the little window in the post-office. After they are printed the sheets must be dried and pressed out, gummed, dried and pressed again, the sheets perforated and cut apart, trimmed, and, in addition, carefully counted before and after each of these operations.

In the early days of postage-stamps, and for several years after they first came into use, two serious difficulties presented themselves--_i.e._, the gumming and separating of the stamps. For a time a thick muddy mucilage was used, which curled up the sheets in a very inconvenient way. Then, again, before the ingenious device of perforation was hit upon, it was necessary to cut the stamps apart with a pair of scissors. Imagine a post-master in these busy days supplying his customers by the scissors method!

Fortunately a clever Frenchman conceived the plan of punching a series of small holes between the stamps, and his invention was promptly introduced into this country. The children were now eager to see the finishing processes of stamp-making, and so followed their guide into a large room, where they were greeted by a rush of warm air. Here their guide showed them the method of gumming the stamps and the curious apparatus used for the purpose. Along the entire length of the room, with a narrow passage between, are ranged a series of wooden boxes, quite sixty feet in length. These are heated by steam, and through each box passes a sort of double endless chain. The sheets are fed, face down, into this queer machine, and passed under a roller, which allows the escape of just enough gum to coat the sheet thinly and evenly. The sheet is now caught on the endless chain by two automatic clamps, and carried into the long hot-box. It takes only a few moments for the journey through, but the sheets appear at the other end perfectly dried, and ready to be trimmed and perforated.

As the method of gumming stamps used by the various bank-note companies has been a carefully guarded and secret process, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has been forced to invent its own machine for this purpose. The sheets are gummed at the rate of about eighteen a minute, which is certainly a vast improvement over the old method of putting on the gum by hand with a brush.

When the children were weary of watching the funny little brass fingers move along and hurry the sheets off into the hot-box, they turned to a corner where a workman was busy over a series of vats and buckets mixing the gum, which looked very clean and nice, and is made of dextrine, a vegetable product. The guide now showed them how the gummed sheets are pressed smooth for perforation, and then led them into a room where a score or more of odd little machines were in swift operation. Each machine is tended by two workwomen, most of whom wear fantastic caps of paper to shade their eyes, as the sheets must be fed into the machines with absolute accuracy in order that the perforations shall come in the right place. Each sheet has register lines printed in the margin, which must be adjusted exactly under a black thread fastened across the feeding-table. A quick whir of the wheels puts a neat line of pin-holes lengthwise between the stamps, cutting the sheet in half at the same time. The next machine perforates the sheet crosswise, and again cuts it in two, so that the sheets are now divided up into the regulation size of one hundred stamps each.

The children thought the minute disks of paper punched out by the perforators too insignificant to be considered, and were accordingly much surprised to learn that the sheets again have to be smoothed out, under great pressure, to reduce their bulk and remove the "burr" caused by the perforation.

After inspecting the final process of making up the stamps into packages, to be mailed to the postmasters all over the country, the children were taken by their father to the office of the chief of the bureau. Here they received a cordial welcome, and learned many interesting and curious details about stamps and stamp-making. About 3,000,000,000 stamps are annually furnished the Post-office Department by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, at the rate of five cents a thousand. Ninety per cent. of these are the two-cent stamps, and according to the last Post-office report the revenue from the sale of stamps is a little over $6,000,000 a month.

"By-the-way," observed the chief, "you young people should be very much interested in the Report of the Third Assistant Postmaster-General for 1893, which contains a carefully prepared and elaborately descriptive list of every stamp and postal card issued by the United States government. It must seem hard to you stamp collectors that the most beautiful stamps issued--the newspaper and periodical stamps--are not permitted to be sold to the public. One of the chief reasons for this is that the values of these small squares of paper run up to such high figures, viz., $24, $36, $48, and $60, that they would offer a great field in counterfeiters if generally circulated. There are some queer denominations among these stamps, notably the $1.92 stamp, which is about to be discontinued, and some very pretty colors. That reminds me--did they show you our ink-mills in your tour of inspection?"

Mr. Copeland explained that they had not seen the mills, so the children had the pleasure of being escorted by the chief himself into the grimy region which is seldom penetrated by the public. Here they saw the colors ground and mixed in small mills, from which the workmen--smeared from top to toe in a rainbow of colors--gathered the thick greasy ink by the bucketful. About one hundred thousand pounds of dry color is used annually for the two-cent stamps alone, the color being mixed with an equal quantity of burnt linseed oil, making two hundred thousand pounds of ink. Of course a large percentage of this color is lost in inking and polishing the plate.

The tour was now ended, and leaving the oily little wheels to their ceaseless grinding, the children, with a grateful good-by to their new friend, went home with their young heads full of the interesting things they had seen in Uncle Sam's stamp factory.

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.

Girls who are terrified by thunder and lightning lose a great deal of enjoyment during the summer, when we have storms as well as sunshine. It may not be quite possible for every one to help being afraid when the sky is black with clouds and the lightning's flash, but it _is_ within the power of most people to control the expression of fright. Once or twice having resolutely refrained from showing your terror, you will be surprised and pleased to find the terror itself lessening.

I know persons who go through life in a sort of bondage to fear of various kinds. They tremble and turn pale, or grow hysterical and cry, when the dark clouds gather and the thunders roll. There is a pretty German hymn which begins,

"It thunders, but I tremble not, My trust is firm in God, His arm of strength I've ever sought Through all the way I've trod."

I advise all of you who need the advice to remember that God rules in the heavens, and His hand sends the storms. Trust in God when you are afraid--really _trust_, and you will grow calm and be happy. Another grain of comfort may be found in the fact that when you see the bright zig-zagging flash and hear the rumbling thunder, the danger for you is over. You will never see or hear the electric current which hurts or kills. It is far too swift to wait and warn you in that way.

Many of us have some pet aversion, which goes far to make us cowards in one direction, even if in other conditions and situations we are brave. I have seen women almost faint at the sight of a poor little scurrying mouse, and have heard others scream at a bat or a beetle. I confess to a very great dislike on my own part to things with wings and with stings, especially those which fly in at the window when the lamp is lighted, and buzz and fizz and snap and pounce and bounce. But I would be ashamed of myself if I could not keep from shrieking in the presence of these innocent little marauders. Depend upon it, girls, we _can_ display a cool front and wear a brave face if we choose to do so, let what happen. It is all a question of will.

Numbers of travellers never get the full meed of pleasure when on a journey because they carry too great a load of care. They fancy that this or that will happen. They are distressed because of accidents which may possibly occur. They make the friends with them uncomfortable because they suggest dreadfully unpleasant catastrophes as just around the corner. When you think of it, this behavior is both stupid and silly. Trains and boats are in the hands, as a rule, of competent and responsible persons, who wish to take their passengers and freight safe to the journey's end. You, being neither captain, nor engineer, nor conductor, are called upon to feel no concern in the matter.

I wish I could impress on every young girl the beauty and dignity of simple, quiet courage. Not recklessness, nor indifference to danger, but a gentle acceptance of every situation, and a rising above fear. Fear is the feeling of a slave. It fetters one's mind, and makes one's body clumsy and awkward. The Bible says, "Fear hath torment." It is usually ignoble, not the appropriate sentiment for bright, capable, kind-hearted, and winning girls like you. Resolve to put fear under your feet, and walk through the world with hearts superior to it in its every form and phase.

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.

One of the first requisites of any science is to know its terms. Stamp-collecting is now not only a hobby, but an exact science as well.

Formerly little note was taken of the condition of stamps, but to-day the smallest details are important. You have doubtless noticed that almost all stamps issued during the past thirty years have "scalloped" edges. These are perforations made to enable persons using stamps to detach one or more without using scissors. Previous to 1856 all stamps were printed on sheets of paper, and had to be cut off one by one with a knife or scissors. These are known as "unperforated." Many experiments were made to do away with the necessity of using scissors, and we illustrate the different methods used. Gradually all nations have adopted the "regular" perforations, which consist of a series of holes punched out along all four edges of each stamp. Now this difference between perforated and unperforated stamps makes not a little difference in the prices asked. For instance, the 24c. U.S. of 1851 unperforated would be cheap at $100, whereas the same stamp perforated is worth $2.50 only. The Victoria twopenny of 1867 is worth $1.50 perforated, while $25 is asked for the unperforated. So none of the ROUND TABLE collectors should trim the edges of any stamps they may have. Next week we will illustrate the scale of regular perforations.

The so-called _error_ of the 5c. red-brown U.S. 1890 issue in the color of the 4c. dark brown has been demonstrated to be a _changeling_, by a very simple chemical test. The dealer who offered these stamps for sale at $30 each has notified the thirty-seven people who bought copies at that price that their money will be returned on demand.

I would advise all collectors to keep all the different shades of the U.S. stamps which they get at little or no expense, but to avoid paying any extra for shades of current or late stamps.

A PENROSE SCULL.--The common stamps of the U.S. are worth about $50 to $100 per million if in good condition. The 10c. brown is quoted at 10c.

BUCKSKIN.--This is not the place to quote arguments in favor of stamp-collecting. Most boys, and many men, find great pleasure in this pursuit. Ask one of them to tell you of its pleasures.

H. W.--There are two varieties of Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph stamps. One is worth $2 each, the regular perforated are worth 65c. per set.

ARTHUR L. EVANS.--The 10c. green is worth 6c. The 6c. and 8c. Columbians can still be bought at face in many post-offices.

PHILATUS.

SCHOOL-BOY'S SONG OF THE SCHOOL WEEK.

On Monday black, at four o'clock, The key is turned in the school-room lock, And I've given old Time a terrible knock, For the head of the Week is broken.

At four of a Tuesday afternoon, The hour that cometh none too soon, I strap my books to a merry tune, For the neck of the Week is broken.

As the four glad strokes on Wednesday ring, My cap in the air I gayly fling, And homeward run as I loudly sing, "The grip of the Week is broken."

Ah, welcome the sound of the Thursday's four, And the joyous thought of "but one day more That opens and shuts the school-room door," For the back of the Week is broken.

But sweeter than story in prose or rhyme The musical notes of the Friday chime, For the Week lies dead in the arms of Time, And the school-boy's chains are broken.

L. H. BRUCE.

KING ARTHUR AND HIS KNIGHTS.

II.--THE SWORD.

"Now while the lords and their followers were gathered in the great church," the Story-teller said, as Jack and Mollie began to show some curiosity as to what this miracle for which Merlin hoped might be, "there was discovered in the church-yard near the altar a great black stone, about four feet square, on the middle of which stood a steel anvil a foot in height. Thrust into this, with its shining point visible, was a beautiful sword, and about it, written in letters of gold, were these words:

"'WHOSO PULLETH OUT THIS SWORD OF THIS STONE AND ANVIL IS RIGHTWISE KING BORN OF ENGLAND.'"

"Who put it there?" asked Jack.

"I don't know," said the Story-teller. "It was there, and that is all I know about it, and the people when they saw it were full of wonder, and marvelled greatly to read the words written about it. I imagine, however, that Merlin and the Archbishop had something to do with it, for when the people went into the church, and told the Archbishop what they had seen, he did not appear to be at all surprised, but commanded all to remain within the church and not to touch the sword until the service was over. The people and the gathered knights and all their followers obeyed the Archbishop's command, for they did not dare do otherwise; but, when the service was over, they all rushed out into the church-yard to see the stone and the anvil, with the wonderful sword stuck into it. And then, when the lords had read the golden inscription upon the stone, each made an effort to pull the sword out of its anvil-sheath, but not one of them could do it. They pulled and tugged and pulled and tugged, but it was all in vain. They neither broke nor budged it, and the Archbishop of Canterbury said it was evident that none of those present could claim to be the rightful King. He added that he believed that the right one would yet be discovered, and suggested that ten of the best knights of the land should be made a guard of honor to watch over the sword until New-Year's day, when any one who wished might come and in the presence of all make the effort to pull it from the anvil. This was agreed to, and it was decided to have a great tournament upon the coming New-Year's day, after which the trial should be made. This kept the knights and their followers in London, for it was important that all should be present at the trial, success in which meant so much, not only to the successful man, but to the whole kingdom as well."

"Didn't Merlin try to pull it out?" asked Mollie. "If he put it in, I should think he could have pulled it out, and then he could have been King himself."

"Possibly; but I imagine he didn't want to be King, for one thing, and, for another, he had been too good a friend to Arthur, and to Uther, his father, to wish to betray them. The Chronicles do not say whether he tried it or not, but if he did, he failed; and so the week between Christmas and New-Year's went by without any one's having moved the sword; and the lords made their preparations for the tournament, and many of them, I have no doubt, spent a great deal of their time getting their muscle up in the hope of winning the crown.

"On the New-Year's day all again assembled in the church, and, after the service, proceeded to the field where the tournament was to take place. Sir Ector, followed by his son, Sir Kaye, who had himself been made a knight, and Arthur, rode with them, when it was discovered that Sir Kaye had left his sword behind him at his father's lodging. Summoning Arthur, he requested him to return to the house and get it for him. This Arthur readily consented to do, for he was fond of Kaye, whom, as we have already seen, he supposed to be his own brother. Turning his horse about, he rode full speed back to the lodgings; but when he arrived there he found every one had gone to the tournament, and he could not find his foster-brother's sword. For a moment he was perplexed. He knew it would never do for Sir Kaye to be found at a tournament without his sword, for the sword was the sign of his knighthood, and a knight who had lost it would have been considered unworthy of the honor which had been bestowed upon him. Suddenly Arthur bethought him of the sword in the anvil, and without much hope that he should succeed where so many others had failed, he resolved to make the effort to loosen it anyhow, and in case of success to carry it to Sir Kaye.

"So he rode to the church-yard, and found it as deserted as Sir Ector's lodgings had been. The ten knights who had been left to guard the sword, like every one else in London, had gone to the tournament. Dismounting from his horse, Arthur strode into the yard, and grasping the handle of the sword as firmly as he could, pulled at it fiercely, when, to his surprise and delight, it came out of the anvil. Without stopping to think of all that this meant for him, he remounted his steed, and rode hastily back to Sir Kaye, to whom he handed the weapon.

"The instant Sir Kaye looked at it he knew it to be the sword of the stone, and putting his spurs to his horse, he dashed to where his father stood, and, showing him the glittering blade, told him that it was the sword of the stone, and said,

"'I must be King of this land!'

"But Sir Ector was cautious, so he questioned Kaye closely as to how he had come by the weapon, and he made him go with him and Arthur back to the church and swear to what he said; and Sir Kaye told him the whole story--how he had left his own sword at home and had sent Arthur back for it; how Arthur had gone there, and not finding any one, had bethought him of the sword in the anvil, and had taken it, though no one had witnessed the act."

"Whereupon Sir Ector made Arthur return the sword to the anvil, and himself tried to pull it out, but it would not come; and then he made Sir Kaye try it, and still it would not come; and then bidding Arthur make an effort, the boy did so, and it came out easily, at which both Sir Kaye and his father knelt before Arthur, and hailed him as the man who should be rightful King of England."

With the New England Interscholastic games next Saturday the season of track and field athletics--as far as school leagues are concerned--will practically come to a close. The season has been a most successful one. Records have been broken on every hand, even in events where it was supposed that many a year must go by before that performance could be bettered. This excellent showing is the natural result of the hard training and constant energy of the hundreds of runners and jumpers in the schools; and the ever-increasing number of contestants all over the country proves that track and field sports have secured a firm foothold, and now deserve to be recognized as equal in importance to both football and baseball. In the vicinity of New York, at least, there are fully twice as many who indulge in track athletics as there are baseball and football players. In other regions I think the proportions are more nearly equal. The growth of these sports has been very rapid. In almost every centre there is an Interscholastic Association or League, and the daily newspapers, not only of the East but of the West, have been printing reports of scholastic meets for the past two months. The work of the school athletes has decidedly become a factor in amateur sport. In some of the school leagues there are better men than the colleges can boast of.

The annual meeting of the Inter-collegiate Athletic Association at the Berkeley Oval, usually characterized as the "Mott Haven games," because they were first held at Mott Haven, brings together the best college athletic talent from all parts of this broad country. This year a team from the University of California travelled three thousand miles overland to contest for the championship on that day. Besides them, an unknown runner with a rapid gait and a queer cap came out of the West, and left the crack sprinters of the East straining and striving behind him, while he, with a broad smile, pocketed two gold medals, and carried them back to Iowa. I don't believe there was ever any better sport at Olympia, and if the colleges can be so successful in these things, and can draw men to compete at these games from every point of the compass, why should not the schools follow their example, and form one great Interscholastic Association, and have a big meeting once a year? There is no reason why they should not. I can think of hardly a single obstacle in the way of the formation of such a league. All that is needed is that some energetic individual or individuals, or some enthusiastic and sporting spirited Athletic Association take the matter in hand and put it through. Once started, the routine of organization would roll along as if on wheels.

It is not necessary that every school in the country should be asked to join at the outset. On the contrary, I would suggest that the greater Association under discussion be made up of the various I.S.A.A.'s now existing, and that the big annual games be a contest among the winners of the annual games of the individual associations. This scheme commends itself, because only the best men from every locality could compete at the meeting, and the number of entries could in that manner be limited. We have all had experience with a superfluity of contestants, and we know what interminable trial heats mean. If the movement to form a general Interscholastic Association should be started in New York, there would be no lack of leagues already in good standing to call upon for membership. There are the New York and the Long Island I.S.A.A.'s right here. Near by we have the New England I.S.A.A., the Western Massachusetts I.S.A.A., the Maine I.S.A.A., the Connecticut I.S.A.A., the Pennsylvania Inter-academic A.A., the Dartmouth I.S.A.A., and the New York State I.S.A.A. of Syracuse. In addition to these there are many others that I need not mention here. A large and influential league in the West is the Academic Athletic League of the Pacific Coast, of whose prowess on track and field I have had occasion to speak of many times in this Department.

Of course, one of the first questions that would arise upon the organization of such an Interscholastic Association would be, Where shall the annual meeting be held? The answer to that is simply, hold it where it will be most convenient for the greatest number of schools interested. It would not be advisable to hold the meeting in a different city each year, for the Portland and Bangor athletes would not care to journey to Philadelphia, neither would the Pennsylvanians care to travel up into Maine. New York is a central location, but in many respects it would be a poor place for a meeting of the kind under consideration. The ideal spot, to my mind, would be New Haven. This for two reasons principally. It is half-way between Boston and Philadelphia, which are the centres of the New England and Pennsylvania districts; and it is also about equally distant from New York and Hartford, which are the homes of the N.Y. & L.I.I.S.A.A's, and the Connecticut I.S.A.A. The second good reason is that Yale University is situated at New Haven, and I have no doubt that the authorities of college athletics there would only be too happy to offer the use of the Yale field, and to do considerable work toward the management of the games.

Even if the college men felt that they could not devote their time to the management of an Interscholastic meeting--which I greatly doubt, for it would be to their interest to do so--there are three large schools in New Haven, members of the Connecticut I.S.A.A., which would certainly see that business committees were appointed, and competent men set to work for the successful carrying out of the enterprise. But I believe the athletic authorities of Yale would be so glad of the opportunity to help and assist the school athletes that they would even go so far as to offer a cup to be contested for.

But I have run a little ahead of my subject. What we are all most interested in now is the first step; the rest can easily be arranged afterward. It is too late to think of holding a general Interscholastic meeting this spring, but it is none too early to begin to think of holding one next year. Preparations for such an important event require much time. If there is anything that HARPER'S ROUND TABLE can do to further the success of the plan, or if there is any work that I can perform in my small way toward the carrying out of any idea that may be formulated, it shall be done. I hope these few words on the subject will appeal to the athletes of the schools, and I shall be only too glad to hear from them, and, if possible, to give space to their suggestions.

PENNSYLVANIA I.A.L. GAMES, FRANKLIN FIELD, PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 1, 1895.

Event. Winner--5 points. Performance.

100-yard dash Jones, P.C. 10-4/5 sec. 120-yard hurdle Branson, P.C. 18-3/5 " Half-mile run Gage, H. 2 m. 17-1/2 " Mile bicycle Whetstone, De L. 3 " 7 " 440-yard run Jones, P.C. 58-2/5 " 220-yard hurdle Branson, P.C. 29-4/5 " 220-yard dash Jones, P.C. 24-3/5 " Mile run Thackara, G. 5 " 23 " Half-mile walk Lippincott, De L. 4 " 5 " Running high jump Rorer, P.C. 5 ft. 2-1/2 in. Running broad jump Branson.P.C. 19 " 7 " Putting shot Watts, C. 33 " 4-1/2 " Standing broad jump Flavell, G. 9 " 7 " Pole-vault Hanson, P.C. 9 " 2-1/2 "

Event. 2d--3 points. 3rd--1 point.

100-yard dash Hunsberger, P.C. Bailey, P.C. 120-yard hurdle Coit, C. Remington, De L. Half-mile run Thackara, G. Farr, De L. Mile bicycle Lagen, De L. Beverlin, De L. 440-yard run Lambertson, C. McCarty, G. 220-yard hurdle Rorer, P.C. Coit, G. 220-yard dash Hunsberger, P.C. Beasley, G. Mile run Guernsey, P.C. Gage, H. Half-mile run Shearer, P.C. Sutton, H. Running high jump Newhold, De L. Remington, De L. Running broad jump Rorer, P.C. Johnson, G. Putting shot Farr, De L. Sayen, H. Standing broad jump Branson, P.C. Rorer, P.C. Pole-vault Rorer, P.C. { Flavell, G. { Branson, P.C.

Points Made.

Penn Charter 67-1/2 De Lancey 23 Germantown 17-1/2 Cheltenham 9 Haverford 10 Adelphi 0 Episcopal 0 --- Total 126

NOTE.--P.C., Penn Charter School; G., Germantown Academy; De L., De Lancey School; C., Cheltenham Military Academy; H., Haverford Grammar School; E., Episcopal Academy.

The unusual heat of ten days ago interfered mightily with the success of the Pennsylvania schools' field-day on Franklin Field a week ago Saturday. With the thermometer at 95 deg., and the officials so overcome with heat that half of them did not turn up, it is not to be wondered at that but two records were broken. The only men who seem to have remained unaffected by the temperature, were Jones and Branson of the Penn Charter School, the former taking first in the 100, 220, and 440, and the latter winning three firsts, one second, and two thirds--a total of twenty points. Rorer, also of Penn Charter, came pretty close to his schoolmates by taking one first, three seconds, and one third. All three leave school this year. The meeting was, therefore, a perfect walk-over for P.C., as the score by points clearly shows, and at no time of the afternoon was there much enthusiasm displayed. It began to rain just before the field events were contested, and when the heavy shower ceased the field was in no condition for jumping or pole-vaulting. This accounts for the poor performances in those events.

Jones ran the final heat of the 100 in 10-4/5 sec., winning easily, and came home twenty yards ahead of his second man in the quarter. He was not pressed in the 220 either, and made the poor time of 24-3/5 sec. The half-mile was one of the most interesting races of the day. The first three men kept well bunched all the way around, and Gage made a good spurt at the finish. Branson won both the high hurdles and the low hurdles with comparative ease, most of his opponents appearing fagged out. In the bicycle race, which occurred after the shower, a bad collision, in which one man was seriously hurt, knocked out three contestants and spoiled the event. In the mile, Guernsey, P.C., started a spurt within 220 yards of the tape, and earned a lead of thirty yards, but Thackara of Germantown showed better judgment by waiting until he reached the 100-yard mark, when he forged ahead and won. The half-mile walk was very close, the judges being unable to decide the first three places for some time. They finally made the award in the order given in the table. The records broken were in the shot event by Watts, who put the ball 3-1/2 inches beyond the I.A.L. record of 33 ft. 1 in., and in the pole-vault. The latter was broken by four men. Hanson and Rorer tied for first, and as neither could better his jump, they tossed for first place, with the luck in favor of Hanson. Branson, P.C., got third place.

In strong contrast to the ease of Penn Charter's victory on Franklin Field was the sharp and exciting contest between the Bangor and Portland High-Schools at the Maine I.S.A.A. meeting in Maplewood Park, Bangor, the same afternoon. The result was a tie, each school scoring 37-1/2 points, and out of fifteen records on the programme eleven were broken. Some of the best performances were Somers's jump of 21 ft. 5 in. in the broad; Perry's pole-vault of 9 ft. 3 in.; and the winning of the low hurdles by Edwards in 28 seconds. The most exciting period of the day was toward the close of the meeting, when Portland High was 10 points ahead of Bangor High, and only the hammer and standing high jump to be decided. Portland felt almost sure of victory, but Godfrey and Connors of Bangor went in and took the first two places in the hammer, with Wakefield of Thornton third, thus shutting Portland out from winning any points in that event. Not only this, but Godfrey broke the record by more than eight feet. Then he answered to the call for the standing high jump, clearing 4 ft. 7 in. at his first trial, and there tieing Jordan of Portland. Both men tried to do better, but were unable to, and third place again went to Thornton with Hidgdon. The tie will make the record of victories count one year for each school in the holding of the cup now in the custody of Bangor.

Of the eleven point-winners from the Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, at the Long Island Interscholastic Games on May 11th, six will return to school next year. These are Gunnison, who took three firsts in the championship games, Mooler, Beasley, Topping, and both Forneys. Of the others, Simpson expects to enter West Point, Opp will go to the Columbia Law School, while Munson, Romer, and Jewell will go into business. The last-named will be the greatest loss to the team, as he made almost as good a showing at Eastern Park as Gunnison. Nevertheless, there is plenty of good material left in the school, and with the nucleus that remains Adelphi ought to be able to build up another champion team.

The Interscholastic Games of the New England Association, which are to be held on Holmes Field, Cambridge, next Saturday, will bring together a larger number of contestants than have appeared at any interscholastic event this season. The New England I.S.A.A. includes about thirty schools, and more than twenty will send representatives to strive for the cup. While it is not so very difficult to guess the probable winners of first place in the principal events on the card, the general result of the day is by no means a certainty, for the smaller schools always manage to send one or two "dark horses" who upset the closest calculations of the best judges. Nevertheless, the championship probably rests with the Worcester High-School, or the Boston English High-School, or the Phillips Academy, Andover. The W.H.-S. team won the in-door meeting last March by scoring 19 points, and most of the winners of that day will compete on Holmes Field this week. Andover did not send a full team to the in-door games, and the E.H.-S. was crippled by the absence of some of its best athletes on that occasion, but both schools have been training their strongest men for the past few weeks, and will surely be well represented.

The 100-yards dash will be won by Roche of W.H.-S., Clarke of Worcester Academy, or Dunbar of E.H.-S. These three sprinters breasted the tape almost together in the 40-yard dash at the winter meeting, Roche winning by a few inches only. I consider Ferguson the surest man for the high hurdles, although Chase of Andover will be close upon him. The low hurdles will make a pretty race for Fuller, Cambridge L.S., Heine, P.A., and Seaver, Brookline H.-S. Fuller's success will largely depend on whether he has to run the 220 flat before he takes the hurdles. In that case Heine and Seaver will have a slight advantage. But if Fuller does run the 220 before this, he ought to win it, with Roche and Dunbar behind him. There will be no fast time made in the quarter, and the race will furnish a good opportunity for a surprise by some unknown quantity. Fish, W.A., Carleton, Milton Academy, Purtell, E.H.-S., and Howe, W.H.-S., are about equal in ability for that distance. Albertson, W.H.-S., and Batchelder, R.L.S., will have a close race in the half-mile, and I have no doubt that the record will be lowered. Cunningham of Hopkinson ought to be third.

If Laing of Andover were not kept out of the contest by the age limit ruling he would, beyond any doubt, take the mile for P.A. He ran it at the Interscholastics last year in 4 min. 32-2/5 sec. And so, unless Andover sends down another good man, Dow of E.H.-S. will probably win the event. Moore of Newton H.-S. ought to take the walk, with Delaney of W.H.-S. second, and Barstow of Hopkinson third. For the field events Holt and Dole of Roxbury Latin, and Henderson of E.H.-S., will divide the honors in the high jump, while the broad will be contested by Purtell, E.H.-S. and Holt, R.L.S. The shot event will be won by O'Brien, E.H.-S., with Jordan, W.H.-S. and Holt, P.A., in the places. Johnson, W.A., should win the pole-vault, although Thenoin, R.L.S., may push him. The hammer rests with Seargent of Hopkinson, Coan, E.H.-S., or Barney, R.L.S. With so many men competing from such a large number of different schools, it is not probable that the winning score will be much greater than 25, and the winner of second place ought to come close to the same figure.

The New York Interscholastic Tennis Tournament, under the auspices of Columbia College, had a large entry list that required three days to be played off. The games were all characterized by steady work rather than by any particularly brilliant play, and the championship was won by Waltz of the Leal School, Plainfield. He met Wigham of Harvard School in the finals, and had a comparatively easy time of it, defeating the New-Yorker in three straight sets--6-1, 6-2, 6-4. He will go to Newport for the big Interscholastic tournament this summer, and will meet the other school league champions, Ware of the N.E.I.S.A.A., Sheldon of the Connecticut I.S.A.A., and Beaman, who won in the Pennsylvania I.A.L. Tournament at Princeton. I consider Ware the strongest player of this quartet, and expect to see him win at Newport. He will be heard from at the Longwood Tournament next Saturday too.

The prospects of Lawrenceville being victorious over Andover in the baseball game to-morrow have been daily increasing, and I believe now that the Jerseymen will win. Andover does not seem to be able to reduce the average of errors made in her games so far, and her players on the left-field side must play a sharp game if they wish to offset Lawrenceville's good batters. St. Mark's School, with little over a hundred boys to pick a nine from, defeated the Phillips Academy team, two weeks ago, by the score of 6-3, and the latter suffered another bad defeat from the Yale Freshmen a few days later. St. Mark's victory was in a considerable measure due to the effective pitching of White, who held the Andover men down to six hits. The features of the game, besides White's work in the box, were the catching of Drew, Andover's Captain, and the fielding of Folger. Mills, too, made a beautiful running catch of a long fly. I am surprised that the St. Mark's batters were able to get seven hits off Greenway, as it has been Andover's boast that their battery is as good as any in the schools. It is; and I surmise that Greenway had an off-day at Southboro. He must do better to-morrow or Lawrenceville will have an easy time with their Massachusetts rivals. The Jersey players have greatly improved the past week, especially in team-work. They have won within the past fifteen days two games from the Pennington Seminary's strong team, they have defeated the Princeton Freshmen, and they got excellent practice out of their match with the Princeton 'Varsity. Andover will have the advantage of home grounds and the crowd, but they will need more than that to pile up the runs.

A new invention by Professor E. W. Scripture, of Yale, will be interesting to all track athletes. The apparatus is one that will measure a runner's "reaction time." This time is that which elapses between the moment the pistol is discharged and the moment the sprinter starts. The brief period between these two moments is taken up by nature in transmitting the sound from the ear to the brain, and the impulse to run from the brain to the muscles of the legs. Professor Scripture believes that the length of reaction time is frequently an important factor, and he argues that with a runner it must be reduced to the shortest possible limit, as one-fifth of a second counts in a race. By experiments the inventor has proved to his own satisfaction that the time which elapses between the firing of the starter's pistol and the actual start of the runner is long enough to influence the winning of a race. The reaction time of a runner may vary from one-sixth to one-third of a second. The new invention is an arrangement by which a runner's reaction time may be measured to within the one-thousandth part of a second. The starter's pistol is arranged so that an electric contact is broken when the pistol goes off. A thread is attached to the right foot of the runner, and this thread breaks an electric contact the moment he starts. The distance marked on a cylinder by these two contacts measures the individual's reaction time. Sport may soon reach such a scientific stage of advancement that sprinters will be handicapped with reference to their "reaction time."

THE GRADUATE.

* * * * *

Charlotte Cushman, a celebrated actress, was filling an engagement at the opera-house in B----. A man in the gallery created such a disturbance that it seriously impeded the progress of the play, and finally brought it to a standstill. Immediately the audience, furious with anger, cried: "Throw him over! Throw him over!"

Miss Temple stepped to the edge of the footlights, and in a sweet and gentle voice exclaimed: "No, I pray you, don't throw him over. I beg of you, dear friends, don't throw him over, but _kill him where he is_!"

* * * * *

An Irishman was on trial for committing a burglary, and had conducted his own case. The evidence against him was strong, and the judge, after summing up, remarked, while looking at the prisoner, that he could detect the rascal and villain in his face. "Hold there!" shouted the prisoner. "I object; that is a personal reflection."

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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.

The run from Brooklyn to Babylon along the south shore of Long Island is perhaps the best bicycle run on the Island, and is the first thirty-five miles of the famous century run which is made every year by the Kings County Wheelmen; and there is no doubt that this 100-mile course along the shore of Long Island is as easy a run as there is in the east United States. The road is macadamized most of the way to Babylon, and is at present finished about as far as Seaford. From Seaford on to Babylon the road is a good one, though not all macadamized. The wheelman intending to make this run should examine the map of Brooklyn published in last week's ROUND TABLE. He will there find the way to get from his residence, whether in Brooklyn or New York, to Prospect Park. Starting from Prospect Park, run up the Boulevard to Liberty Avenue at East New York, and, turning right into this, continue thence to Woodhaven. At Woodhaven take the left-hand fork and run out to Jamaica. The road through Jamaica is clearly enough marked, as it is the beginning of the Plank Road that continues on to Jericho. The rider should keep on this road, which is in good condition, out of Jamaica a mile or more, passing through Hollis and Holliswood Park. At the latter place, and just before reaching Queens, a turn should be made to the right, and after crossing the track the rider will run out over a good road about seven miles to Hempstead. On entering Hempstead he may turn to the left and run up to Garden City, where there is a hotel that is well kept, and a good place for a short stop if one is desired.

Returning to Hempstead, the rider keeps to the main road, running down towards Ridgewood, and comes into the Shore Road, and thence the run continues straight on through South Jerusalem, Seaford, Amityville, Lindenhurst, into Babylon. The whole run from Brooklyn is practically a forty-mile journey, and if the wheelman intends to return on his wheel to Brooklyn he can keep straight on the Shore Road, passing through Freeport, Rockville Centre, and Valley Stream, instead of turning to the right near Ridgewood, and going back through Hempstead. The great advantage of this run is that there are almost no hills along the line of the road, and the wheelman has as "clean" a ride as can be found in the vicinity of New York. When all the roadway along the South Side of Long Island is finally macadamized there will be hardly a single run in the country to equal it.

K. L. T.--The cost of a bicycle trip from New York to Liverpool, thence to France, and perhaps into Germany, depends entirely on how much luxury the traveller expects to indulge in, and whether he or she will ride entirely or will frequently use railway trains. It is safe to say, however, that it is possible after reaching Europe to make a bicycle tour through France and Germany on an average of two dollars per day, though that requires the greatest care in expenses. (2) It would be hardly advisable for two ladies to travel through France and Germany alone on bicycles, though it could be done. The difficulty would be that bicyclists still attract attention, and two foreign women would be much more likely to meet with difficulties than if they travelled by rail, to say nothing of the possible accidents to their machines. (3) The necessary luggage would be comparatively easily carried in the triangular water-proof bicycle bag, which is carried on a diamond frame machine inside the diamond, and on a woman's bicycle in a different shape bag attached to the handle-bar in the front. Any woman going on such a trip should learn how to take a bicycle to pieces and put it together again, and in the process of learning she will discover what tools are necessary. Material for mending tires is absolutely necessary--a good monkey-wrench, oil cans, a tire inflator, pincers, and a reasonably good supply of small wire and twine for making repairs where such material is necessary. In France you will probably find no difficulty in having all necessary bicycle repairs made, especially in the cities and larger towns. It would be much cheaper to stop at houses, and in England, and perhaps to a certain extent in France and Germany, such travellers are very well received in the cottages of the peasants in the middle classes. (4) The best bicycle roads in the world are in England, and England has for many years been called the "bicyclist's paradise." The French government roads come next, both being comparatively free from hills. German roads are by no means as good, and the country is more hilly. Swiss roads are moderately good, and in some places very fine, but they are apt to be extremely hilly. Northern Italy would probably come next; but it is safe to say that for two women taking their first bicycle tour, England is by far the best place to travel in. (5) If two ladies travel second-class on a steamer to Liverpool they might meet with some unpleasant incidents, but it is now possible to get a first-class return ticket on some of the smaller steamers of the important lines quite as cheaply as a second-class return ticket on the larger steamers. For instance, a first-class ticket and return to Havre, France, or Southampton, England, can be bought for from ninety to one hundred dollars on the smaller steamers of the Hamburg and North German Lloyd lines. It would, of course, be cheaper to buy a return ticket.

NOTE.--Map of New York city asphalted streets in No. 809. Map of route from New York to Tarrytown in No. 810. New York to Stamford, Connecticut, in No. 811. New York to Staten Island in No. 812. New Jersey, from Hoboken to Pine Brook in No. 813. Brooklyn in No. 814.

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.

BROKEN NEGATIVES.

Sometimes one is so unfortunate as to break a negative which cannot well be replaced. The amateur who understands little about photographic work is, in such a case, quite likely to think that the negative is ruined, and throw it away; but unless it has been broken in many pieces it can be repaired so that one can get as good a print from it as before it was broken.

If there is one clear break across the glass, but not through the film, place the negative in the printing frame, pushing the broken edges closely together, holding them while adjusting the sensitive paper. Fasten in the printing frame, and print in a diffused light--that is, not in the direct rays of the sun. Place the negative at such an angle with the light that the crack across the glass shall not make a shadow.

If there are several cracks in the glass, but not in the film, put the negative in the printing frame, supporting it by a piece of plain glass; tie cords to the printing frame so that it may be suspended by them; hang the frame from some projection where it will not hit anything, and keep it revolving during the printing process. The plate moving all the time, the cracks in the glass do not cast a shadow long enough in one place to make any impression on the sensitive paper. If one cannot arrange the frame in this way, it may be placed at the bottom of a large deep box without a cover, and left to print.

If the film is broken as well as the glass, take a piece of plain glass the size of the negative--a spoiled plate is just the thing--lay the broken pieces on this plain glass, taking care that the picture lines of the negative are true, and bind the edges of the glass and negative together with strips of gummed paper. When the strips are dry, varnish the film with negative varnish. It is better to purchase the varnish ready prepared than to attempt to fix it one's self.

If the negative is badly broken, but not splintered, apply Canada balsam with a toothpick to the edges of the broken parts, and press them firmly together, keeping the negative on a flat surface during the process, a glass plate a little larger than the negative being the best thing to use. When the balsam is thoroughly dry, flow the negative with varnish, and as soon as it begins to set cover it with a piece of glass the size of the negative. When dry, bind the edges together with strips as before directed. If the negative is very badly broken, it should be enclosed between two pieces of plain glass, putting on the second in the same manner, after the first is dry. Bind the three together.

An excellent paste for binding negatives and lantern slides is made of rice flour. Mix rice flour with water till it is smooth and free from lumps. Set the dish containing it into another of hot water, and boil till it becomes thick and semi-transparent, stirring it all the time. When done it should be about the consistency of laundry starch made for collars and cuffs. This paste is very strong--in fact, almost as durable as cement. If a few drops of carbolic acid are added to it, it will keep for some time. The bottle should be tightly corked when not in use.

If the film has not been broken it can be removed from the glass in the same way that films are stripped, and transferred to another clean plate.

For very valuable negatives it is a good plan to make a paper negative, in case of accident to the glass one. A paper negative is made by taking a good print of the negative and waxing it according to directions given in No. 782 "answers to queries." Make a print from this waxed positive, supporting the paper while in the printing frame by a sheet of plain glass. Tone and fix this print, which will be a negative. Wax it, and if you are so unfortunate as to break the original, you will still have the paper copy, which can be used in its place.

For negatives that can be replaced it is not wise to spend the time in repairing them if broken, but it sometimes happens that a valuable one is broken which cannot be duplicated, and with careful handling it can be made "as good as new."

SIR KNIGHT HARRY T. LUTHER, New York, asks what causes his negatives to turn yellow, and if there is any remedy for it. The reason why negatives turn yellow is usually because they have not been washed long enough. They should be washed in running water an hour. If running water is not convenient soak the plate for two hours, changing the water several times. The yellow stains may sometimes be removed by soaking the negative for a short time in a solution of one ounce sulphite of soda and nine ounces water, to which a few drops of sulphuric acid have been added. Sir Harry also asks what toning solution to use with the plain paper described in Nos. 796 and 803. The combined toning solution used for aristo paper is the best solution for the plain paper. It works quickly, and gives soft clear tones.

SIR KNIGHT WILLIAM KELSEY asks if a combined toning and fixing solution can be prepared for aristo-type paper--how long negatives and prints should be washed in running water--and what use is made of hyposulphite of soda and alum in developing negatives. A combined toning solution for aristo may be bought ready prepared, or one can prepare it at home. A formula comes with each package of paper, and half the quantity given is enough to prepare at one time, unless one has a large number of prints to tone. Hyposulphite of soda and alum are used for fixing the negative after developing. The hypo can be used for fixing without the addition of the alum. The alum hardens and clears the film, and is good to use in warm weather to prevent the frilling of the film.

SIR KNIGHT GEORGE H. BENZON, JUN., Philadelphia, Pa., asks for the best solution for fixing plates. A solution of 4 ounces water and 1 ounce of hyposulphite of soda is the formula used by the editor of this column both in warm and cold weather. In warm weather the tray containing the fixing solution is set in a pan containing pieces of ice, which prevents the frilling or softening of the film. A formula for a fixing solution with soda and alum is given in No. 808, answer to Sir Knight Frederick Kopper.

SIR KNIGHTS D. G. STANBROUGH, A. SMITH, HARLOW BROWN, and LADY FLORENCE CRANE all ask for a good formula for a toning solution, but neither one says for what kind of paper. The formulas for toning baths are very numerous, and different chemicals are used for different sensitive papers. As aristo paper is at present a very popular paper, we give the following standard, combining toning and fixing bath for prints made on this paper: Water, 10 ounces; hyposulphite of soda, 2 ounces; sulphocyanide of ammonium, 1/8 ounce; acetate of lead, 30 grains; nitrate of lead, 30 grains; chloride of gold (neutral), 1 grain.

This bath must be made up twenty-four hours before using, that it may clear and settle. In preparing, add the ingredients in the order named, dissolving each before adding another. Put the prints, without washing, in this bath, one at a time, taking care that no air bubbles form on the print, as they will leave spots on the finished prints. The prints will turn at first a yellowish-brown, then to a warm red, and finally to a rich brown. Remove from the bath as soon as the desired tone is obtained. Wash for one hour in running water. This bath keeps well, and by multiplying each ingredient by four one can make four times the quantity.

* * * * *

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HARPER'S PERIODICALS.

Per Year:

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Round Table Chapters.

No. 720.--The Nathan Hale Chapter, of Philadelphia. Pa. Blair Baker, Thomas Bleint, Howard B. Rote. Section E, No. 5, Girard College, Philadelphia.

No. 721.--The Rugby Chapter, of New York city. Officers are N. J. Spiro, W. W. Gleason, H. F. Small. Other members are R. Mantell, N. Marluff, F. B. Engler, H. C. Moore, R. Heather, L. Peabody. Chapter address, H. F. Small, 54 West 85th Street.

No. 722.--The King Arthur Chapter, of Urbana, Ill. Its color is white, and its emblem white rose and clover. Marjorie Forbes and Ethel Ricker, Urbana.

No. 723.--The Thespis Dramatic Chapter, of Chicago, Ill. Lola Lewis, Laura Welch. Other members are Marie Rosenfield, Eleanor Lydon. Chapter address, 4454 Oakenwald Avenue.

No. 724.--The John Burroughs Chapter, of Winsted, Conn. Elizabeth Kennard, Ruth E. Whiting. Other members are Mabel Churchill, Grace A. Smith, Grace and Mary Kennard. It is a natural history Chapter, and devotes spare moments to the study of birds, trees, and flowers. Ruth E. Whiting, Winsted.

No. 725.--The Lincoln Chapter, of Glasgow, Mont. Roy E. Hall, Wallace Kelleson. John Sherry; Walter Fryburg, Glasgow.

No. 726.--The Margaret Sangster Chapter, of Germania, N. J. Augusta Guenther, Christine and Julia Gaupp; Christine Gaupp, Germania.

No. 727.--The Frances H. Burnett Chapter, of Minneapolis, Minn. It is organized for the encouragement of goodly fellowship and improvement. It desires to communicate with Knights and Ladies of the Round Table living in Minneapolis. Its officers are Fred H. Stevens, Lottie Kluge, Myrtle Jones; Florence Kimball, 3600 Bloomington Avenue.

Lovers of Play Journalism.

Odd, isn't it, how everybody loves to see what he writes in print? The oldest editor in America is not free from this vanity, or whatever one may call it. So young persons who play at making small papers are in good company. Besides, they are engaged in what affords them experience they can get in no other way. Three excellent amateur papers reach the Table: the _Amateur Collector_, R. T. Hale and F. W. Beale, editors and publishers, 23 Federal Street, Newburyport, Mass.; _Our Young People_, Robinson Bros. & Co., Box 255, Brunswick, Me.; and the _Little Magnet_, Louis O. Brosie, editor, 3405 Butler Street, Pittsburg, Pa. All three are splendid examples of the editor's and printer's "arts." Here are some members who are interested in journalism, want sample copies, and can contribute morsels: Waldemar Young, 174 C Street, Salt Lake City, Utah; J. T. Delano, Jun., 12 White Street, Newport R. I.; James F. Bowen, 36 St. James Avenue, Boston, Mass.; and Samuel T. Bush, 1104 East 15th Street, East Oakland, Cal.

R. C. Megrue asks what it costs to start and run a small paper. That depends on how large it is, and whether you have a press of your own. The cost is considerable per copy if you go to a regular printing-office, because the edition is rarely above two or three hundred copies. The charge in one case we know of was $7 per hundred. Will not R. T. Hale kindly give us a morsel on the subject? Louis O. Brosie and Clement F. or Arthur L. Robinson may give us morsels too. Please tell the Table about the cost, size, and mention some of the other difficulties. Never mind the fun of the thing. Pleasures take care of themselves.

What a Copyright Is.

A copyright, dear sir Harry, is a legal right to a copy. Suppose you and your friend Delano, four doors away, should publish a book that proved as popular as--well, let us say _Trilby_, or _Ben-Hur_, or _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ did. If you send out a few copies and put upon them no legal proprietary mark, other persons seeing the demand could and would take your work, make copies of it, sell them, pocket the money, and give you nothing for what perhaps cost you a great deal of effort. If, however, you observe the legal forms, and your book proves saleable, other persons are prevented from making additional copies. Those who want copies must buy them from you. The legal form is very simple. Before you publish the book, paper, print, or whatever it is, you mail two copies to the Librarian of Congress, Washington, with $1. He returns to you a paper, duly signed, setting forth the fact that for a certain number of years that article belongs to you. You state this fact on each copy published, and then the profit is yours, and the law protects you in it.

Some South African Birds.

Following the example of other members of the Round Table, I thought I would write and tell you about some of our birds.

My brothers and I have just been talking about the blue hawk. It is not a particularly large bird, and is grayish-blue in color. It is comparatively harmless, its chief prey being rats and mice. Its nest looks like a pile of sticks roughly laid together, but at the bottom of the nest it is very soft. This is the description my little cousin gives of its eggs: "If you were to take a pure white egg and rub it all over with blood, leaving a few white specks, it would be just like a blue-hawk's egg." In shape it is round, and the color is really a dirty red. The bird's call sounds very much like that of a cross fretful baby.

Another peculiar bird here is the hammerhop. It is a large brown bird, and has a crest upon its head which looks like a hammer, hence the name. It preys upon the frogs. It makes a tremendous nest in the shape of a hut on the top of a high rock. I am told that it plasters the nest on the inside.

One of our prettiest birds is the gilded cuckoo or diedrich. The color of its back is green, and looks as if a lot of bronze dust had been sprinkled on it. Its breast is white spotted with brown. Like other cuckoos, it lays its eggs in other birds' nests. The color of the eggs is pure white. It has a very musical call--"dee-dee-dee-diedrich."

The aasvogel is a species of vulture. It is of a dirty white color, and has no feathers at all on its neck. Almost as soon as an animal dies the sky is darkened by aasvogels flying to prey upon the body. The leader or king perches upon it first, while his followers sit round waiting until he is finished. He claims the eyes as his portion, as a rule. As soon as he has satisfied his hunger he flies away, leaving his followers to have their share. The aasvogel builds his nest of sticks on the top of some inaccessible krautz (precipice). The eggs are white, I believe, spotted with brown. I would like to correspond with Ladies of the Round Table in different parts of the world.

ISMA FINCHAM. ROYDON, QUEENSTOWN, CAPE COLONY, SOUTH AFRICA.

Do Your Rabbits Ever Drink?

Mr. Chase says rabbits drink. I think there are two sides to that question. I know a boy who has a dozen rabbits and not one ever drinks. I have two and neither ever drink. Another friend had two that he kept seven years. They drank milk, and, at rare times, water. I believe that rabbits can be trained either way. What is the experience of others?

VICTOR R. GAGE. VINELAND.

A Florida Gopher.

A Florida gopher is very different from those we read about as living out West. In shape and size he is nearly like a common fresh-water turtle, with this difference; he lives on land. The gopher has a very hard shell covering his entire body except the head and feet. His front feet are nearly like a turtle's, with four or five claws, but very hard. They must of necessity be hard, for this animal burrows very deep in this hard, clay ground. His hind feet are round, with a flat bottom, four to five claws on each, evidently made for pushing when walking or burrowing. They look like a miniature elephant's foot.

His head is also very much like a turtle's. When alarmed he draws his head and feet into his shell and remains quiet. He is a very peaceful animal. I have never known one to bite anybody nor anything else. The gopher lives in the ground, burrowing a molelike passage several hundred feet long. There is no use trying to dig for one. It would take a week of the hardest kind of work to reach the bottom of his tunnel.

He comes out every day about noon for his meals. He eats grass, weeds, clover, etc., for his regular meals; but when he finds a farm with pease, beans, and other vegetables, unless he is discovered in time he will do a great deal of damage, for he eats such things voraciously. In raising their young the female lays from five to six eggs in the dirt she has thrown out when digging her tunnel. She buries them, and in a few weeks hatches out a great number of the cutest little things you ever saw. They do not stay with their mother, but go immediately to forming a little burrow for themselves, which is from five to six feet deep. They can live a long time without any food whatever. Their flesh is also eatable, tasting somewhat like chicken. May I write again?

HARRY R. WHITCOMB. UMATILLA, FLA.

Certainly you may write again.

Blackberries Nearly the Year Round.

Down here we have a great variety of fruit. We have blackberries nearly all the year round. They commence in March and last until about the end of November. All are what we call wild in the States. Indians peddle them in big baskets on their backs. They are a great deal smaller than yours, and can only be eaten when cooked. I would like to exchange Mexican postage and revenue stamps with some Knights of the Round Table.

ROBERT L. MILLER, JUN. P. O. Box 319, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO.

Mounting Paper Money.

A California member asks how to fix paper money so that it may be examined without having to take it out of envelopes each time. There are two ways of mounting your specimens. The first and most difficult is to take very stiff paper and make a leaf with an opening of the exact size, like the opening in a photograph album leaf. Mucilage the tiniest edge all around, and press till thoroughly dry.

The other way is to cover the four corners, but this prevents the back from being seen. An ideal way would be to have two specimens--one to mount one side front, the other the other side. Rare manuscripts are mounted according to the first method, and then the heavy albumlike leaves are bound into a book.

Want Corner.

Do you live in Chateaugay, N. Y.? Please favor Blanche French, West Dedham, Mass., with some account of the place, its size, location, and any interesting information. She will be most grateful. Hubert B. Stephens is the new secretary of the Bollman Chapter, and his address is Box 274, Sharpsburg, Pa. It is a corresponding, stamp, and botany club with ten-cent fee and five-cent dues. Of course it wants to hear from anybody interested. S. J. Tucker, 2818 Mary Street, Pittsburg, Pa., wants to find old copies of _Notes and Queries_. Have you any? He will reward you if you write him.

The Benjamin Harrison Chapter, of Lee, Mass., wants suggestions how to make its meetings interesting. It also wants correspondents. Won't you write? Ernest A. Chaplin, Somerset East, Cape Colony, South Africa, writes to the Table: "There is a beautiful mountain just outside our town, and on it a place called 'Rabbit Rock.'" Sir Ernest says he collects stamps, and has many rare ones to trade.

The fee for admission to the Thaddeus Stevens Chapter, 910 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, is ten cents, and it wants members, both resident and non-resident. By mistake we announced the fee as $1. The Sylvia Chapter was prompt to give us the asked-for facts about it. Its president is Mary B. Yohn, 5813 Jackson Street, Wissinoming, Philadelphia; secretary, A. Grace Owen. One of its members, Harriett O. Bender, wants to trade flowers. Address care the president. Will the Sylvia's president tell us how its meetings are made interesting? We wish to publish the information.

You have noticed the disagreeable odor of clothes just from the wash. That's the soap. Cheap soaps do not rinse out. Ivory Soap rinses readily, leaving the clothes sweet, clean and white.

THE PROCTER & GAMBLE CO., CIN'TI.

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THE TRICK BICYCLE-RIDER AND THE OBSTINATE BULL-DOG.

Though well he rides and does the trick, The bull-dog's pace he finds too quick;

On yonder limb he'll get a hold, And leave the bull-dog in the cold.

He swings himself high in the air, And takes his bicycle up there;

Then with his pump he'll downward slip, And let the bull-dog get a grip.

The bull-dog never will let go. Though he's pumped full of air, and so

When he's as full as he can be, The next thing happens as you see.

HELPFUL HINTS FOR BICYCLISTS.

1. A good bicyclist is careful of his roads, therefore when taking a header be careful not to hit the road too hard with your forehead. You might make a dent in the pavement.

2. In falling off your wheel do not fall on both sides at once. Failure to observe this rule will result in dividing you against yourself.

3. Always be courteous. If a trolley-car has the right of way over the track do not dispute with it. A boy in Massachusetts who broke this rule broke his right arm and his cyclometer at the same time.

4. Be cautious. In riding from New York to Brooklyn keep to the driveway. Don't try to wheel over the suspension-cable. Yon might slip and fall into the smoke-stack of a passing ferry-boat.

5. Keep your lamp lit when riding at night. The boy who thought he was safe because he had a parlor-match in his pocket came home with a spoke in his wheel that didn't belong there.

6. Do not be rough with ice-carts and furniture trucks. If you must run into one of them do it as gently and tenderly as if it were a baby-carriage.

7. A merciful rider is merciful to his wheel, so do not force a bicycle beyond the point of its endurance, unless you want to walk back with your wheel on your shoulders.

8. Keep cool. If in the course of a ride you find yourself in a tight place, with a skittish horse to the left and a steep ravine to the right, and a bull-dog directly to the fore, take ravine. You'll go into it, anyhow, and if you take it alone without dragging the dog or the horse after you your chances will be improved.

9. Never use spurs on the pneumatic tires of your wheel. The use of spurs in this manner is likely to leave your bicycle in a winded condition. Spurs are not comfortable, either, in case of a throw.

10. Do not be stubborn with a balky wheel. If the front wheel gets in a rut going east, and the hind wheel in another going west, dismount and argue the matter standing, unless you are tired, and want to lie down by the road-side without making the effort to do so unassisted.

CHANGED HIS MIND.

I didn't like to take my bath, Until one summer morning bright I made believe I was a whale, And now I think it's out o' sight.

A FACETIOUS VISITOR.

"See yat 'ittle boy over zare?" said Mabel. "Yat's my 'ittle buzzer, an' his name is Nat."

"Indeed?" said the visitor. "Well, I think gnat is a very good name for a buzzer."

A SINGULAR DRESS.

"My big brother belongs to the Seventh Regiment," said little Nell, proudly, "an', my, how noble he looks when he's all dressed up in his unicorn!"

A LOST TUNE.

I've heard a German band play tunes, I've heard 'most every other thing; But one tune I have never heard, Is that which boiling kettles sing.

End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, June 11, 1895, by Various