A Wonderful Look Ahead.
My uncle is an electrical engineer, and he told me to-day something of the future, so wonderful that I send it to the Table. May I call it a prophecy?
"The young person of to-day," said my relative, "who reaches the age of forty-three years—just my present age—will see, in that year of grace which will be 1925, a very different state of things from what I see at the same age. We talk of our own wonderful progress, but you, my young man, are destined to see changes in the next twenty-eight years that bring you from fifteen to forty-three beside which past changes are modest indeed.
"To begin with, you will see people flying through the air—that is, there will be mechanical flying-machines, under perfect control, that will carry passengers and packages through from place to place by the 'air route.' There is no doubt of this. Flying is solved.
"In the second place, you will see light not the expensive thing it now is, but as cheap as water, and turned on in every house at will, as water now is in towns and cities. It will be vacuum light.
"In the third place, you will witness the passing away of the steam-boiler, the furnace, and the coal-dealer. In your city of 1925 there will be no trolley poles, and, more startling still, no horses—or at least very few horses. The horse is doomed. Neither will there be screeching locomotives on the railways. Compressed air and electricity will take the place of steam and horses. People will not order coal delivered at their houses, nor will any ash man come around to make his morning litter. Your city of 1925, and your country, too, will be rather more desirable places to live in than they are to-day. I envy you your youth. I shall be, if alive, past eighty, and too old to enjoy such novelties."
What does the Table think of this wonderful look ahead?
Ashbel P. Johnson.
Buffalo. N. Y.
Kinks.
No. 7.—Poetical Pictures.—Birds.
Fill the blanks with the names of birds answering to the description, and find out the author's name. Answers will be published soon.
"O *****, that dost wing
Thy flight from the far away!
Thou hast brought us the signs of the spring,
Thou hast made our sad hearts gay." (1)
"From post to thicket
Hops the ******* blithe, sedate;
Who, with meekly folded wing,
Comes to sun himself and sing." (2)
"The ***** and the ******** piping loud,
Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee. (3-4)
The ******** chirped, as if they still were proud
Their race in Holy Writ should mentioned be, (5)
And hungry ***** assembled in a crowd,
Clamored their piteous prayers incessantly." (6)
"The noisy ******** twitter 'neath the eaves." (7)
"The ********* beats his throbbing drum: (8)
The ********** pecks and flits: (9)
The ****** flashes by." (10)
"The *** red-breast
Peeps o'er her nest
In the midst of the crab-blossoms blushing." (11)
"From morn to morn a merry ******
Sings hymns to sunrise." (12)
"Yonder gaudy ******* harshly cries,
As red and gold flash all the eastern skies." (13)
Answers to Kinks.
No. 6.
1. Drum. 2. Assassin. 3. Bat. 4. Sole, soul.
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.
"How shall I perform an introduction?" inquires a girl who likes to do things gracefully, and who is entirely right in her notion that for most things there is a right way and also a wrong one.
Introducing people is neither difficult nor occult, and it requires no special training. There are a few very simple rules to be observed. You present a gentleman to a lady, and a younger to an older person. You are careful to speak clearly and distinctly, for nothing is more embarrassing than to have a stranger's name mumbled so that it remains unknown, thus defeating the end of the introduction. You do not say, "Mamma, let me present my classmate," leaving your mother to guess at the part of your speech which was really the most important; you say, "My classmate, Miss Leonard." And, equally, when you are introducing Miss Leonard to your friend you do not say, "Alice, may I introduce my cousin Sophie," in which case neither young woman would have the least idea of more than the other's Christian name. If a person is a personage—a professor, or doctor, or clergyman, or in any way noted or famous—the tactful young girl makes the title a part of her introduction, so that the people presented to him are aware that they are honored by the new acquaintance.
When you ask your friends to a little informal tea, at which a visiting friend in town, or an author, or artist, or distinguished stranger is the guest of distinction, you simply write on your own ordinary visiting-card: "Tuesday [or whatever day you select], July —, from four to seven. To meet Madame Thus-and-so." No formally engraved invitation is required for what is a purely spontaneous affair in which informality is part of the attraction. The day and hour arrived, one stands near the door of the drawing-room with her guest, and with any other lady who is receiving with her. As they enter, friends who call are presented to the guest; the guest is not presented to them; and here the rule about age is waived, for the company are gathered for the express purpose of doing the guest honor and giving her pleasure. Only light refreshments are needed in summer—iced tea, coffee frappé, small cakes, and very thin biscuits, with possibly an ice, are admissible at such a gathering.
To the girls of fourteen who anxiously inquire concerning the length of their frocks I can only say that custom just now indicates common-sense in this matter. Have your frocks to the tops of your boots, and enjoy the freedom of walking, and playing games, bicycling, etc., which this length gives. A girl of fourteen needs very simple frocks. She is not out in society, and nothing in the way of costliness or great elegance is expected of her, nor would it be appropriate.
The prettiest fashion in hair-dressing for very young girls is either to wear the hair in lovely loose curls or else in long braids. One thick braid is apt to be less comfortable than two braids, and as a girl can seldom do her hair nicely herself, she should get her mother or sister to help her, unless there is a maid who has time to give the hair the careful brushing it needs. I do not advise shingled hair for girls of any age. Sometimes, if the hair is very thin and dry, a little vaseline may be rubbed into the scalp at night, but usually regular brushing will be sufficient to keep it in nice order. Do not have a frowzy and untidy appearance in any part of your dress. A little pains is well worth the taking, for your friends' sake as well as your own.
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.
Interest in U.S. Revenues is growing rapidly. The great rarities, 6c., 50c., $1, and $5 Proprietary, the $200 and $500, second issue, now readily bring two or three times catalogue prices. Many millions of these revenue stamps are on legal documents, agreements, contracts, leases, insurance policies, conveyances, mortgages, wills, etc., which are now out of date and of no legal value. All the U.S. Revenues were used throughout the United States for about twenty years, consequently a valuable lot may turn up any day in any part of the Union. During the past week several new minor varieties have been found, notably an unsevered pair of 10c. Power of Attorney, a stamp hitherto believed to exist in this condition, but no pair had ever been seen.
The philatelists of New York contemplate a club-house, and the committee is now asking for one hundred subscriptions of $25 each. They hope to have the club-house ready this autumn.
A few years ago most collectors in Europe preferred cancelled stamps, and several Americans exchanged many of their cancelled for unused copies. Now the demand all over the world for unused specimens has resulted in advancing the price of scarce stamps in this condition to a prohibitive degree. Most of the stamps in the following list of English could have been bought five or six years ago for one tenth the present price or less:
| [3]2d. 1840 | $40 |
| 1d. huge crown water-mark, perforated, 16 | 40 |
| 2d. huge crown water-mark, perforated, | 125 |
| 1d. red, plate 132 | 10 |
| 1/2d. red, plate 9 | 10 |
| [3]1s. octagonal, 1847 | 40 |
| [3]10d. octagonal, 1847 | 25 |
| [3]6d. octagonal, 1847 | 30 |
| 2-1/2d. plate 3, orb water-mark | 20 |
| 3d. plate 4, spray water-mark | 25 |
| 4d. plate 10 | 15 |
| 6d. plate 6, four flowers water-mark | 20 |
| 10d. red-brown | 5 |
| 2s. blue | 40 |
| 5s. plates 1 or 2, Maltese cross water-mark | 15 |
| 5s. plate 4, anchor water-mark | 75 |
| 10s. Maltese cross water-mark | 125 |
| 10s. anchor water-mark | 175 |
| £1 brown, anchor water-mark | 150 |
| £1 brown, Maltese cross water-mark | 300 |
H. L. Watson.—Stamps surcharged "specimen" are exactly what they purport to be, genuine stamps whose postal value has been destroyed by the government's action in printing the word "specimen" on face. As a rule such stamps are worth about the same as the same stamp cancelled, but in the case of U.S. stamps they are frequently worth as much as unused stamps.
Sturgis Bodine.—The wrapper is common, and is worth 5c.
J. C. L.—In hinging unused stamps with original gum be careful to cover up as little of the stamp as possible. Many advanced collectors will not "collect gum." They carefully scrape off all the gum.
Diana Vandeleur.—I regret to say I know nothing about the value of old newspapers. They are very interesting independent of any money value, and therefore worth keeping.
J. Wall.—No U.S. stamps were ever so surcharged. The 3c. and 10c., 1851, which you have, surcharged "3" and "10" respectively, are simply stamps cancelled by a hand-stamp, "Paid 5" or "Paid 10," in such a way that the figure came on the stamp. Previous to 1851 letters could be sent either prepaid or not. Paid letters were so marked. The others were delivered to the addressee on payment of the postage.
Philatus.
Why not wash with pure, white Ivory Soap and have pure, white linen? "Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well!"
The Procter & Gamble Co. Cin'ti.