Leading Books for Boys and Girls
THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE LEVANT.
Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Greece, and Turkey, with Visits to the Islands of Rhodes and Cyprus, and the Site of Ancient Troy. By Thomas W. Knox. Profusely Illustrated. Square 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $3.00.
TWILIGHT LAND.
Written and Illustrated by Howard Pyle, Author of "The Wonder Clock," "Pepper and Salt," "Men of Iron," etc. 8vo, Half Leather, Ornamental, $2.50.
THE STORY OF BABETTE.
A Little Creole Girl. By Ruth McEnery Stuart, Author of "Carlotta's Intended," "A Golden Wedding," etc. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.50.
THE FUR-SEAL'S TOOTH.
A Story of Alaskan Adventure. By Kirk Munroe. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
SEA YARNS FOR BOYS.
Spun by an Old Salt. By W. J. Henderson. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1.25.
Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.
☞ The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price.
This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject, besides inquiries regarding the League of American Wheelmen, so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Bicycling Department.
The map this week is a road map from New York city to Tarrytown, and return. The reader will notice at the bottom of the Tarrytown route map that the route begins at 155th Street and the Boulevard.
The best route now open to a wheelman is to turn, as described last week, from Broadway into 181st Street, and go over a bad bit of road until he reaches Washington Bridge (2). On crossing the bridge turn sharply to the left and go down Featherbed Lane, which is anything but a featherbed road. There is a short winding hill as the road turns eastward into Macombs Dam road. The latter is in a somewhat better condition than Featherbed Lane, but it is irregular, narrow, and hilly. It is short, however, and the rider should turn into Fordham Landing road sharp to the left, going down an incline until he reaches Sedgwick Avenue. Here he turns to the right northward, follows Sedgwick Avenue for a few hundred yards, and then takes the left-hand fork where Sedgwick Avenue turns to the right. The left-hand fork is Bailey Avenue, and a somewhat long hill may tempt him to coast. On the whole, it is wiser not to do so, however, as there is an extremely bad piece of road at the bottom, where it is wiser to dismount and walk two or three hundred yards.
After this the wheelman takes the first important turn to the left, goes down a sharp incline and across two railway tracks. This is a bad place, and should be taken slowly and with great care. Immediately after crossing the track he comes into the Kingsbridge road, which is the turnpike road to Albany. This is macadamized and in excellent condition, and the run from there into Yonkers is a delightful one. As he passes Van Cortlandt Park there are three or four long slight ascents, which, though they do not look in the distance to be very difficult, are so long that I would advise him to take them slowly. He will know when he is approaching Yonkers by striking the asphalt pavement, which runs into the middle of the town. The road through Yonkers is direct, passing by the main square of the town, where the Getty House is the best place to stop, and where bicycles are repaired, though Yonkers is not by any means half the Tarrytown trip. Nevertheless, a short stop may be made at Yonkers and another at Dobbs Ferry, which roughly divides the journey into three parts.
The road from Yonkers to Hastings is almost straight, and in capital condition, as, indeed, is most of the road up to Tarrytown. About a mile from the Getty House the wheelman passes through Glenwood. Two and a half miles out of Glenwood he should turn to the left at the fork in the road, and keep on one mile to Hastings. There is a piece of hilly road before running into Hastings. On leaving Hastings he should keep to the left and run into Dobbs Ferry, a half-mile distant. If the wheelman will take the time and turn to the left as he enters the town, he will be shown upon inquiry the house of Judge Beach (3), which is the same old manor-house in which Washington signed the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783.
Returning from Judge Beach's house to the main road again, the wheelman passes north out of Dobbs Ferry, and after travelling a half-mile, turns to the right, runs a quarter of a mile further and turns to the left, and the road is then direct to Irvington. It will well pay him to take the road following the valley down towards the Hudson westward, and stop a moment to see "Sunnyside" (4), the home of Washington Irving. Pulling back to the main road, again up a hill, the wheelman will find the road from here to Tarrytown, about two miles in length, well supplied with hills.
On running into Tarrytown and inquiring for the road to the station, which runs westward downhill, a rider can put up at the Mott House near the river. Three courses are then open to him. He may either take the train back, if the ride has been sufficiently long already, or he may return by the same road, or on going up to the turnpike-road again, turning left northward, he will come after a few hundred yards to the André monument (5), which every bicycle rider who reaches Tarrytown should not fail to see. Turning back again southward, he may take the alternative road back to Yonkers. He may then take the main turnpike, which he passed over early in the day, or, following the alternative road marked on the chart, may come down through Riverdale and the villages along the bank of the Hudson, meeting the Kingsbridge road at Kingsbridge again.
Note.—Already published. Map of New York city, No. 809.
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.
"Tell you what books I read when I was a little girl?" Molly E—— asks the question. Why, I am delighted to answer you, Molly. I am very fond of the little girl I used to be a long time ago. I can see her now, merrily going to school, day after day, along a river road bordered by tall willow-trees, crossing a bridge, and reaching a pretty little school-house, with windows giving on the pleasant life of a river, which all the year round was beautiful in the children's eyes, and which is very dear in their memories.
In those days an enchanter, whose name was Jacob Abbott, was writing wonderful books for young people. None of you will ever have greater enjoyment in the books written for you now than we girls of that period had in the Rollo Books, in which Rollo and Lucy, and a pearl of a hired man named Jonas, and Rollo's father and Rollo's mother, played important parts. We ate and slept and travelled with Rollo, we breathed his mountain air, we studied with him, and learned a great deal about both nature and morals, without suspecting that we were being taught. Abbott's histories, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Charles I., Josephine, ever so many of them were on my bookshelf, where I had, a little later, the Waverley Novels; nor shall I ever forget the breathless pace at which I raced through Macaulay's History of England.
When I was fifteen somebody gave me Leatherstocking and The Last of the Mohicans, and these introduced me to Cooper, whose stories I found entertaining and full of a feeling of outdoor life. But for sheer pleasure in a book there never was anything so lovely as the experience I had, when about ten, in reading Mrs. Sherwood's stories. You girls do not know much about them, but there were The Fairchild Family, and Little Henry and his Bearer, and a thrilling tale, the name of which I have forgotten, all about a very naughty girl who went to live with an aunt, who spoiled her to such an extent that when she came home she couldn't live in peace with her brothers and sisters, and led the whole family, including her papa and mamma, a perfectly dreadful life. I remember this story with a great deal of affection, and I think the heroine's name was Caroline, but I am not sure. Anna Ross was a book of this period, and it was followed by The Wide, Wide World, a dear story, which I hope many of you will read, for it is probably in all your Sunday-school libraries. It was the work of Miss Susan Warner, who wrote Queechy and other equally excellent books for girls, after Ellen Montgomery, her heroine in the first, had stolen our hearts.
I trust none of you will ever be so impolite as I was when I went to visit my girl friends. I blush to think of it now, after so many years; but, do you know, if they had a new book, I simply seized upon it, and never stopped till I read it through, so that as a guest I was of no use, never waking from my trance until I had finished the last page of the treasure. Finally one of my friends, Jenny V. G., devised this plan, and carried it out successfully: When she expected me to visit her for a week, she living in the country and I in town, she simply hid all the books which she knew I had not read, and never brought them out till I had gone home again.
You see, my dears, I was not a pattern for you to imitate. There was not a paper in existence in my childhood worthy of being compared with the Round Table; but at our school we wrote a weekly paper, contributed to it ourselves, and made a half-dozen copies to pass around. I began being an editor quite early in life.
