Questions and Answers.
Helen Disosway asks whence comes the caper of which the caper sauce is made. It is a small bud that grows in very hot climates, especially in the East Indies. It is gathered before the petals have unfolded. The work of collecting these buds is very slow, hence the expensiveness of the sauce of commerce. The seed-pod of the caper is also used. It makes a delicious pickle. The caper plant is perennial, but dies down and seemingly disappears in the autumn. It grows best on dry and hot stony ground. It is sometimes used in the East to surmount rockeries, because it lives on little soil, while its foliage is delicate and its silvery flowers are ornamental.
Charles R. Botsford: Articles descriptive of magic have appeared in the following recent numbers of Harper's Round Table: 844, 852, 862, 866, 869, and 873. The numbers may be had by applying to the publishers. Eleanor Little, aged twelve, Marblehead, Mass., collects bicycle buttons. Perhaps you do too. If so, you will be glad to have Miss Eleanor's address. Earl L. Hendricks, Box 626, Savannah, Ill., collects fossils and mineral specimens and wants correspondents. So does Edith S. Lewis, 1418 Eighth Avenue, Kearney, Neb., who also writes verses and stories. She is fourteen. James Fahlberg, 520 Barbey Street, Brooklyn, wants to join the staff of an amateur paper in Brooklyn. We are not advised of any Brooklyn amateur paper that wishes to increase its staff, but suggest that Sir James apply to Beverly S. King, 1625 Atlantic Avenue.
"E. W. S." is fifteen and wants to enter the United States navy. He must apply to the member of Congress from his district. Had he given his address we could have told him the name and address of his member. Any local politician can tell him. So can his postmaster. Appointments are made only as vacancies occur at Annapolis. If you fail to hear from your Congressman, write to the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C., asking when a vacancy will occur in your district. Hon. Hilary A. Herbert is the secretary's name. You will receive a prompt reply. Applicants must pass rigid physical and mental examinations, but the latter covers the common branches only. No, fifteen is not too old to enter. David B. Hendricks: "University Extension" means an extension of university teaching to men and women too old and perhaps too poor to attend universities—that is, carrying university lectures to those who cannot come for them. It was inaugurated by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, in England, but soon copied by Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Chicago in this country. There is also an American Society for the Extension of University Teaching that is unconnected with any university, and sends out lecturers from Princeton, Columbia, Chicago, and other leading universities, and even business men and principals of high-schools. The course includes art, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civics, forestry, travel, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, sanitation, and sociology. Lectures in courses may be had on any or all of these subjects. There are examinations and diplomas. The usual plan is for local societies, either existing ones or those formed for the purpose, to select their subjects and apply to the Extension Society for lecturers. The cost, when divided among a society, is moderate, and many courses are given in villages as small as Moodus.