[to be continued.]
"ASLEEP AT HIS POST."—Drawn by C. S. Reinhart.
I am a boy of twelve years. I like Young People very much. We live in Croatia, on the Styrian frontier, near to Bath Rohitsch. Our castle was built about the time America was discovered. It is said that a headless huntsman wanders through the corridors at night, but I have never met him.
We see from the windows many high alps of Styria and Carinthia. We go very often to the Szotlee to swim.
I have two canary-birds and two good old dogs.
My sister, who is fourteen years old, would like very much some pressed California flowers. She would send some from here in return.
James Kavanagh,
Post Rohitsch, Styria, Austria.
New Orleans, Louisiana.
Reading in Young People about the fight between the Constitution and the Guerrière, I thought I would tell you about a relic I have. It is a cross made of the wood of the Constitution, which was presented to my father by Miss Bainbridge, a daughter of Commodore Bainbridge, the commander of the Constitution after Captain Hull retired.
I have been a constant reader of the delightful little paper ever since Christmas. I am ten years old, but I have never made but two trips away from my Southern home.
Mabel S.
Owaneco, Illinois.
I am nine years old. I live one mile from town. We milk six cows, and I help do the milking.
I have a nice pet lamb. Her name is Fannie. A kind old man gave her to me when she was a little tiny thing. She was a year old last spring. I sold her fleece in the spring for forty-five cents a pound. It weighed five pounds. Papa let me keep all the money, and I am going to buy another sheep with it.
I helped papa all through haying. He has a new hay derrick, and I rode a horse and worked the derrick. The horse is twenty-five years old, and his name is General.
I am visiting Aunt Em now, but I am going to start to school next week. I like Young People so much!
Minnie M. L.
Downieville, California.
I live up in the mountains of Sierra County. My papa is editor of a newspaper here, and my little brother, ten years old, folds the papers for papa every Thursday night. Papa gave me a nice French kid doll. She can turn her head, and has joints.
I have two brothers and a sister younger than myself. We all like to receive Young People and to look at the pictures. I liked "The Moral Pirates" very much, and would not mind being such a pirate myself.
My home is on the famous Yuba River, but its current is too rapid for boats of any kind.
Altie V.
Houston, Texas.
I want to know why "the two Eds" did not try to eat on the cars? I am six years old.
Sam McI.
I am a lover of Young People, and in common with others have exchanged specimens with many of the subscribers. A young lady of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, sent me a piece of peacock coal, and wished St. Croix carnelians in exchange. Unfortunately I have lost her name and address, and I wish to ask her to kindly send it to me again.
Carrie E. Silliman,
Hudson, St. Croix County, Wisconsin.
West Newton, Massachusetts.
Will some correspondent of Young People please give me directions for pressing flowers and different kinds of sea-weed?
Daisy F.
I have a little kitten named Tommy Milo. Sometimes he comes into our chamber and lies at the foot of the bed till one or two o'clock in the morning, and then crawls up to the head to be petted. Sometimes he plagues us so that we have to put him out of the room.
I can knit and crochet. I crocheted a collar of feathered-edge braid, and it is very pretty. I would like very much a pattern for knitting edging, if Gracie Meads or any one will send it to me.
Eliza F., P. O. Box 162,
West Newton, Massachusetts.
Beaufort, South Carolina.
I send you a pencil sketch of a magnolia blossom. I drew it myself. I draw a good deal for my own amusement, although I have had no instruction. The diameter of this blossom is about nine inches when it is fully open. This month is the time for the falling of the cones. They contain the seeds, which are covered with a bright red pulpy substance, and are suspended from the cone by a white silken thread about half an inch long. They are very pretty. Our magnolia-tree is very large. The circumference is about fifteen feet.
Several days ago I saw a wild vine that resembles the sweet-potato vine, and the blossom is just the same. We have what I think is the wild onion growing here. It grows all around in the fields.
I think Harper's Young People is a splendid paper.
A. L. H.
Many thanks for your pretty drawing. We regret we have no room to give it in the Post-office Box.
Windsor, Connecticut.
I don't know but the little folks are tired of hearing about pets, but I want to tell them how my kitty jumped on the piano, and ran over the keys from one end of them to the other, and the tune she played frightened her so that she scampered away with all her might. She is now curled up in my hat, fast asleep. I have two carrier-doves for pets besides.
I sent Carrie Harding, of Freeport, Illinois, some pressed flowers quite a long time ago, but I have not heard whether she received them or not.
Harry H. M.
St. Johns, Michigan.
I am nine years old. I have a great many dolls—sixteen in all. I have a little baby brother, and I have two canaries, and a cat named Muggins. I did have one named Snow, but one morning all of a sudden he disappeared, and has never been found.
I like Young People very much, especially the story of "Claudine's Doves." I wonder if Claudine is alive yet, and lives in Paris?
My Young People comes every Thursday, and I can hardly wait for it.
Grace M. D.
Prince Edward Island.
I live in Summerside. Our house is very near the water. There is an island in our bay, and we go there sometimes. I have a little garden, with some lovely black pansies and other flowers growing in it. My sister has a little white rabbit.
Ellie G.
Grafton, West Virginia.
I don't know what I would do now without my Young People. I have taken it ever since it was published, and I hope I will always get it. Of all the long stories, I like "The Moral Pirates" best, but I like the others too.
I love to read about the pets the little girls and boys write about in the Post-office Box. I have some too. I believe I like my ducks the best. I have two old ones and ten young ones. I hope Bessie Maynard will stay at Old Orchard Beach a good while, and write some more letters to her doll. When I go away from home I always take my doll with me. I have a little sister Mabel, but she is only four years old. She likes the pictures in Young People better than the stories. I am almost nine, and I can read in the Fourth Reader.
Cloyd D. B.
Middletown, New York.
I send a recipe to the chemists' club, which, if not new to the club, may be to many readers of Young People.
Metal Tree.—A bar of pure zinc two and a half inches long and three-eighths of an inch in diameter; ten cents' worth of sugar of lead. Fill a decanter with pure water; suspend the bar in it easily by means of a fine brass wire running through the centre of the cork; pour in the sugar of lead, and cork tightly. Let it stand without being moved, and watch the formations.
Our boy took a quart glass fruit jar, and bought a cork to fit it for a few cents. He could not get a solid bar of zinc, but had a piece of zinc folded which answered the purpose. Then following the rest of the directions, he placed the jar on the mantel-piece. The next day; the formations began, and are constantly changing.
L. E. K.
I send some simple experiments for the chemists' club. Put into a small chemist's mortar as much finely powdered potassium chlorate as will lie upon the point of a penknife blade, and half the quantity of sulphur; cover the mortar with a piece of paper having a hole cut in it large enough for the handle of the pestle to pass through. When the two substances are well mixed, grind heavily with the pestle, when rapid detonations will ensue; or after the powder is mixed, you can wrap it with paper into a hard pellet, and explode it on an anvil with a sharp blow of a hammer.
To make iodide of nitrogen, cover a few scales of iodine with strong aqua-ammonia. After it has stood for half an hour, pour off the liquid, and place the brown precipitate, or sediment, in small portions on bits of broken earthenware to dry. When perfectly dry, the particles may be exploded with the touch of a rod, or even of a feather.
I would like to exchange crystallized quartz or gold ore for zinc or silver ore.
John R. Glen,
Nacoochee, White County, Georgia.
We would advise our young chemists to buy some good work on the elements of chemistry, and study it well before they undertake any experiments, as handling reagents, when one is not aware of their true composition and behavior under all conditions, is a very dangerous pastime, by which absolutely nothing can be learned, and a great deal of mischief done to face, eyes, hands, and clothing, to say nothing of mamma's table-cloths and carpets.
Newport, Rhode Island.
I thought I would write to the Post-office Box about my white mice. At one time I had fourteen, and they did many funny tricks. One of them would go on a tight cord, in the centre of which was fastened a pan of bird seed, holding on by his tail all the time. Another would go up an inclined plane, and then down a string to get bird seed. I could tell many other funny tricks they did, but I am afraid my letter would be too long.
John R. B.
Port Byron, Illinois.
I am seven years old, and I live on the east bank of the Mississippi. My papa owns a raft steamer, which is busy towing rafts from the foot of Lake Pepin to Hannibal and St. Louis. Every summer my mamma and I take a trip with papa up or down the river. We are gone a week or more. Oh, I just have jolly times! The men on the rafts make me whistles and little boats. The cook gives me dough every time he bakes. I make fried cakes, biscuits, and pies all out of the same piece of dough. I am not as particular as the little girls who send recipes to the Post-office Box.
My grandma in Wisconsin subscribed for Young People for me, and I enjoy it more than any present she ever gave me, because it is something new every week.
Freddie J. B.
Albion, New York.
I live with my mamma and grandpa and grandma. I am four years old, but I am going to be five in October.
I have a little brother named Judson, but he calls himself "B." He is three years old. He had a birthday cake with three candles on it—a red one, a green one, and a white one. At breakfast a pair of little oxen stood at his plate with a load of candy and a little doll driver. He was so good he gave me more candy than he kept himself, and the dolly too.
"B" likes "The Moral Pirates" because it is about boats. We are too little to guess the puzzles, but we like the letters in the Post-office Box ever so much.
"Little Pearl."
Chicago, Illinois.
I think the "worm" described by Maggie P. B. is the caterpillar of the willow sphinx moth. I have found several of them on the willow-trees, and I kept them and fed them every day. In the fall they turned into chrysalides, which I kept all the winter. In the spring beautiful moths, nearly six inches across the wings, came out of them. I am collecting butterflies and moths, and my father has given me a nice case for them.
Clifford S.
I am collecting coins, minerals, birds' eggs, and postmarks, any of which I would gladly exchange with any reader of Young People.
Will E. Brehmer,
Penn Yan, Yates County, New York.
I take Harper's Young People, and wish every one would do the same, as it is splendid.
I would like to exchange postage stamps with any of the subscribers, as I have a good many.
James D. Heard,
Union St., Mount Washington, Pittsburgh, Pa.
I would be pleased to exchange birds' eggs with any readers of Young People. I have also a lot of postage stamps that I would like to exchange for eggs.
Reginald S. Koehler,
P. O. Box 370, Hagerstown, Maryland.
I am collecting birds' eggs, and would be very much pleased to exchange with any of the correspondents of Young People. Can any one tell me where to get a catalogue of birds' eggs?
Richard Kipp,
13 Grant Street, Newark, New Jersey.
I would like to exchange birds' eggs with some correspondent. I have eggs of the wild canary, wren, martin, robin, cat-bird, swallow, guinea-hen, quail, and woodpecker.
J. Lee Mahin,
Muscatine, Iowa.
I would like to exchange postage stamps with any one in the United States or Canada.
H. L. McIlvain,
120 North Fifth Street, Reading, Pennsylvania.
To any one who will send me twenty-five postmarks I will send by return mail a box of sea-shells.
James A. Snedeker,
60 Asylum Street, New Haven, Connecticut.
I am making a collection of steel pens, and would like to exchange with any correspondents of Young People.
Carl Reese Ealy,
22 North Shippen St., Lancaster, Pa.
I am collecting skulls and skeletons of birds, beasts, and reptiles, and if any of the readers of Young People have any which they wish to dispose of, they would be gratefully received by me. In exchange for the same I will give foreign postage stamps, butterflies, or bugs. If any know of places where the above-mentioned articles can be purchased, I would be pleased if they would let me know.
I. N. Kriegshaber,
490 Fifth Street,
between Breckinridge and Kentucky,
Louisville, Kentucky.
Harry E. F.—The letters S. P. Q. R. stand for Senatus populusque Romanus, meaning the Senate and people of Rome.
Ottie Le Roi.—Wild rabbits and hares change their coats with the changing season. This peculiarity is especially marked in the Alpine hares of Switzerland. In Young People No. 13, in the paper entitled "Hares, Wild and Tame," is a full description of the summer and winter costume of these little animals.
Willie H. S.—The army-worm varies considerably in its size and markings according to the locality in which it is found, but its general characteristics are sufficiently marked to distinguish it. Its length varies from one to one and three-quarter inches. Its color is gray, sometimes so dark as to appear nearly black. It usually has narrow yellow stripes along its back and sides, and a few short straggling hairs on its body. The moth of this destructive caterpillar is called Leucania unipuncta. It is a small rusty grayish-brown fellow, its wings peppered with black dots. It is a member of the extensive family of owlet moths, and may be seen fluttering about the lamps and gas jets any summer evening.
Pauline M.—If you send eighty-one cents, accompanied by your full address, to the publishers, the numbers of Young People you require will be forwarded to you.
Willie F.—Directions for the construction of an ice-boat will be given in an early number of Young People.
"Pigeon."—The wisest thing you can do is to save your pennies until you can buy a pair of the pets you wish, and give up all idea of snaring wild ones.
Favors are acknowledged from A. S. Barrett, George H. Hitchcock, Blanche M., Nellie B., Carrie M. Keyes, Bertha C., L. Blanche P., A. W. Graham, George L. Osgood, Flora Liddy, C. F. M., Joseph Taylor, Daisy G., Susie Mulholland.
Correct answers to puzzles are received from H. A. Bent, "Nellie Bly," Daisy Violet M., Clyde A. Heller, Eddie A. Leet, K. T. W., Wroton Kenny, "Chiquot," C. T. Young, Edith Bidwell, Isabel and H. Jacobs, George Volckhausen.
PUZZLES FROM YOUNG CONTRIBUTORS.
No. 1.
WORD SQUARES.
1. First, a city in Italy. Second, a river in Germany. Third, a river in the northern part of New England. Fourth, a river in France.
2. First, a small vessel. Second, to detest. Third, pursuit. Fourth, multitudes. Fifth, a curl.
Winifred.