Letter from a Correspondent.

Little Readers of the Museum:

I sometimes read Mr. Robert Merry’s Museum, and I like it very much, as I presume all his little “blue-eyed and black-eyed readers” do. He talks very much like good old Peter Parley. I should think he had heard him tell many a story while he rested his wooden leg on a chair, with a parcel of little laughing girls and boys around him. Oh, how many times I have longed to see him, and crawl up in his lap and hear his stories! But Mr. Merry says he is dead, and I never can see him. I am very—very sorry, for I hoped I should sometime visit him, for I loved him very much, and I guess he would have loved me some, for I like old people, and always mean to treat them with respect. How cruel it was for others to write books and pretend that Peter Parley wrote them!—for it seems that this shortened his life. I am glad, however, that Mr. Merry has his writings, for I think he loves his little friends so well that he will frequently publish some of them. I said that I loved Peter Parley, and I guess you will not think it strange that I should, when I tell you what a useful little book he once published, and how much pleasure I took in reading it. He wrote a great many interesting pieces which I read and studied, and they did me much good, I think. I hope that the little readers of the Museum will learn a good deal from what they read.

Peter Parley wrote a piece which told us how to make pens. I read it over, and over again, and, finally, I thought I would see if I could not make one. So I went to my little desk and took out a quill, got my aunt’s knife and laid the book before me and tried to do just as Peter Parley told me I must. I succeeded very well, and my friends were quite pleased. This encouraged me very much, and soon I made them so well that my teachers made me no more pens. By-and-by my little associates got me to make and mend theirs, and I loved the business very much.

Well, a few years since, I went to a beautiful village to attend school, where a splendid academy stands, around which, are large green trees, under whose shade my little readers would love to sit. There I staid two or three years. Often did I walk out with the teachers, whom I loved, to botanize, or ramble, with nimble step, over the beautiful hills of that sweet place, and listen to the constant murmur of its waterfalls, or gather the delicate flowers that grew so plentifully there. But to my story. My teachers saw that I made my own pens, and occasionally, when they were busy, would bring me one to make for them. The students soon found it out, and I had plenty of business. One day the principal of the school came to me and offered to compensate me by giving me my tuition one term, which was six dollars, if I would make and mend pens. I did not accept the money of course, though I cheerfully and gladly performed the small service.

So you see, Peter Parley’s instruction has done me a great deal of good, for how many persons there are who cannot make a good pen, because they never learned how.

My little readers, I am now almost twenty years old, but I still remember many other things which I read in Peter Parley’s books when I was a little girl. Mr. Robert Merry talks and writes just like him, almost, and I hope you will love to read and study attentively Merry’s Museum, for it is a good little work, and a pleasant one. Be assured, my young friends, you can learn a great deal from it, if you read it carefully. I should like to say much more to you, but I cannot now. I have been sitting by the fire, in a rocking-chair, writing this on a large book, with a pussy under it for a desk, but she has just jumped from my lap, and refuses to be made a table of any longer. So farewell.

Your young friend,
Laura.

Springfield, Jan. 6, 1842

Cookery Book.—“Has that cookery book any pictures?” said Miss C. to a bookseller. “No, miss, none,” was the answer. “Why,” exclaimed the witty young lady, “what is the use of telling us how to make a good dinner, if they give us no plates?”

Names of different kinds of Type.

Great Primer	I will now tell you something
English	about printing. It may be useful to
Pica	spend a few lines in giving you an idea of
Small Pica	the names which are applied to the different sorts
Long Primer	of type employed in the printing of books. This I shall
Bourgeois	do by putting against each line of the present paragraph the
Brevier	name of the type in which it is printed. I shall not attempt to
Minion	explain the origin of these odd terms, but content myself with giving
Nonpareil	you a notion of the proportion which one type bears to another; so as to enable
Pearl	you, when you become author, to give instructions to your printer as to the type you wish him to use.
Condensed	And by way of enlarging your vocabulary of types, I will
Full-face	add a few examples of fancy letters, adapted to the title-
Antique	PAGES OF BOOKS, SHOW BILLS OF VARIOUS
Gothic Condensed	KINDS, BUSINESS CARDS, VISITING CARDS, AND MANY OTHER
Black	purposes. If you will go to Mr. Dickinson’s printing-office,
Script	No. 52 Washington Street, Boston, you will see a
Extended	GREAT VARIETY
Gothic	OF FANCY TYPE; AND YOU WILL
Gothic Outline	ALSO SEE HOW THEY ARE SET
Tuscan Shade	UP, AND HOW THEY ARE
Full-face (Capitals)	PRINTED, WITH WHAT HE CALLS A
Phantom	ROTARY PRESS.
Condensed (Capitals)	YOU WILL ALSO SEE PRESSES WORKED BY STEAM, AND EN-
Full-face Italic	gaged in printing books, newspapers,
Extra Condensed	PAMPHLETS, MAGAZINES, AND MANY
Shaded	OTHER THINGS. IF YOU WILL GO TO NO. 66 CONGRESS STREET,
Ornamented	YOU WILL FIND WHERE
Title Letter	MERRY’S MUSEUM
French Shade	IS STEREOTYPED.