LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS.
Another heavy mail this week. The Editor's friends are getting so numerous that a strike of the postmen on the route may be expected.
Dear Editor:
Three daily readers of The Great Round World wish to know if Queen Victoria is allowed to see the daily papers. We once heard or read somewhere that certain things are cut from the papers and handed to her on a beautiful silver tray—such articles as her advisors think it best for her to see; but she cannot read all the daily papers as common folks do. Will you kindly answer in next week's number of the Magazine, and oblige three constant and interested readers of the Magazine?
John Eliot R.
Ursula Francis R.
Helen L.H.
Plainfield, New Jersey, March 31st, 1897.
My Dear Young Friends:
In reply to your letter asking how Queen Victoria gets her news, I must tell you that she is perhaps the most advanced and progressive woman in the world.
Though she is such an old lady, she keeps herself thoroughly posted about everything that goes on in the world. There is no question as to what she shall be allowed to read—she reads everything that is of interest to her; but that she may not waste her precious time looking over worthless articles, her secretaries are instructed to read the papers first every morning, and see what is worthy the Queen's reading.
From long habit they know the subjects that are of interest to Her Majesty, and these they carefully outline with a blue pencil.
It has always been the custom for one of the Princesses, the Queen's daughters, to read these items to her.
No clippings are sent to the Queen; the papers are marked and sent to her as they are.
Her Majesty really has a Great Round World made for herself every day, for the secretaries are like your Editor—they do their best to call the Sovereign's attention only to such matters as are really important and true.
Editor.
To Ernest K., Lakewood, N.J.
Dear Ernest:—We were very pleased to receive your letter, but we will not publish it, because we think you could write us a much better one, that would be well worth putting in our paper.
Won't you tell us something about golf, or what you see when you go out riding? We think you could write a very interesting letter on either of these subjects.
Editor.
Sydney G., Baltimore, and A.V.N. Myers, Cornwall-on-Hudson:
Thank you for your kind letter. We are glad you find The Great Round World interesting.
Editor.
Dear Mr. Editor:
I have had only two of your papers. I like them very much. I am going to save them and have them bound. It is so muddy here, and it was muddier last week; the mud was half a foot deep. There is a man that runs a dray-wagon here, and he has two little mules. He whips them almost to death.
A little while ago a poor dog went by with a tin can tied to his tail; the boys that did this filled it full of dirt, and the poor dog was half scared to death.
Perhaps I ought not to be so familiar, as this is the first letter I have written to you.
Our neighbors are nice people. They have a little pug dog. There was a black cat in the yard, and the dog ran after it. It seemed as if the cat was crazy. It dragged its hind legs behind it, and pulled them with its front legs, and crawled under the barn before the dog got to it.
I guess I will close now.
Your loving friend,
Gray F.
Wayne, Nebr., March, 1897.
My Dear Gray:
We enjoyed your letter very much; it is very bright and interesting.
When we read it we said, Master Gray has gone off with his pen and paper all by himself to write to us, and that pleased us very much, because we want all our boys and girls to talk to us in their letters just as if they were speaking to us.
You seem to be a friend of dumb animals. Read Little Friend's letter to us, in No. 19, page 498. Would you not like to form a Band of Mercy to help your animal friends? Think of that poor cat, who was probably half-dead with fright, and the doggie with the can tied to his tail. Would you not like to know just how to help these poor little kindly things, who cannot help themselves? Editor.
Dear Mr. Editor:
I wish to tell Grace of some good books. Three of C.M. Yonge's books, "Dynevor Terrace," "The Daisy Chain," and its sequel, "The Trial," are stories of English boys and girls, much like "Little Women." Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' "Gypsy Breynton" series are good. The last of the series "Gypsy's Year at the Golden Crescent" is a boarding-school story. "The Five Little Peppers" series by Margaret Sidney are her best books. The five little Pepper boys and girls live in "the little brown house" with "Mamsy." Their father is dead, and they are very poor. They gain a rich friend, a very nice boy named Jasper, and all go to live in his father's house, "Mamsy" becoming the housekeeper. It is all written in a delightful and natural manner.
Flora Shaw's three books, "Hector," "Phyllis Browne," and "Castle Blair," are also good. In the first, Hector, a little English boy, goes to France to live with his little country cousin Zélie. In the second a little Pole, Count Ladislas Starinski, comes to England to live with his English cousins. The last is the story of five Irish boys and girls, their big dog Royal, and their two cousins Frankie and a French girl Adrienne (whose name they could not pronounce, and so they called her Nessa, after one of their dogs which had died, and which they said looked like her).
Elizabeth Champney's "Witch Winnie" series are very interesting. The first two, "Witch Winnie" and "Witch Winnie's Mystery," are boarding-school stories.
Other good books are: "When I Was Your Age," by Laura Richards; "Two Girls," and "Girls Together," by Miss Blanchard; "Half a Dozen Girls," by Anna Chapin Ray; "Dr. Gilbert's Daughters," by Margaret Matthews; "Captain Polly," "Flying Hill Farm," and "The Mate of The Mary Ann," by Sophie Sweet; "Summer in a Canon," and "Polly Oliver's Problem," by Kate D. Wiggin; The "Katy Did" series, by Susan Coolidge; the Quinnebasset Series, by Sophie May, comprising "The Doctor's Daughter," "Asbury Twins," "Our Helen," "Janet," and "Quinnebasset Girls"; "The Jolly Good Time" books, by Mary P. Wells Smith; and all the books of Lucy C. Lillie, Nora Perry, Mrs. Mead, and Mrs. Molesworth.
I have read and enjoyed all the above, and can recommend them to any one as delightful stories of boys and girls.
Edith.
My Dear Edith:
We are glad to have your nice letter to publish, and will be pleased to have you read for us.
Editor.
Dear Mr. Editor:
Miss Bessy reads The Great Round World, and will you please send me a pattern of the kite of Lieutenant Wise?
Yours truly,
Sydney G.
Baltimore, Md., March 26th, 1897.
My Dear Sydney G.:
"The American Boy's Book of Sport," published by Charles Scribner's Sons, and mentioned in No. 21 of The Great Round World, will tell you how to make kites of all kinds. We cannot promise that you will find Lieutenant Wise's kite there, because we think he has kept the manner of making his kite a secret, and will do so until he has quite finished his experiments with it.
The Editor.
Dear Mr. Editor:
I take The Great Round World, and like it very much. In your last number you spoke of "Singing Mice." Can you tell me, where can they be got? If they can be bought, where and how much?
Dear Willie:
Singing mice are very rare; but we have been to the store where we get our lizards, and tadpoles, and goldfish, and the man who keeps it has promised to see if he can hear of one. If he is fortunate enough to find such a mouse he is to let us know, and if you send us your address we will tell you how much he wants for it, and where you can see it.
Editor.
Dear Editor:
A number of us girls have formed a society named The Daffodil Reading Circle, of which I am the president. We meet at the different girls' houses every week. I subscribe for The Great Round World. It is one of the principal things we read, and we all enjoy it very much. We were very much interested in the article about the cuttlefish or octopus found on the coast of Florida, in Number 16. I am surprised to hear to-day that it has been examined by some scientific men, who say that it is not an octopus at all, but only the head of a deformed whale. I am very anxious to hear what the truth is about it.
Your interested reader,
Florence C.R.
Jersey City, N.J., March 20, 1897.
Dear Florence:
We have written to the Smithsonian Institution about the cuttlefish. The reply has not reached us in time for this number, but next week we hope to be able to tell you what the scientific men have decided about it. That the monster found was the head of a whale was only the opinion of some of the gentlemen who examined it. We believe that no absolute decision was arrived at.
We were very much pleased to get an account of a gold mine published in a recent number, for we want our boys and girls to write letters describing the different industries of the United States. A number of New York boys a few days since went to Waterbury, Conn., and visited various factories; we publish two of their letters, and hope that we may receive similar letters from boys and girls in different parts of the country. In almost every town there is something which can be written about.