Southe Arlington.
Questions and Answers.
Are you interested in music and natural history? Inez M. Brush, Chelsea, Iowa, wants to correspond with you if you are. If you live in Baltimore, P. Dettelbach, 1905 Druid Hill Avenue, wants you to join the Monumental City Chapter. Corresponding members are also received. William J. Smith,—No badges are now in stock. When more are prepared, notice will be given in these columns. We know of no active Chapter in Detroit near you. It is better to form one among your own friends than to join one whose members you have no acquaintance with.
"Disputants,"—Austria is on a gold and Russia on a silver monetary basis. "Amateur Newspaper,"—There are several methods by which writing is cheaply duplicated. None are perfect—that is, as perfect as type-printing, and none can, unless done far better than the average amateur is able to do, deceive the recipient to the extent of making him think it an original letter. For Harper's Magazine, and for prices apply to your bookseller. Directions go with the apparatus.
Henry F. Brown, a Massachusetts Knight, who won a Round Table Illustration prize, asks if the late Horace Bradley is the same person who judged his picture: "for," he writes, "I find 'H. B.' on the back of it." We cannot say with absolute certainty, but it is probable that it is. Mr. Bradley, who was one of the most obliging of men, passed judgment upon much work sent in by Round Table members. Pressed with responsibilities, he often took time to look through a pile of members' drawings, giving a word of criticism here or of commendation there. In half a dozen instances he wrote letters to members of artistic promise, giving them helpful advice. You should prize your drawing with its initials "H. B." highly.
Eugene B. Benton, who says he hopes one day to enter the navy, asks what became of the old vessels of the Revolutionary navy. There were about forty of them, and they had different fates. Two, the America and the Ariel, were presented to France. The famous Bonhomme Richard was sunk in 1779, and the Washington, Independence, and Montgomery in 1778. The Saratoga was lost at sea, and the Lexington was captured by the British in the English Channel, in 1778. You are in error in thinking the Constitution was in the war of the Revolution. It was not launched until 1797. It was in service, with some lapses, until December, 1881, when it was consigned to "Rotten Row," in the Brooklyn Navy-yard. The earliest built of our new navy, or White Squadron, was the Chicago, in 1886. Previous to 1862 enlisted men in the navy were granted a "spirit ration." In July of that year Congress passed a law abolishing it, and enacted that "hereafter no distilled spirituous liquors shall be admitted on board of vessels of war, except as medical stores." Read Admiral Gherardi's article on the navy, in Harper's Round Table for June 30 last. It can be had for five cents from the publishers, and it authoritatively answers all of your questions about entering the navy, the pay, etc.