I have two little eight-year-old sisters, named Lucy and Eleanor, but we call them Dove and Bly. And I have a little brother of six years. When Young People comes, it is given first to the one who has behaved the best during the past week.
Can you tell me how the Black Prince died? I have looked in several histories, but none of them state the manner of his death.
C. C. B. H.
There was nothing remarkable about the death of the Black Prince. He died in England in 1376, after a long and lingering illness, which is said to have been the result of exposure and overexertion during the campaign against the French. After the battle of Navarete in 1367, in which the Black Prince won a victory which restored Pedro the Cruel to the throne of Spain, he returned to his home in Bordeaux sick of an incurable disease, and four years later he resigned the government of Gascony to his brother, and returned to England, where he declared himself on the side of popular reforms, but his health allowed him to take but little part in public affairs. He was a very popular prince, and was sincerely mourned by the whole English nation.
Elsie M. K.—Needles were undoubtedly the invention of prehistoric man, as they have been discovered among the oldest remains of human life. Some rude specimens, made of horse's bone, and evidently intended for sewing skins, were found not long since in a cave in France, together with other traces of primitive life. Needles have also been discovered in the oldest Egyptian tombs, and among the remains of the lake-dwellings of Switzerland. The date of the invention of steel needles is unknown, but judging from the rich embroidered garments described in ancient record, it would appear that fine needles, of steel or some other material, were in use at a very early period.
John R. G.—An etching is an engraving on a hard metal plate, usually on copper. The plate is first covered with a thin coating of wax and asphaltum, which is allowed to dry. The etcher then makes his drawing with a fine point, called an etching needle, cutting all the lines through the wax coating to the copper. A weak solution of nitric acid is then poured over the drawing, which eats into the lines where the copper has been laid bare by the etching needle. The plate is then cleaned, and the wax coating melted off, when impressions may be taken, as from any other engraving. If the action of the acid has been imperfect, the plate may be finished by using what is termed the "dry point," a sharp-pointed steel instrument capable of making the most delicate lines on the surface of the plate. Pen-and-ink drawings are sometimes called etchings, simply because they resemble that peculiar style of engraving.
Georgie V. R.—See answer to Mark M. in Post-office Box of Young People No. 53.