Dear St. Nicholas: I like you very much. since we have been taking you we got some ginney pigs they are quite cute.
Genie A. Longley (aged eight).
A young friend sends us this drawing, which he calls:
A Fourth of July Tragedy.
South Front St., Harrisburg, Pa.
Editor St. Nicholas: I thought that perhaps the following-description of a sort of kaleidoscope would be of service to your magazine, for the entertainment of your young readers, on a rainy evening:
Have the room brilliantly lighted, then raise the lid of a square piano just as if for a player, but, instead of resting it on the surface of the piano itself, let it rest upon two or three large books placed on the top of the piano, so as to form at the front, where the hinges are, an angle of sixty degrees. Cover the open side of the triangle thus formed with a thick cover, which should extend also over the crack caused by the hinges of the lid. Thus you will have a hollow, triangular prism, the length of the piano, open at both ends. Polish well with a silk duster the inside of one end of this triangular prism; hold pieces of crazy patchwork, or long pieces of silk ribbon,—the more variegated and brilliant the colors the better,—in a large hanging bunch, and shake gently about two inches in front of the polished end toward the angle of the front, while the spectator looks through the opposite end of the kaleidoscope. A watch, chain, or looking-glass among the ribbons makes a pleasing variety.