INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.
If any of our boys and girls have found their bicycle saddles as uncomfortable as your editor has found his, they will be delighted to learn that there is to be had a sensible as well as most comfortable saddle. The pleasure of riding your wheel for miles without feeling your saddle can only be appreciated by those who happen to have a saddle which fits; the great trouble is that very few people fit the average saddle; and as the saddle cannot be adjusted, perfect comfort is not obtainable. With this new saddle the case is different, for it can be adjusted to fit a large or small person exactly. It also has a contrivance which permits the parts to move up and down so that there is no friction whatever. Our attention was called to it by one of the officers of the navy, who has proved himself an expert in wheel contrivances, and a careful test bears out all of his statements. The saddle is well made and inexpensive ($3.50).
BOOKS RECEIVED.
We have received a very attractive little book called "Uncle Robert's Visit," which is the third part of the series of books called "Uncle Robert's Geography." It is published by the Messrs. Appleton in their series of Home-Reading Books, and presents nature study and geographical knowledge in the most attractive form, being woven in a story of "Uncle Robert's Visit" to the farm. This particular uncle, like some others we have known, was a fund of information and a source of delight to the nephews and nieces. He went about with them in the fields and woods, and, without forcing it on them in any way, so ordered the conversation that they learned much of nature on each trip. These uncles are treasures, and to those who cannot have them always with them, to read of some one else's uncle in this attractive form is charming.
The book is well made, a handy size, with a colored frontispiece showing the farmhouse; it is illustrated throughout in a practical way which cannot fail to interest children.
("Uncle Robert's Visit," Home Reading Books: D. Appleton & Co., 1897; 50 cents.)
We wish to acknowledge the receipt of a new and illustrated edition of the old favorite, "Gypsy Year at the Golden Crescent," by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, illustrated by Mary Fairman Clarke.