Harper's Round Table, August 13, 1895 Part 6

SIR KNIGHT B. P. ATKINSON, Tilton, New Hamps.h.i.+re, asks, 1. What is Eikonogen made from, and what is the chemical name. 2. What is the difference between chrome alum and alum crystals. 3. When we expect to have another photographic contest. 4. Is Watkin's exposure meter a reliable machine. 5. How can films be kept from curling.

1. Eikonogen is the sodium salt compounded from three different chemicals, and comes in whitish-gray crystals. It is the name of a developing agent patented by Dr. Andreson about six years ago. It is not poisonous, does not stain the fingers, and gives a clear negative with plenty of detail. 2. The difference between chrome alum and alum crystals is princ.i.p.ally that chrome alum has twice the strength of alum crystals, being a double salt, instead of the commercial alum usually sold. Both chrome alum and alum crystals are used for the same purpose in photography, for clearing and hardening the film of the negative. 3. The date has not yet been fixed for our next photographic contest, but we intend to have another soon. 4. It is out of our province to pa.s.s judgment on any kind of photographic apparatus. 5. Films may be kept from curling by soaking them after they have been developed and before they have been dried, in a solution of glycerine, 1/2 oz., distilled water, 16 oz., for five minutes, and then drying as usual.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PUDDING STICK]

This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.

One of my girls inquires how to ask for an autograph of a person whom she admires, and which she thinks would add to the interest of her collection. Such a letter might be written in this way:

DAISY MEAD, BROOKVILLE, NEW YORK.

_Mrs. Sarah Maria Chester:_

DEAR MADAM,--I am making a collection of autographs, and would feel much honored if you would kindly allow me to add yours to the number I have already received. I enclose a slip of paper and a stamped and addressed envelope, and thanking you in advance for granting the favor I ask, I am,

Very sincerely yours, ELEANOR ALICE AMES.

Or perhaps you may like better this simpler form:

NO. 189 ASHTABULA STREET, ROME, ILLINOIS.

DEAR MRS. LADYLOVE,--I am a little girl twelve years old, living a great many miles from you, but I have read your poems and stories, and like them very much. It will make me very happy to receive your autograph. Please use the slip of paper which I enclose in the stamped and addressed envelope, which I add to save you trouble.

Admiringly yours, EMILY ANNE JINKS.

The form of address, you observe, is not arbitrary. But you must be polite. You are soliciting a favor. And you must certainly send the envelope addressed to yourself, and stamped. Always enclose return postage in a letter which asks a friend to do you a kindness, to send you information, or in any way to oblige you. One little two-cent stamp is not very much to either your correspondent or yourself, but postage-stamps soon count up when one has a great many letters to write and answer.

Another girlie says, "Please tell me how soon I ought to answer my friend's letter--the same day, or the next, or in a week, or what?"

Bless your dear heart, my child, answer as soon as you please, and if you are writing to somebody you love, who loves you, the sooner the better. A lady who has a large correspondence tells me that she always replies to her friends while their letters are fresh in her mind, before the glow and tenderness have faded. It is, as a rule much easier to answer a letter when you have recently read it than when it has been put aside for days and weeks. Still, much depends on the style of the correspondence, and on the tie which binds you to your friend.

I have lately been reading some very remarkable letters. They are published in a book called _Letters from the New Hebrides_, and are by Maggie Whitecross Paton, the wife of the great missionary Dr. John G.

Paton. I think these letters are very nearly perfect, so bright, so chatty, so full of simple goodness. Mrs. Paton has the gift of seeing things, and then telling about them so that we see with her eyes.

I wish I might impress on you the importance of answering questions which may have been asked by your correspondent. Before closing a letter which is by way of reply, why not read over the one which calls it forth, and make sure that you have not omitted anything concerning which you have been asked to give information.

Postal cards should be used exclusively for purposes of business, the exception being that when on a journey it is a good plan to carry a postal card, addressed before you leave home, pencil on it the news of your safe arrival, and mail it in the station before going to your journey's end. This often gives the home people news of you some hours in advance of the letter you write at the first opportunity after reaching your friend's house.

No letter should ever be marred by excuses and apologies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Signature]

TRAVELLING STONES IN NEVADA.

The curious "travelling stones" of Australia are paralleled in Nevada.

They are described as being perfectly round, about as large as a walnut, and of an ivory nature. When distributed about on the floor, table, or any smooth surface within two or three feet of each other, they immediately commence travelling toward each other, and meet at a common centre, and there lie huddled in a bunch like eggs in a nest. A single stone removed to a distance of four feet, upon being released, returns to the heap, but if taken away as much as five feet remains motionless.

It is needless to say that they are largely composed of magnetic iron ore.

ON BOARD THE ARK.

BY ALBERT LEE.

CHAPTER II.

As soon as Tommy recovered his self-possession--or as much of it as he could under these trying circ.u.mstances--he opened his eyes and looked about him. He could not see much, for they were apparently racing down a dark, narrow corridor, "like a telegram in a pneumatic tube," he thought. But his eyes gradually grew accustomed to the darkness, and he could see that there were pictures on the walls--battle pictures, and scenes representing all sorts of historical events. He caught a glimpse of Was.h.i.+ngton crossing the Delaware, and of the battle of Bunker Hill; he saw the taking of the Bastille, and the great London fire. Soon he saw the Spanish Armada and the Crusades, and, later, the burning of Rome, Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon, the siege of Carthage, the building of the Parthenon, the destruction of Troy, the fall of Babylon, and afterwards many other things that he could not recognize. They all seemed to whiz past him in a sort of confused blur. He screwed up courage enough finally to call out to the ex-Pirate:

"Wh-wh-wh-at is th-this pl-pla-ce, and how l-long are we g-going to go l-like th-this?"

"Th-th-these are the halls of Time," the ex-Pirate shouted in reply. "We are going back through them as far as the Deluge."

This explanation was not very satisfactory to Tommy, and although up to the present moment he had not had a chance to think of getting scared, he now began to feel slightly alarmed at what had happened. He was about to question the ex-Pirate again, when suddenly there was a great burst of light, and they seemed to shoot out of the tunnel they had been travelling through. Tommy felt the grasp of Father Time's hand loosen, and the next thing he knew he was rolling head over heels on top of a big hay-stack in the middle of a broad sunny field. He pulled himself together as soon as he could, and found the ex-Pirate sitting in the hay beside him with a somewhat bewildered expression on his face.

"I don't think I like that sort of thing very much," remarked Tommy.

"I can't quite say that I do either," said the ex-Pirate, feeling to see if his pistols were still in his sash.

"Where is Father Time?" continued the little boy.

"I don't know. Perhaps he is going ahead now at his regular rate of sixty seconds to the minute."

Tommy scratched his head meditatively and looked about him. The field in which the hay-stack stood was surrounded by hills and forests, and here and there could be seen various kinds of animals travelling in pairs.

Over the crests of the trees, directly in front of them, the little boy espied something that looked like the roof of an immense barn. He called the ex-Pirate's attention to it.

"That must be the Ark," said the latter, rising. "Let's go and find out."

They clambered down the hay-stack into the field, and started off in the direction of the woods. There was not any path for them to follow, and occasionally they had to wade through tall gra.s.s that reached almost up to their waists. In one of these clumps of herbage they heard voices.

"Oh dear! oh dear!" said one voice, "I am sure we shall be late. We are _always_ late. Oh dear! oh dear! I wonder what time it is!"

Tommy and the ex-Pirate stopped and looked about them; but they could not see any one, and were about to proceed on their way, when they heard the same plaint again. They parted the tall gra.s.ses and followed the direction whence the sounds appeared to come, until they found two Turtles plodding along as fast as they could over the rough ground. It was the larger of the two Turtles that was wailing over the probability of their being late in arriving wherever they were going.

"What's the matter?" asked the ex-Pirate.

The Turtles paused and looked up.

"The matter?" exclaimed the larger Turtle. "Look at this," and he pulled a newspaper clipping out from under his sh.e.l.l. "I am sure we shall be late."