A SLOW COACH.

THE Deacon must have some very clever friends. I heard him repeating what he called "a good thing" the other day, adding very quietly, "Franklin said it." The "good thing was this: "Laziness travels so slow that Poverty soon overtakes him."

If any of you happen to meet this Mr. Franklin, I'd like to hear from him again.

JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT.

44

CONNECT ME WITH THE WOODS, PLEASE!" YOUR JACK has been much interested of late in the telephone, that wonderful instrument which ST. NICHOLAS has explained to you so clearly.* I say "so clearly," not because I know how clearly, but because the children of the Red School-house seemed to understand the Little School-ma'am when she made the remark. Yes; I've heard them all talking, and talking, and talking about the telephone, and how the instrument and its wires enable folk to hear each other's voice when miles and miles apart, and how all you have to do is to say: Connect me with such or such a party, please!" and straightway that person shouts "Halloo!" at you out of the telephone's trumpet, held close to your ear, and how you shout "Halloo!" back, and then enter into conversation with that person, just as if she, or he, or it (if it's a telephone operator at the central station) were right at your elbow.

And the thing has grown so amazingly!-improved, I should say. At first, persons could talk from one street to another, or across a few fields or a little stream like the British Channel; but lately they have been talking from New York to Cleveland, and at greater distances, perhaps; and now, as a final touch, what do you think they find they could do with the telephone if they wished? Why, they think that in time they could make it connect city folk, in their own ugly brick houses, with the woods and the streams of the country! Make them hear the very winds that sigh in the trees!

Imagine it! Frogs croaking, by request, in city parlors; forest birds singing to order in lawyers' offices; brooks babbling at elegant dinner parties. I can't imagine it, being, you see, only a Jack-in-the-pulpit. But Deacon Green and the Little School-ma'am imagined it the other day, and they enjoyed it amazingly.

WHY NOT, INDEED?

LEST some of you very, very wise and knowing big chicks should think the Deacon and the Little School-ma'am expect too much of the telephone, I'll just give you here a paragraph that landed on my pulpit one day. It came from an English publication of good repute, I 'm told:

"A short time ago, while Mr. N. G. Warth, manager of the Midland Telephone Company, Gallipolis, Ohio, U. S., was conversing by telephone with Major H. B. Hooner, of Pomercy, Ohio, some twenty miles away, he was surprised to hear the croaking of frogs and songs of wild birds very distinctly. The telephone wire is

known to pass through some dense woods on its course, and the explanation is that some loose joint in the wire acted as a microphone, and taking up the woodland sounds, transmitted them to the telephone at the end of the line. The accident shows that it would be possible to have wild-wood music brought into the heart of the city every morning along with fresh milk and flowers."

LOOK OUT FOR THE MOTH!

WHY is this smiling little girl sitting here, my chicks? She can't be waiting to go out for a walk, because, you see, she has on thin shoes and a summer dress. If these are suitable, then the warm muff and the great feathers are sadly out of place. What, then, is she doing? Who is she?

I'll tell you who and what she is. She's a text. Now, do you understand? No? Well, then, you shall hear further. She is illustrating a fact. You must know that it is very early June, and the little girl's mother (who should have attended to the matter earlier) is packing her winter clothes and curtains and what-not away for the summer, so that the moth now flying about may not lay eggs in them. For these eggs in time would hatch into tiny larvæ, or worms, that would eat the fabrics and make unsightly holes in them.

Furthermore, you must know that there are many kinds of moth. Some kinds attack feathers, some attack furs, some attack woolens, some attack carpets, and some, I am told, do not trouble any of these things. The history of these various moths is very interesting, but I can not tell it here. It would take too long. And that is why the little girl, with her muff and her feathers and her

THE MOON IN A NEW LIGHT.

I HAVE noticed a slightly consequential air about the moon of late, a sort of set-up manner, so to speak, and I have been somewhat at a loss to account for it, for the silvery little lady always has been as modest and simple-minded a moon as one could wish to see,- -but to-day I have found out the causė. She has developed a new talent.

Yes, the Little School-ma'am says—and it must be true that there are now such things as lunar photographs, or photographs taken by moonlight! Think of that! Not likenesses of persons, but of places, lovely hills, lakes and streams and meadows. and rich in effect, besides being clear and well deAnd the pictures are lovely, they say-soft, low, fined. Well, well! That beats anything your Jack has heard of for a long time. Quite a new field for the moon, is n't it? I suppose in this case the fact of her finding out this new power late in life will make but little difference. "Late" and "early" are synonymous terms with the heavenly bodies, I'm told.

Would n't it be too bad, now, if the moon has known all this time that she could make nearly as good photographs as the sun, if somebody only would give her a chance? I can't imagine a more trying situation.

Come to think of it, have n't you often noticed how, at night, she sometimes winds her way in and out among the clouds as if she were searching for something? I have, often. What if it's a camera she's been looking for all these years?

WE are obliged to postpone to the July number the report (promised for this month) concerning the compositions received in answer to our offer made in the April issue. The number of these compositions sent in has greatly exceeded our expectations, making it impossible to examine them all in time for this number. There are still several hundred to be read, but we shall print next month the best composition on each of the two subjects: "A Shark in Sight" and "Robert Burns," together with a Roll of Honor containing the names of those who shall have almost won in the competition.

MR. FORD'S admirable article in this number on "The Tribune Fresh-air Fund" can not fail to enlist the interest and sympathies of all our readers in the beneficent work which he describes. And there is perhaps no charity more deserving and practical than this of giving a fortnight in the country, with all its attendant blessings of joy, rest, and new life to the neglected poor children of the city tenement houses. "The New York Tribune" receives and credits subscriptions to the Fund, whether large or small, and last year the names of many boys and girls appeared in the lists of donations. Indeed, this, like the "Children's Garfield Fund," is a charity to which the subscriptions of young folk are especially fitting.

A GREAT many of our young readers have tried to answer that fierce-looking animal who stalks across page 395 of the March number of ST. NICHOLAS asking for a name, and declaring that he is "not to be trifled with." He would be furious, indeed, if he were to hear the scores of titles that our correspondents have given him.

We must stand bravely between the savage fellow and all those who have mistaken his name, but the following " answerers," though not exactly correct, may approach him, we think, with safety:

Eddie Chenevert-Annie B. Harter- Mabel Milhouse- E. Hunt -Carleton Radcliffe - Harry Kellogg.

Meantime, we take pleasure in showing, one and all, a correct description of the animal taken from "Cassell's Natural History."

"THE LONG-TAILED TIGER-CAT.

"This little-known form-the 'Oceloid Leopard,' as it is sometimes called-was discovered by Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, in Brazil, where it inhabits the great forests, and is often killed for the sake of its beautiful fur. In color it is not unlike the Ocelot, in size it is inferior to it, and its longitudinally elongated spots are neither so large nor so well marked. It is chiefly distinguished from other forms by its long bushy tail and its big staring eyes. It is considerably smaller than the preceding species (i.e. the pampas cat'), the body being about twenty-seven inches long, the tail fourteen."

year by one of my brothers. I never have written to you before, and presume you wish something had happened to me before I did now; but I am threatened with "quinzy," and am rather hard up for something to do. So I went to work at your first puzzle. In hopes it is right, I will tell the way * I read it. you Yours truly,

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: "Bob's Wonderful Bicycle," in the April number, is something like a case I know of, but the boy (his name was Charlie), instead of proving himself a genius as "Bob" did by making a bicycle, thought he would try one already made. At first he tried riding a cart-wheel, but it went too fast, or he went too slow; anyway, he did n't ride it but once. And then he tried a grindstone. I don't know what happened then, but he did n't feel very well for the next few days, and I have n't heard him mention "Bicycle" since. I am fourteen years old. I study algebra, philosophy, and lots of other things, especially mischief. Yours truly,

SADIE C.

MENDON, Dec. 22, 1882. EDITORS OF ST. NICHOLAS: My father has a very curious cat and cow. My brother has seen the cat lying between the cow's horns, and the cow will stay perfectly still, as if she liked it; and my brother has seen the cow lapping the cat, as if she thought it was a calf, and liked to do it. Yours truly, PAUL WILLIAMS (aged 9 years).

SAVANNAH, March 8th.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I saw in your March number that you were surprised to hear that the little girl in San Francisco, twelve years old, never saw a snow-fall. Why, I am fifteen years old, and I have never seen one, and neither has my brother, who is twenty. With much love to you, I remain W. T. H.

WE are now beginning to be surprised, dear W. T. H., at the goodly number of ST. NICHOLAS readers who have never seen a snow-fall. Besides the little California girl and yourself, there is, at least, one other, as the following letter shows. And we can not help wondering whether the many thousands of people in the tropics, to whom snow is only a name for a thing they have never seen, share Minnie V.'s idea that it "fell in chunks, and would hurt people when falling on them."

LOWELL, MASS.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Please allow me to say to Miss Annie Keiller, before I close this letter, that I have the advantage of her. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and had never seen any snow until this winter when I came to Lowell. I always had an idea that snow fell in little chunks, the size of my finger, judging from the snow I had seen in pictures, and thought it would hurt people when falling on them. Judge of my pleasant surprise when I saw real snow falling so softly and noiselessly.

Yours truly, and au revoir,

WE gladly print the following letter, and see much to commend in the suggestion made. Who will be the first of our young readers to respond to it with some sample rhymes?

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: May I venture to suggest an idea to you which might, if it should strike you favorably, be made to combine both instruction and amusement? I have long wished that some enterprising Mother Goose could be found in this generation who Who would undertake to put some useful facts in jingling rhyme. of us ever forgets the doggerel of his babyhood, with its red-andyellow pictures? When I see how easily these stick fast in the memories of my children, and how much drilling a little geography and history require (especially dates and numbers), I mourn at the waste of memory.

How many of us recall at once the number of days in each month without mentally rehearsing: "Thirty days hath September," etc.?

And I for one am always indebted to the old rhyme : "First William the Norman, then William, his son," and the rest, for my knowledge of the succession of the English sovereigns. One of Mother Goose's rhymes says:

"The King of France, with twenty thousand men, Marched up the hill, and then marched down again!" No child ever forgets his number, or that the king was French. I think if ST. NICHOLAS would suggest some such idea in its pages, and ask the young people for contributions, a good deal of fun, as well as benefit, might come of it. Certainly, there is enough that is odd and strange in history to furnish material equal to that of the most grotesque and tragic Mother Goose rhyme, and if illustrated by some of your bright artists, I think the result of this plan might be both useful and entertaining.

Yours very truly, MARY T. SeeComb.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I send you the following charade. It is not original, but I never have seen it in print:

My first, beloved by ancient dame,

Within my next, from ancient countries came; Oh, fragrant whole, of which each forms a part, Thou art not science, but thou teachest art. Answer.-Tea-chest.

Did you ever hear, dear ST. NICHOLAS, of a certain teachers' convention where each teacher was given a pretty memento-a tiny tea-chest, suitable for a watch-charm, which bore the words Tu doces? Your readers who are studying Latin will see the joke. Your constant reader, J. W. P., JR.

AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION.-TWENTY-SEVENTH

REPORT.

WITHOUT Stopping to refute the careless error of those who think that in winter "there are no specimens to be found," let us all make the most of these bright May and June days, when Nature is so lavish with her richest treasures. Probably the greatest obstacle to the young naturalist has been the difficulty in naming his specimens. Is it not a thousand times repeated story that a boy begins to make a collection of minerals or plants, and after a few weeks of diligence and enthusiasm finds his shelves covered with a confused mass of unknown stones and flowers, despairs of attaining exact knowledge or orderly arrangement, and presently suffers his dusty minerals to become dispersed, and his neglected plants to be burned or broken? And, certainly, it is no light task definitely to analyze either mineral or plant. To do this requires a wider and more precise knowledge of language, and a finer training of mind and eye, than most young people possess. It is a work that, fortunately, may be largely left for riper years.

But what we all can do is to find our specimens and study them. We can set in our note-books the date and the locality of each. We can write our descriptions in our own language, using the best terms of our own vocabulary. We can test in our own way hardness, weight, color, elasticity, clearness, crystal-shape, and fusibility. If by chance or friendly aid we learn the name of a

specimen, we can study about it in our text-book, dictionary, and encyclopedia, and compare the technical characteristics there given with our own simpler and less accurate description. We shall soon be able to make the broader distinctions, and to recognize at a glance many forms of quartz, limestone, and iron. It is well to remember that the name is not by any means the most important fact about a specimen. But it is a very necessary thing to learn; and, as we said in the beginning, it is most discouraging not to know it. For this reason we are peculiarly grateful to the gentlemen who have recently offered us their services in the matter of determining for us the names of our refractory pebbles, ferns, and beetles. It is now possible for each of us to proceed intelligently and with satisfaction, even if slowly. With the new offers of aid this month, which we thankfully accept, we have a specialist to help us in nearly every department known to the A. A.

"I shall be happy to answer questions in the ornithological line. "JAMES DE B. ABBOTT, Germantown, Pa."

"I will help you out in anything that pertains to the microlepidoptera, including Pyralida, Tortricida, Tineida, and Pterophorida; and my son, H. L. Fernald, with me, will answer questions on the Hemiptera. C. H. FERNALD, "Prof. Nat. Hist., Maine State College, Orono, Me." "I will undertake to answer questions referring to Pacific Coast (U. S.) Mollusca, and also most of the land and fresh-water shells of N. A: I am also willing to exchange with any who have desirable specimens. "HARRY E. DORE, 521 Clay st., San Francisco, Cal." "STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WESTFIELD, MASS. "In response to your call for a mineralogist to identify specimens that members of the A. A. may collect, I beg to offer my services, as far as my time may admit. F. W. STAEBNER, "Late Mineralogist Ward's Nat. Sc. Establishment, Rochester, N. Ý." "WATERVILLE, MAINE, March 20, 1883.

"I read with much interest the account of the Agassiz Association in last ST. NICHOLAS. It is a work that has my heartiest sympathy, and I would like it to have also what little cooperation I may be able to render. I shall be happy to answer questions relating to the mineralogy of Maine. CHAS. B. WILSON,

"Instructor Nat. Sc., Colby University."

"DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,

"DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY, WASHINGTON, D. C. "I chanced to pick up a number of ST. NICHOLAS this evening, and learned for the first time of the A. A., and saw evidences of its good work. I also noticed your call for an entomologist, and desire to offer my services. Our facilities here for identifying species in the great group of insects are exceptionally good, and I should be very glad if I could help any boy or girl in his or her studies in this direction. LELAND O. HOWARD "

We add the following Department directions for sending insects: "All inquiries about insects, injurious or otherwise, should be accompanied by specimens, the more the better. Such specimens, if dead, should be packed in some soft material, as cotton or wool, and inclosed in some stout tin or wooden box. They will come by mail for one cent per ounce. INSECTS SHOULD NEVER BE INCLOSED LOOSE IN THE LETTER. Whenever possible, larvæ (i. e. grubs, caterpillars, maggots, etc.) should be packed alive in some tight tin box,-the tighter the better, as air-holes are not needed,- along with a supply of their appropriate food sufficient to last them on their journey; otherwise, they generally die on the road and shrivel up. Send as full an account as possible of the habits of the insect respecting which you desire information; for example, what plant or plants it infests; whether it destroys the leaves, the buds, the twigs, or the stem; how long it has been known to you; what amount of damage it has done, etc. Such particulars are often not only of high scientific interest, but of great practical importance. In sending soft insects or larvæ that have been killed in alcohol, they should be packed in cotton saturated with alcohol. In sending pinned or mounted insects, always pin them securely in a box to be inclosed in a larger box, the space between the two boxes to be packed with some soft or elastic material, to prevent too violent jarring. PACK

AGES SHOULD BE MARKED WITH THE NAME OF THE SENDER.

"

"NAT. SC. DEP'T, WELLS COLLEGE, AURORA, N. Y. "My class in Botany are very anxious to make a substantial addition to our herbarium by their own exertions. To this end they propose collecting a number of sets (each to include at least 100 species), characteristic of this 'lower lake region.' These they hope to exchange for corresponding sets-east, west, north, and south-of the flora of many localities. Of course only field, swamp, and forest specimens, none cultivated, will be included, and they wish just such in return. Can you not put in motion the machinery of your very admirable A. A. and help us to arrange for such general exchanges? We will collect through the entire summer, and have our sets ready

for distribution by Oct. 15. I will say, just here, that it will give me great pleasure to determine and classify any botanical specimens which may be sent me. Indeed, I will do anything to help on this good work. EDWARD L. FRENCH."

[This proposition of Prof. French seems to us one of the very best and most practicable plans possible. No Chapter, or member who is botanically inclined, should by any means fail of seizing this rare opportunity of securing a fine collection. We suggest, in addition, that the Chapters be not content with collecting a single set for this exchange, but that several be made at once, which is scarcely more difficult. These can then be exchanged with other Chapters, and thus scores of excellent herbariums be built up in an exceedingly cheap and pleasant way.]

"LABORATORY AND ENGINEERING OFFICE, "SOUTH PITTSBURG, TENNESSEE. "To observe correctly and to register accurately is a greater education than to acquire the artificial systems of analysis in half a dozen branches of science. As a test of how much is obtainable from the Chapters in the way of direct observation as opposed to mere 'book larnin',' I will ask all who will to observe what they can about the growth, flowering, and seeding of the geranium plant (Pelargonium Zonale) and report to me by the 15th of October. Geraniums are everywhere. In this plant are some interesting details, which are not in the books. We will see how many of them they can catch. "As far as I can command time, I am at the service of the A. A. "WM. M. BOWRON." [F. C. S.]

[Prof. Bowron can not fail to pique the curiosity of our boys and girls; and, unless we are mistaken, many of them will discover how the geranium scatters its seed, and - but we must n't anticipate.]

Insects and minerals.-Ernest Stephan, Pine City, Minnesota. Iceland spar, for fossils.-E. R. Heitshu, Lancaster, Pa. Petrified shells (Spirifer radiata), for a male and female silkworm moth.-E. R. Larned, 2546 S. Dearborn st., Chicago.

Electric and chemical apparatus ($3), for minerals.-Kenneth Hartley, Fort Scott, Kan.

Correspondence, North and West.-P. S. Benedict, 1243 St. Charles st., New Orleans, La.

Southern woods, sea-shells, and minerals.-Isaac Ford, 1823 Vine st., Philadelphia.

Mistletoe from Kentucky, and red hematite from Balboa, Spain, for army worm, its eggs or larvæ.-Wm. W. Mills, Reading, Pa. Gold ore and amethyst. Write for particulars.-R. J. Wood, 134 Jackson st., Jackson, Mich.

Woods, eggs, minerals.-Winfred H. Trimble, Princeton, Ill. Insects, woods, petrified wood, for fossils and minerals.-A. A. Crane, Auska, Minn.

Silver ore.-Dr. Jos. A. Stiles (Sec. Ch. 306), Belmont, Nye Co., Nevada.

REPORTS FROM CHAPTERS.

Jamaica Plain (124) has been studying the formation of ice, and sends good drawings.-Newton Upper Falls (256) is taking increased interest in the work, making individual collections.-Washington, D. C. (109) has been studying the brain of the dog. The specimen was prepared by Robert Bigelow, according to Giacomm's method. The brain is first soaked for about a week in a saturated solution of zinc chloride. On the second day the membranes are removed. It is then put in alcohol for at least a week. Then it is soaked in glycerine, in which it floats, until it sinks to a level with

the fluid. The surplus glycerine is then washed off, the brain is dried and varnished and placed on a piece of glass. The Chapter has also examined alga under the microscope, and detected the grains of chlorophyl. Animalcula have been studied, and the following facts reported: The skin of the whale is insensible, for barnacles grow upon it. The flesh of the whale is red and coarse.168, Buffalo C, is prospering. All Buffalo Chapters meet together once a month.-91, Buffalo A, has at length bought a very fine microscope, for which it has been working a year and a half. It is an "Improved National Binocular," and cost, with two objectives, $137. Cora Freeman, Sec. [Accept our congratulations. ]-W. M. Patterson, Sec. Chicago G, sends a good article on the Proteus, which he finds to be a batrachian, with a naked, slimy skin, about a foot long, half an inch in diameter, pale flesh color, and with bright crimson branchial tufts. It is found only in the subterranean waters of some caves in Europe, especially in the Adelsberg cave in Carniola. Its food consists of aquatic worms, insects, and molluscs.-374, Brooklyn, now numbers 15, and is about to buy a ten-dollar cabinet. Germantown B is prosperous, and wishes to know whether any fossil animals are found in coal.

NOTES.

(15) Water Lilies.-What becomes of the water lilies when through blooming? By observation, we find that the closed lily sinks in an upright position, and disposes of its long stem by coiling it around and around on the bottom of the river.

(16) Beetle.-I have a beetle like the Phaneus, excepting the horn. Is it the female? [Yes.]

(17) Snakes Eggs.-We found some garter-snakes' eggs while digging bait. Two of them broke, and we saw the young snakes, which were alive.

(18) Pollen.-As nearly as I can determine, the pollen grain of Nasturtium is a triangular prism. I can think of no other way of explaining the shapes which appear under the glass. I show the principal appearances at A, B, and C, all of them being very common.

B.

Figures A, B, and C1 represent what I imagine must be the real shapes of the outlines shown at A B C:

(19) Leaves.-Some years the ash leaves before the oak, and some years the oak leaves first. SYLVIA A. Moss.

(20) Polyphemus.-I have found this larva on oak, elm, willow, and birch; Promethea on ash, cherry, and lilac: Cecropia on apple, maple, and willow. PHILIP S. ABBOT,

(21) Sleep of Plants.-We brought home some locust beans, and were surprised one night to find them asleep. At sunset, the leaflets at the top of the stalk began to close. The only way I can illustrate the closing process is to join the two hands by commencing at the wrist, and place each finger against the corresponding one on the other hand, as we do when praying. Will some one tell me what causes a yellow spot on hawthorn leaves? A READER.

Those of our members who avail themselves of the services of the specialists mentioned in this and the two previous numbers of ST. NICHOLAS must remember the directions for correspondence already given. If any members are studying in any department in which no specialist has yet volunteered assistance, they will please communicate with the President of the A. A.

Any person may join the Association, whether a subscriber to ST. NICHOLAS or not; but those who are not members can not have notices of exchange mentioned here.

Address all communications, except questions in the several departments, to the President,

HARLAN H. BALLARD,
Principal of Lenox Academy, Lenox, Mass.