L A TREASURY OF CHARADES, PUZZLES PROBLEMS CHARADE. No. 8. THE east was gray and the stars were pale, In the royal camp that morning. "My first is ever as free as air, And will not be bound by a chain; And swell the victor's train. "As he pines away in his lonely cell, The captive curses my last, While the dull chimes toll, and the slow And the weary days drag past. "Under my helmet is gathered my whole, My comrades all for my presence call, So mount and ride, if death betide, ILLUSTRATED REBUS. - No. 9. DS CARL. My 26,35,22,8,23, every baby ought to have. My 11, 29, 3, 20, London is famous for. My 16, 36, is a girl's name. My 28, 15, 31, 30, 1, 22, you must digest as well as you can. My whole is a favorite sentiment with Irish politicians. L. R. A. SE PUZZLE. DEAR YOUNG FOLKS: E.J. I claim that I belong to the canine species, though most dogs have four legs, while I have only three. I am often black all over; but sometimes my head, neck, and forelegs are yellow. I sleep standing, and live a great many years. I think naturalists might trace my ancestry to the iron age, when I chanced to originate. I am a beast of burden. I can bear a heavy load of wood and bark without opening my mouth. Strange temperature mine. In winter I am usually hot, and in summer cold. One bright boy looking at me says, now that he has guessed me, that he does not see anything very marvellous in me. Let me answer, Nor I. D. N. A. WILLY WISP. ANSWERS. 1. ConchoiD, Rack, Contadina sends us a letter all the way from Italy, and for a reward she shall have it all printed, especially as she gives us good help in it:"DEAR EDITORS: "Last December I neglected to send for 'Our Young Folks,' forgetting how far from home we are; and when in January. I wrote to a friend asking to have it sent to me, some misfortune must have happened to the letter, for I waited till May without any answer to it and then wrote to a cousin, and on returning from a pleasant journey in beautiful Switzerland, I found waiting for me all the numbers from last January down to this October. I cannot tell you how delighted I was to see their dear faces-or backs, rather-once more. They reminded me so much of the good old times at home when they were read aloud in the evenings. In the 'Letter Box' of the September number I notice that a family of children' wish to know 'who can make the largest and most splendid soapbubbles.' I do not know how to make the largest, but I can make them last a very long time. Perhaps the information will be acceptable to my friends, so I send a receipt for the liquid from which to make them, which I take from Sir John F. W. Herschel's Familiar Lectures on Scientific Subjects.' Speaking of soap-bubbles, he says: 'M. Plateau gives the following recipe for such a liquid: 1st. Dissolve one part, by weight, of Marseilles soap, cut into thin slices, in forty parts of distilled water, and filter. Call the liquid A. 2d. Mix two parts, by measure, of pure glycerine with one part of the solution A, in a temperature of 66° Fahr., and, after shaking them together long and violently, leave them at rest for some days. A clear liquid will settle, with a turbid one above. The lower is to be sucked out from beneath with a siphon, taking the utmost care not to carry down any of the latter to mix with the clear fluid. bubble blown with this will last several hours, even in the open air. Or the mixed liquid, after standing twenty-four hours, may be filtered.' I hope our friends will be successful in their attempts at making these bubbles if they should try. The book speaks of making the colors more beautiful than they generally are- which seems to me almost A impossible-by the following process: If a soapbubble be blown in a clean, circular saucer, with a very smooth, even rim, well moistened with the soapy liquid, and care be taken in the blowing that it be single, quite free from any small, adhering bubbles, and somewhat more than hemispherical, so that, while it touches and springs from the rim all around, it shall somewhat overhang the saucer; and if in this state it be placed under a clear glass hemisphere, or other transparent cover, to defend it from gusts of air and prevent its dying too quickly, the colors, which in the act of blowing wander irregularly over its surface, will be observed to arrange themselves into regular circles, surrounding the highest point, or vertex, of the sphere. If the bubble be a thick one (i. e. not blown too near the bursting point), only faint, or perhaps no colors at all, will at first appear, but will gradually come on, growing more full and vivid, and that not by any particular color assuming a greater richness and depth of tint, but by the gradual withdrawal of the faint tints from the vertex, while fresh and more and more intense hues appear at that point, and open out into circular rings surrounding it, giving place, as they enlarge, to others still more brilliant, until at length a very bright white spot makes its appearance, quickly succeeded by a black one. Soon after the appearance of this the bubble bursts.' "Now for a few questions: Would it be breaking trust for you to give us a clew as to the age of Willy Wisp,-whether he is fifteen or thirty? (We fear it would.) Will you tell me whether monkeys ever really do make bridges as described in Afloat in the Forest'? (Yes, they do.) I must tell you how very much I like A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life.' It is one of the most charming stories I ever read. After lending it to a great many friends here, I sent it to Rome, where it had immense success. I hope you will pardon me for taking so much of your time, and believe me to be "Always most truly your little friend." Salome. The language is well chosen and well put together. Is the idea of the sketch your own, or founded upon something German? Hezekiah H., Fictitious, Forget-me-not, Willie and Sophie and Maggie, Parker M., Alice (of Stamford), Blue Jay, Edwin H. Vinton (your ambition is yet in advance of your ability), Jack Spratt, May M. (excuse us for not printing your request, please to spell handsome with a d), Juvenis, E. M., T. B., Ida B., L. & G. C., Alice S., S. E. B., Dot, Arthur, C. W. B., Yankee Middy, Sprite. Thanks, one and all, for your favors and your efforts. Kitty. Puzzles and other "Evening Lamp" matters are not paid for. The other portions of the magazine are all bought. Gracie and Ellie. Glue the leaves to stiff paper or pasteboard, and then coat them with fine varnish. One Interested will find Pitman's books on Shorthand the best, we believe. They may be had in Boston of Otis Clapp, and in New York of Fowler and Wells. Drawer. Ruskin's "Elements of Drawing" will probably suit you. Any bookseller can supply it. It costs about $1.75 or $2.00. Sydney Cuttlebell. You didn't send your work. Seraphina. You can make your picture of "BoPeep" flat and smooth by laying it face downward on a clean ironing-board, dampening it very slightly on the back, and pressing it gently with a warm flat-iron. If you are careful, there will not be a crease left in the sheet. Hautboy. Your long rebus is clever, and nicely sketched; we shall use it by and by. - Lyceum is derived from the Greek word Auketov, which is Carrie Kent. Thank you for your kind letter. We don't like to use puzzles about ourselves. Michigander. The books you name are not on based upon the neighborhood to an early lyceum any of the premium lists. Dimples wants to know whether animals of the higher class reason and think. It has always been held that the brute has in his instinct what supplies the place of man's reason; but Professor Agassiz and other philosophers of our day begin to claim reason for animals. Certainly beasts do many things which can hardly be explained if they cannot think, at least a little. (or place for philosophical and other instruction) of the temple of Apollo Aúxelos, - that is, Apollo the wolf-slayer, wolf in Greek being Aukos. - Nucleus, which means the central point of any mass or collection, comes from the Latin nux (a nut), and meant originally a kernel. Albert Dare. Your story is very well for a beginner, but of course it is not good enough to be published. In the last scene of "Hamlet," Hamlet, asking pardon of his old friend Laertes for any wrong he may have done him, says: "Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, As that I have shot my arrow o'er the house, The words in Italics are the subject of last month's picture-puzzle. This month we give you another of Mr. Day's drawings, into which he has put the whole of a remark made about himself by silly old Dogberry, in the Second Scene of Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," Act IV. |