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EDITORIAL NOTES.

By an oversight, we omitted to state in the October number of ST. NICHOLAS that the large picture of the Parthenon at Athens, on page 943 of that issue, was used by permission of Messrs. A. and C. Black, of Edinburgh, Scotland, publishers of the "Encyclopedia Britannica," in which the illustration originally appeared. Our thanks are due to Messrs. Black, and our regret that their courtesy failed to receive acknowledgment at the proper time.

COOKING is as old as food, but to teach cooking to children is quite a new idea. Miss Huntington's book, the Cooking Garden, which

has just been published, is intended to do this. Any mamma or auntie or older sister can find in this useful book carefully-planned lessons in cooking, so prepared as to render it possible to guide the children in that most delightful of all childish mysteries-"real cooking, just like mamma's." Miss Huntington has, by simple methods, changed cooking from a mystery to an inexpensive and enjoyable childish amusement, in which, during many a rainy day or leisure hour, young girls may acquire a practical knowledge that will prove very useful throughout their lives. The book will also be found of service by teachers in industrial schools.

in.

THE LETTER-BOX.

CANTON, OHIO.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have just finished reading your nice October number. The piece called "How Science Won the Game" is a very good story, and tells of just such a game as I like to engage But do you think that the ball really curved? I know it seems to; I have often been misled myself, but think it an optical illusion. My father has carefully studied the subject of "curves," and claims it is impossible. He offered ten dollars as a premium at the Stark Co. Fair; but, though there are many in the county who claim to "curve," none dared to try it. His test was this, namely, Put three stakes in a row, the dots (.) representing them, the ring (0) representing the pitcher. The pitcher can stand in any place back of the first stake, and need not be in the place represented by the diagram. He must throw the ball in the direction represented by the dotted line, or so it will pass to the left of the first stake, to the right of the second, and to the left of the third, or opposite.

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NEW YORK, October 22, 1885.

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DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have read the copy of Arthur Dart's letter, and am not surprised at his questions. For a long time I myself doubted whether a ball could be made to curve, but in the summer of 1884, I devoted several weeks to working out the problem, and satisfied myself and others that it was not an optical illusion. confess that I have not been able to learn why a ball curves when thrown in a certain way, but that it does so curve I am quite sure. An ivory billiard-ball struck sharply on one side will turn out of its natural course before reaching a cushion, and the same principle applies to a base-ball. It is a globe. The points where the thumb and finger touch are the two poles. If thrown with a jerk, the ball revolves on its axis while in the air, and, like the ivory billiard-ball, deviates from its course. I know scores of pitchers who can perform the test proposed by Arthur's father successfully, and if Arthur will take a trip with me to a little village away up among the hills of New England, I can introduce to him the very lad who, by the aid of "science," won the game. Yours very truly,

GEORGE B. M. HARVEY.

TWINE HOUSES.

DUNMORE, PENNSYLVANIA. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I want to write and tell you about the twine house we made, like the one mentioned in the May number of ST. NICHOLAS. We had neither the right kind of a tree nor the crooked sticks; so we managed in this way: We used pointed stakes (brother George made one hundred and twenty-three, and was very tired of them before he had finished) with staple-tacks in the heads of them, and Papa strung up wires for us, just as we

wanted them, from two trees to the grape-arbor; and then we were all right. The tents are larger than those shown in your article, and we had so much lacing to do that we laced in squares instead of diamonds. I have two sisters and one brother. My brother is ten and my sisters are four and nine. My youngest sister's name is Anna, and the other one, Marjory. I am nearly thirteen. Our Aunty Grace, who is with us, helped ever so much. We all love

you very much, and watch for you every month. I hope Miss Alcott will write some more stories. I do like her stories so much. Good-bye, dear ST. NICHOLAS. From your little friend,

HELEN M

YONKERS, N. Y.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have so long enjoyed your monthly visits that I feel as if I ought to write you a few lines to thank you for all the entertainment you have given me.

I always read the little letters written to you by your young readers, and perhaps you will acknowledge this in that way. While in Saratoga I saw a very pretty summer-house made of laths and cords covered with morning-glories; I stopped to admire it, and a little girl who was playing about told me she had made it, and that she had taken the idea from the ST. NICHOLAS. It was so pretty that I have resolved to make one next spring. Perhaps some of your readers would like to try it. But I have now written a long enough letter, so I will say goodbye. Your devoted reader, A. S. STONE.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I have been intending to write to you for some time past, to tell you what great pleasure you add to our home. I wish to tell you that I am very fond of painting, and if any of your readers want designs for Christmas-cards, tell them to look through ST. NICHOLAS and they will find plenty. I thought that one with the two children singing, called the "Christmas Carol" was lovely. I painted several copies on small cardboard palettes. The frontispiece of the May number, called "On the Road to Alibazan," I copied in pen and ink. It makes a lovely card if done with a very fine pen. I hope you will find a little corner in the Letter-box for my letter. I should like to see it in print, amazingly. Always your fond reader, ISABEL C. A.

FORFAR, SCOTLAND.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Many of your readers, both English and American, have heard doubtless of heather, and of white heather, which even the best Scotch people believe brings good luck to the finder. This heather grows in small patches on some moors; sometimes as many as fifteen or twenty patches are found, while, again, one can go miles and find none.-We all were surprised to find the extent of this belief. A man on our place, who is very poor and old, and to whom I often have sent food, told me one day there was but one thing he wanted in the world. On asking what it was, he told me he wanted a patch of land about two hundred feet square, on one of the moors near, which he heard was very lucky. I am saving "all my pennies," he added, "and perhaps the master will let me buy it. Being interested as to the truth of the statement, I went one day to see this part of the moor. He was right; the white heather was thick. My father had a fence put up about the ground, and I went the other day to give it to him. Now he may be seen every fine day seated in the grass, with his pipe, quite happy. On Sundays, he always gives me a bunch of pink and white heather, mixed, and I generally put it in my dress for good luck.

Thinking that this might interest some of your American readers, as it would have interested me before I came to England to live, send this line, hoping you will find some place for it in the Letter-box. I remain, yours truly, EVELYN.

MONTREAL.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: For some time I have watched, but in vain; for I have not seen any letters in your interesting pages from this Canadian city. For the past three years you have afforded me much enjoyment, particularly during my free hours at a boarding-school.

Some of your stories are so interesting, especially the papers concerning the great musicians. The "Brownies" and their doings amuse me very much; and I often copy your pretty illustra

tions.

Now, dear ST. NICHOLAS, I shall bring my letter to an end, so accept every good wish that you may continue and prosper, from Your admiring friend, ""BELINDA."

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I send you with this a little song which can be sung by children at Christmas festivals, to the air of " Nancy Lee." Yours truly, CHARLOTTE HAMMOND.

SANTA CLAUS.

Air: "Nancy Lee."

Of all the friends that children know,
There's none like Santa Claus, I trow;
He's sure to be at Christmas-trees,
For young and old he aims to please.
Oft he does slide, while children bide,
Down chimneys tall,

With lots of toys for girls and boys,
Both great and small;

Then stockings stuffs till each one puffs

Out like a ball.

All hail to Santa Claus!

CHORUS.

So Santa Claus the children's friend shall be, In ev'ry land, on ev'ry sea;

And when, to-night, old Santa's face we see,
We'll give him welcome warm and free.

The clock is on the stroke of eight!
Sometimes, tho', Santa Claus is late;
For lots of trees to-night there 'll be
Which our good friend must call and see.
But soon we'll hear him coming near,
There at the door.

These children all by name he'll call,
As oft before.

For each there 's here, if not 't is queer,
One gift or more.-

All hail to Santa Claus!-CHORUS.

HERE are five letters, received during the first half of October. They were written, as you will see, in various widely severed parts of the world.

HEATHCLIFF, PLYMOUTH R., PENARTH. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: You are the best magazine I ever took, and I like you very much. Your stories are simply splendid. I have read a lot about butterflies, and seeing that Miss Helen, who wrote an article on butterflies, could not tell what the white butterflies were, I will tell her that they are the common garden, white, and greenveined white. The swallow-tails are rare in England, and I never saw one alive.

I want to tell you how I stopped a fight. It was a fight between boys. It was n't fair, one being smaller than the other. Each round, the little one was thrown, and his nose was bleeding. So I stepped in between them and faced the big bully, and cried, "Stop the fight!" Thereupon they put their coats on, and went away.

You must excuse my writing, as I am in a hurry. I am only eleven, yet I am writing a novel, and, if it were not for the fear of being suspected of a pun, I should call it a "novel idea."

Do print this, ST. NICHOLAS. It would be such a surprise, since I have n't had one printed before. I love you very much, and will remain your friend and admirer,

B. W.

HOBART, TASMANIA.

DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Perhaps some account of Tasmania may be interesting to your readers. It was formerly called Van Dieman's Land, but the name was changed to Tasmania some years ago. The scenery is very lovely in some parts. The climate is fine, not very hot in summer, not very cold in winter. There is very little frost, and the geraniums and heliotropes grow into large bushes. The fern-trees are very pretty; they will not grow in England except in hot-houses. The vegetables grow to a large size; we recently saw a turnip in a green-grocer's window which weighed thirty-one pounds and was fifty-four inches in girth. The native Tasmanian cherry has the stone outside the fruit. Some of the wild animals in the bush are the Tasmanian devil, the native tiger, the kangaroo, and the duck-billed platypus, a very curious creature; it has the bill and webbed feet of a duck, and has a fur coat. Shocks of earthquake frequently occur, particularly in the north part of the island. The harbor is very fine, and there is very good boating; we go out in a boat very often. We were born in Canada, but have traveled about a great deal since then. We remain, your constant readers, WILFRED AND GEOFFREY Bird.

SHANGHAI, July 5, 1885. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: I live in Shanghai, and, as I do not go to school or have very many playmates, you are a very welcome friend in this house; and I think our little English friends will enjoy you just as much. They have no magazines in England like the ST. NICHOLAS. My father likes the ST. NICHOLAS too, and is reading 'Among the Law-Makers."

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Shanghai is a very busy place, and there are a great many different kinds of people here, mostly Chinese, of course, but among the foreigners there are more English than anything else. Yesterday (the Fourth of July) we bought some fire-crackers, and before breakfast we set some off; and in the morning I went on the U. S. manof-war, the "Juniata"; and after dinner I got some other boys to go with me to a place on the bank of the Soochow Creek, and we set off a lot more. In the evening we had some fireworks.

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HILO, HAWAII, Sept. 8, 1885. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: Your magazine comes regularly to these Sandwich Islands, and is a great favorite with us all-young and old read it. Perhaps some of your readers in America would be amused with this composition, of one of our Hawaiian boys, who

attends our English-speaking school. Arthur is a good penman, though he goes astray in his English; he can draw a full-rigged ship on the black-board that no public school boy need be ashamed of. He is fourteen years old. Here is his composition, which you may print if you wish. ONE OF YOUR HILO READERS.

ABOUT THE LION.

THE Lion it is called the king of beasts, and it is found in Asia and Africa, and also it is found in South America. The Lion kind is like the cat kind. It have long whiskers and have paws, and have sharp claws, can tear the animal's body, and have big head. The lion can carry off a Bullock. I heard if the Lion hungry would not get anything to eat, he go down where houses are, and then go and catch men, and ran off in the woods. I heard of a story, a lion went into the house and saw a big glass in a room, and a sleeping on his bed; the man saw the Lion, he got afraid and so he sleep, and the Lion look in the glass and saw a man, and he think the man in side of the glass, and so he jump in the glass, and the man ran to get his gun, and he shot him for two bullets and he dead, when the Lion jump into the Looking-glass, all his face scratch up.

ARTHUR IANKEA AKAN.

MT. LEBANON, SYRIA. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: This spring I went on a trip to Jerusalem, with my father and mother and two other friends; and I should like to tell you about one excursion that we took, for it would take a whole number of ST. NICHOLAS to tell all about the trip. The excursion I am going to tell you about is one we took from Jerusalem to Bethany. We started just after lunch, on donkeys, a party of seven. When we had come to the foot of the Mount of Olives we stopped at the so-called sepulcher of the Virgin Mary. The monk that kept it showed us down a long flight of steps into a room which was hung with lamps. Right across the room was stretched a curtain, and on the other side we saw a stone that is said to be the sepulcher of the Virgin Mary. After we had left the sepulcher, we went to the Garden of Gethsemane, which is near by. It is kept by a Catholic monk. The flowers were not very beautiful, but we saw there some grand old olive-trees, but they are not the same that were there at the time of Christ. At intervals, all about the garden, were pedestals; at the top were cases which inclosed scenes of the crucifixion. The old priest had a cat that he seemed very much pleased to have us pet. As there was nothing more to see, we mounted our donkeys and came away. When we reached the top of the mountain we dismounted from our donkeys, and went up into a minaret, where we had a very fine view of Jerusalem. There was a church there, which we went into. This church was built by a French lady. We also saw the Lord's Prayer in thirty languages;

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185 MADISON AVENUE. DEAR ST. NICHOLAS: We have just arrived home from our summer trip, which was to Alaska and the Yellowstone Park.

One morning we were on the ship in a place called Glacier Bay. There was a very large glacier, with great masses of ice breaking off it and floating about in the water. There was a pet bear on board; his name was Pete, and he was a friend of all the people on board the ship. One day he broke his rope and tumbled overboard. He made for a cake of ice, which was two miles off. The captain stopped the ship and turned about, but soon saw that would not do, so he put off a boat with the mate and a crew in it. The mate called the bear's name very loud, and as soon as he heard his name, he turned in the direction he heard the sound coming from, swam to the boat, and when he was near enough and was about to be pulled in, he made a most pitiful cry; so they left him alone, and he climbed in the boat himself. The men rowed for the ship, and were hoisted up by the davits on deck.

And now comes the funny part! When they pushed him over the side of the boat upon the deck, he jumped through the crowd and made all the people stampede. Then he ran at once into a lady's stateroom, leaped into the berth and sat on the pillow, and made the lady run away with her little dog, much frightened. A sailor went in with a collar and a rope, put the collar around his neck, and took him downstairs the back way; then they tied him up. Poor Pete! And he never tried to get away again.

I am five years old, but nearly six. I composed the letter, but my mamma wrote it, as I can only print. Yours truly, WALTER B. H.

WE beg the young friends whose names here follow, to accept our sincere thanks for pleasant letters received from them: L. W. F., Corine V. M., Mabel H. Chase, L. Jennie Judge, Harry B. Sparks, C. G., William Edward Moss, Jessie M., Ida Ross, Kate Stebbins, Carrie May Suits, Bella and Blanche G., Eoline Russell, Johnnie H. Du Bois, Emily, Sam Bissell, Sadie Lewis, Sarah Raney, Egbert B. Shepard, Margaret, Amy Chamberlain, Bert R., Amy L., Atha H., Daisy Sharpe, Mabel S., Estelle Mann, George H. Shepard, Margaret Baird, Rose Marie Louis, Ella L., Lulu C., Lena B., Florence Wardwell, Mary W. McNair, Marie T. Morrison, Nitza and Nan, Carrie Cargin, W. F., Florence E. Lorey.

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TO ALL the Chapters and members of the Agassiz Association, a Merry Christmas! If the greeting is a few days too early, it is not less sincere, and we have the satisfaction of "saying it first!" We take pleasure in the thought that Saint Nicholas will bring to many a stocking this year, gifts different from those he would have chosen before our A. A. was organized. Microscopes and cameras and blow-pipes will replace candies and toys and ear-rings, and no one will be less happy.

Now, as the good pastor says, "We are requested to make the following announcements":

1. The paper called the Young Naturalist suspended a year ago. 2. Mr. Hayward has stopped the manufacture of badges and medals, and until further notice all orders for A. A. badges may be sent to the President.

It gives us pleasure to announce, without request, that Mr. G. W. Altman, one of our members, won the first premium at the Erie County fair, at Hamburg, N. Y., for his collection of insects, which contains more than four hundred specimens.

Now that the snow and cold weather make collecting difficult in the Northern States, the season is most propitious for indoor work. All specimens should be carefully analyzed, neatly labeled, well arranged. It is very important to the success of a Chapter that everything be kept in what Grandmother used to call "apple-pie order."

But some things can be collected in wintercocoons and birds'-nests are more easily found, as they are no longer hidden by leaves. Many plants bud in the fall and early winter, and shoots of these gathered and kept in water in sunny windows will blossom long before their natural time.

Strange birds occasionally visit us, either alone or in company with snow-birds. Professor Tyndall's very interesting experiments with ice may be repeated and others invented, and then we were to draw more snow-crystals; not for prizes this time, but for the love of truth.

Every drawing sent in will be acknowledged, with thanks; and one more winter ought to add

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