Clever Puzzle-Solvers.

Answers and Awards in that "Land of Shades" Contest.

A very great number of people took interest in that quaint story from the "Land of Shades" about an election held in that country. The answers sent in competition for the $40 offered in prizes showed an unusually high average in penmanship, neatness, and intelligence. In deciding which answers were the correct ones some standard had to be taken. That standard was "Harper's Book of Facts." It should, however, be explained that the effort was made, when the story was written, to put in no questions on the correct answers to which there is a conflict of authorities. But these contests often bring to light conflicts heretofore unknown. It happened so in this one. The question was about the "Father of Tractarianism." The answer had in advance was Dr. E. B. Pusey. Keble and Newman were prominent, but the title, so far as could be found, had been applied only to Pusey. But several solvers in this contest found authorities for others besides Pusey. So the question was dropped, and played no part in deciding the awards. In passing judgment upon other answers exact spelling of names was not required, nor was it held essential that first names, dates, etc., be given. If the solver showed that he or she had found the correct answers, such showing was excepted. A very great number gave Wöhler as the discoverer of aluminium. Wöhler's employment of the metal was in 1827. Marggraff discovered it and used it, as a toy it is true, in 1754. A slight misunderstanding existed about the large ship recently built. Both answers given were accepted as correct—the Pennsylvania at Belfast, and the Kaiser Wilhelm I., at Glasgow. The hardest question was No. 29. About a dozen guessed it, but they missed other questions in so great number that none of them are among the prize-winners. All prize-winners failed on it. "Clouds," "snow," "sole-soul" were oftenest given, but any one can see that they poorly answer the riddle. Many gave "flamingo" as the answer to the last question but one. Others gave "blackbird." Neither was accepted, because not so good as "flicker."

Following are answers allowed: 1. John Kinzie. 2. Pompey. 3. Abraham Lincoln. 4. Constantine the Great. 5. Robert Cavalier La Salle. 6. G. Wilhelm von Leibnitz. 7. Sir Christopher Wren. 8. St. Vincent de Paul. 9. Rouget de Lisle. 10. Eric the Red. 11. Edward III. of England. 12. John C. Fremont. 13. Schouten. 14. Robert Barker. 15. Praxiteles. 16. Socrates. 17. Tarquin the Elder. 18. Joseph Hopkinson. 19. Andrew Jackson. 20. Queen Elizabeth of England. 21. Dr. E. B. Pusey. 22. Marggraff. 23. H. H. Richardson. 24. F. P. Blair. 25. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Pennsylvania. 26. Helvetii. 27. Knickerbockers of New York. 28. Egyptians. 29. The green cheese of which the moon is said to be made. 30. Ink. 31. North Pole. 32. Butcher-bird or Razor-bird. 33. Jay. 34. Flicker. 35. Chattering Fly-Catcher.

One contestant answered correctly every question save two—29 and 34. His name is Archer O. Yeames, and he lives in Jamaica Plain, Mass. He is given $15 of the $40 prize-money and the highest honor of the contest. Three others tied for second honor, and $4 is given to each. Their names, mentioned in an order that gives a little the highest credit to the first, the next to the second, and so on in the order in which all ties are named, are: Raymond Tilley, Pittsburg, Pa.; Edwin F. Killin, Stevens Point, Wis.; and Mary H. Eastman, Wilmington, Del. The next in order of merit was the answer of Esther Neilson, Philadelphia, and $3 is awarded her. Two tied for fourth place, and are given $2.50 each. Both live in Pittsburg—Thomas S. Jacobs and Pearl Coyle. For fifth place the prizes decrease rapidly—more rapidly than they would had it not proved necessary to admit five instead of three contestants, since five stood exactly alike. That is, they missed the same number of questions, but not always the same questions. They are given $1 each. They are: J. Lawrence Hyde, Washington; Joseph T. England, Baltimore; Paul F. Case, Fairport, N. Y.; Elizabeth C. Drake, Chicago; and Walter Collins, Glenfield, Pa. The Messrs. Harper & Brothers, New York, will forward checks for the sums named as soon as these awards shall have had time to be read by all contestants. The desire is that winners first learn of their success in the printed announcement. To notify them by mail, by sending them money, is to favor them, in time, over other contestants. It was a hot contest. Congratulations are extended to the victors, and the losers are urged to try again. For the information of the latter it may be stated that in this contest scarcely any two were alike; all who failed missed at least five of the thirty-five questions.

More Signs and Omens.

I live in the "Sunny South," where there is a sign for everything that happens. Among the commonest of these, many are of negro origin.

1. Clear in the night, rain again in three days.

2. "Katydids'" arrival, sign of frost in six weeks.

3. Sign of a wedding if a cat washes her face and then looks at you.

4. If the husks on the corn are thick, sign of a cold winter.

5. If the rooster crows before the door, look out for company.

6. If you drop your apron, you have lost your lover.

7. If your hair-pin is about to come out of your hair, your lover is thinking of you.

8. Bad luck for any article of your clothing to burn, either on you or off.

9. Bad luck to have a rainy wedding-day.

10. Sign of a death if a bird comes in the house.

11. Bad luck if a hooting owl comes near the house.

12. Sign of a death if a "screech-owl" comes near the house. (This is considered a terrible thing, and causes great fear among the negroes.)

13. Whippoorwills are considered birds of ill omen.

14. Sign of a death if the dog howls at night.

I think it would be interesting to continue this, and have the members send in different local superstitions.

May Inman Maguire. Hendersonville, N. C.

Going Out on a Risky Errand.

A government Indian agent who has seen years of service tells some stories about Indians. Here is one:

"A ranch near the town of Beaver, in Utah, was attacked by Indians, and one man who was visiting the ranchman's family was killed. The house was surrounded by the Indians, and the people within defended themselves as best they could; but the ranchman, watching his opportunity, lowered his little boy and his daughter, aged eight and twelve, from the back window, and told them to try to make their way to the cañon and follow it down to Beaver, where they could obtain help. The two children succeeded in reaching the cañon unobserved, and with rare presence of mind the boy told his sister to follow down one side of the cañon, and he would follow the other, so that in case the Indians should find one of them the other might not be observed.

"The children succeeded in reaching Beaver, where a relief party was organized, which hastened to the rescue of the besieged party. At the beginning of the siege the Indians had heard the children in the house, and missing their voices, the alert savages discovered that they had gone, and endeavored to overtake them, but being unsuccessful, and knowing that help would soon arrive, withdrew before the rescuers could reach the ranch."

Blind Boys and Baseball.

Blind boys can play baseball. It is not the baseball of the League, but it answers—blind boys. Only one man in the game must have good eyes—the umpire. The diamond is like the regular ones, save that bases are forty instead of ninety feet apart. Players are stationed the same as in a League game, but there is a second short stop, or ten men on each side.

The catcher sits on the ground. Think of it—sits on the ground! He stays well back from the home-plate, and wears a mask and breastplate. The pitcher aims, first, to enable the batter to hit the ball, and, second, to have the ball, if not batted, to strike the ground just in front of the catcher and be taken on the bound. The batsman uses a bat much like a cricket bat. Taking his position, the umpire says, "One, two, three," and on the instant the "three" is spoken the pitcher delivers the ball. The batter has to guess at the time the ball will reach him, and he guesses rightly in more cases than one would think possible. If the ball is missed it lands in the catcher's lap. Beginners at the bat strike ludicrously wide of the ball, but as all the players are blind, they miss the place to laugh. If the ball is batted, the umpire calls out the name of the player toward whom the ball is going. This player hears it, and if he fails to catch it, chases it into the grass. It is his if he gets it, no matter on what bound it may be.

When the batter runs, the first-base man calls out, "First," and keeps calling, so the runner may know in what direction to go. The second-base man does the same, calling, "Second." Six outs put a side out. These blind boys get a wonderful amount of fun out of the play, and become expert at it.

Life in Our Soldiers' Orphans' Home.

No one but a member of a home like this can know enough of the every-day life to fully understand the spirit in which the children take their confinement; for confinement it is in the end. Owing to a peculiar training received here, the average child knows more about the history of our country than any other class of children in the United States. We have good times among ourselves, and originate many plays and jokes. We have a band of sixteen pieces, a debating club, and several minor clubs. On going to school each boy salutes "Old Glory" as he passes it. To show that the boys are poetical (?), for instance, when cold slaw is being passed at the table, the first boy says, "Slaw"; if the next boy doesn't want any, he says, "Naw."

At present all thoughts are centred on Christmas. Ask a boy the day before Christmas or Thanksgiving what he intends to do next day; he will say, "Eat turkey, of course." We are always glad to get a letter, and to be certain of having one in the mail we get our relatives to mark the envelope, so we can tell it before the mail is distributed.

One of the Board of Trustees, who lives in Canton, O., recently visited William McKinley, and told him he was coming to the home next day. Then the President-elect of the United States, with tears coming to his eyes, said, "Give my love to every child there. God bless them!" When the board member told the children this in our chapel, every patriotic son of America raised his handkerchief and shook it, after the manner of the Chautauqua salute, and in his heart said, "Long live our next President!" The boys and girls over fourteen years of age learn a trade, devoting one-half of each day to it. But in every case a half-day pupil has better lessons than a whole-day one. Many children leave here in June next, and have no place to go. If any persons could put these in the way of employment they will find them faithful and true in every sense of the word.

Joseph L. Gill, Cottage 18. Xenia, O.

A Great Man Facing Defeat.

Mr. Gladstone, one of the greatest of Englishmen, and a man who has seen comparatively few of his plans of state succeed, is said to be personally disliked by Queen Victoria. For years he had worked hard upon a plan having for its object the benefit of Ireland and Irish farmers and tenants. Seven years ago all of his plans were frustrated. While his great policy was being wrecked, he sat in the library of the House of Commons and read the words of a famous opera. Some friends finding him there, expressed amazement. But this act of the great minister did not indicate indifference. It showed, rather, a tension that sought relief in order to avoid worse effects. For when spoken to he said, with a voice full of pathos, "For the past five years I have rolled this stone patiently up hill, and it has now rolled to the bottom again; and I am eighty-one years old."

At Least one Faithful Hearer.

A famous Church of England bishop had a dog named Watch. Once, as Watch lay by the open door, the prelate read the Bible passage, "What I say unto you I say unto you all—Watch!" The dog sprang up, and coming forward, lay down by the reading-desk.

"One hearer attends my words, at least," mused the bishop.

Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly answered by the Editor of this column, and we should be glad to hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.

HINTS ON RETOUCHING.

III.—TREATING THE NEGATIVES FROM THE GLASS SIDE.

While this picture does not come exactly under the head of retouching, it describes how to treat a negative from the glass side so that a good print may be made from a negative in which the contrasts between the high lights and shadows are too strong.

Take a piece of best quality white tissue-paper, moisten it slightly, and paste it at the edges to the glass side of the negative. Moistening the paper before attaching it to the negative causes it to adhere closely to the glass without wrinkles.

Put the negative in the retouching-frame with the glass side uppermost, and with a pencil go over the negative, softening the high lights, working up detail in the shadows—in fact, making a drawing of the negative on the piece of tissue-paper with which it is covered. When the drawing or pencilling is finished, take a crayon stump and blend the lines and lighten the edges of the shadows. It is a good plan to have a print of the picture pinned to the board as a guide to working on the negative. When finished and ready for printing, place a piece of tissue-paper or a sheet of ground glass over the frame, and print in the shade. If the first work is not successful, the paper can be removed and a fresh one substituted.

Instead of using tissue-paper the back of the negative may be coated with ground-glass substitute, tinted with red or purple aniline dye. Ground-glass varnish may be made by the following formula, or may be bought ready prepared:

Gum-sandarach45grains.

Gum-mastic10grains.

Ether1fluid ounce.

Benzole¾fluid ounce.

Flow this over the back of the negative, and when dry it may be worked on with a pencil in the same manner as described for the tissue-paper. Where the solution covers the high lights it can be removed either by scraping it away and leaving the glass clear, or it may be removed with spirits of turpentine. The edges may be softened so as to remove the harsh contrast between the clear glass and the tinted solution by rubbing them with a powder made of one part finely powdered resin and two parts dextrine. A leather stump dipped in the powder is the best means of applying it.

In landscapes, where in order to obtain prints of the clouds in the sky the other parts of the picture must be very much over-printed, apply the ground-glass solution to the back of the negative, and soften the lines where the horizon meets the sky by the dextrine powder. A few drops of the aniline dye will be sufficient to give the varnish a tint.

Benzole is highly inflammable, and must not be brought near a light. The varnish should be kept in a glass-stoppered bottle, as the ether is volatile, and soon evaporates if not tightly corked.

For blocking out backgrounds use Gihon's opaque, a non-actinic water-color paint. It costs fifty cents a cake, and one cake will last for a year or more.

William Walker Paten, 937 St. Paul St., Baltimore, Md.; G. Earl Raignet, 603 North Seventeenth St., Phil., Pa.; Elbert H. Dyer, 62 Bradford St., Philadelphia, Pa.; Louise Lewis, 1820 Pine St., Philadelphia, Pa.; Francis T. Stainer, Challinack, B. C.; Raymond E. Reynolds, 34 Ripley Place, Buffalo, N. Y.; Arthur Inkersley, 709 Hyde St., San Francisco, Cal.; Conant Taylor, 159 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, N. Y., George D. Porter, 212 Tulip St., Brooklyn, N. Y.; George Fuller, Pittsfield, Ill.; Gilbert Jackson, Boonville, Oneida Co., N. Y., wish to be enrolled as members of the Camera Club.

Lady Sophie F. Macquaide, 46 Mechlin Street, Germantown, Pa., asks if any member of the Camera Club has a No. 2 Bullet Camera for sale. She wishes to buy one.

W. H. writes that the directions for bromide-paper say that it should be opened in a dark room, and asks if that means that the room must be totally dark; if fixing, clearing, and developing solutions can be bought from dealers in photographic supplies; if Eastman's developing-powder is good for dry plates; and if transparencies can be developed with this powder. By a photographic dark room is meant a room in which there is a yellow or ruby light; the white light fogs the sensitive plate or paper. Solutions of all kinds may be either bought ready prepared, or will be made up at the store where photographic supplies are sold. One can buy the ingredients and make the solutions at home. It is cheaper to buy the hypo and make up the fixing-bath. One ounce of hypo to four ounces of water is the proportion for the fixing-bath. Eastman's powders may be used with any dry plate, and are also excellent for making transparencies.

A SHREWD TRICK.

People in general cannot understand the doings of a student of nature. Especially quite ignorant persons are apt to conclude, when told that the objects of his search are fossils or minerals, that under this explanation is concealed the purpose of securing some buried treasure, for that is the only thing that would induce them to dig. Mr. A. L. Adams relates an amusing instance of this reasoning.

"While excavating a large cavern on the southern coast of Malta, we had dug a trench in the soil on its floor some six feet in depth, in quest of organic remains. The natives in the vicinity, hearing of our presence, came in numbers daily to witness the proceedings, interrogating the workmen with reference to the object of our researches, of which the workmen were about as ignorant as themselves.

"One afternoon three stalwart fellows paid us a visit, and whilst they sat on the heap of dirt staring down into the dark ditch below, I dropped a Spanish dollar on a shovelful of earth, and the next moment it lay with the soil on the heap. Picking it up in a careless manner, I put it into our luncheon-bag, and a few minutes afterwards our friends disappeared, muttering to one another as they went.

"Great was our amusement the next morning to find that our trench had been carried fully four feet below the level we had gained on the previous evening. Not only that; several other excellent sections of the floor had been made by the natives in expectation of finding buried treasure."