Harper's Round Table, July 16, 1895 Part 13

Old and New.

Franklin Square Song Collection.

The "Franklin Square Library" has given many valuable numbers, but none so universally attractive as this. Nowhere do we know of an equally useful collection of School, Home, Nursery, and Fireside Songs and Hymns which everybody ought to be able to preserve, and which everybody will be able to enjoy.--_Springfield Journal._

Price, 50 cents: Cloth, $1.00. Full contents of the Eight Numbers, with Specimen Pages of favorite Songs and Hymns sent by Harper & Brothers, New York, to any address.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Suggestions for that Gala Night.

So many want to know how to have that "Gala Evening" that we print the directions.

It is intended for out-of-doors--a lawn or vacant lot. If need be, build a platform 16 by 20 feet, but where the gra.s.s is smooth this may not be necessary. Get evergreens from the woods for "scenery," and use two pairs of portieres sewed together for a curtain. For music use an upright piano, if nothing better offers; for lights use lanterns--head lights, if you can get them; and for seats borrow benches from a church or hall, or they may easily be made from some borrowed lumber.

A capital programme will be a pantomime and a farce. n.o.body has anything to learn in the former, so if you want to get it all up in two nights'

practice select two pantomimes. Here are some good ones: "The Mistletoe Bough," to be had of French & Son, 28 West 23d Street, New York, price 15 cents; and "Aunt Betsy," "Priscilla," and "Dresden China," Harper & Brothers, New York, price 5 cents each. If you can try a farce, get "A Ticket to the Circus" or "The Tables Turned," Harper & Brothers, price 5 cents each, or "Who's Who?" "Turn Him Out," "The Delegate," "Quiet Family," or "Beautiful Forever," price 15 cents each, to be had of French.

An ideal programme is "The Mistletoe Bough," followed by either "A Ticket to the Circus" or "Who's Who?" The former takes eighteen or twenty; the latter four. A good way is to send for one copy of several farces and pantomimes, then read and select what is best suited to your needs.

Sell your tickets in advance at 25 cents each. When they are presented, give a small blue or red check, which you explain is good for a plate of cream after the performance. Let the ice-cream man attend to all details, and you cash all his checks next day at 5 cents each. He will do this, and your guests will be satisfied.

Do not fear an element of discord from the neighborhood small boy because the performance is out-of-doors, nor need you fear people will come in without paying if you have no rope stretched. You will have no trouble from these sources. The thing is novel, being out-of-doors.

There is no rent to pay. The ice-cream to be had free will draw if you advertise it. And, by confining your programme to pantomimes, you can learn all in two evenings. Even farces take little longer, and you cannot fail in rendering them.

One member asks if Chapters _have_ to help the School Fund. Our Order has no "have tos." A company of young persons might give the "Gala Evening," present a small sum to the Fund or some other charity, and with the balance get each one taking part HARPER'S ROUND TABLE for one year. But of course you do as you please with your own. The gala evening or gala afternoon is the thing.

Making Small Journals.

The Table is much interested in amateur journalism, and is able to print herewith two morsels that may be of benefit to all. Ralph T. Hale is co-editor with F. W. Beale, of the _Amateur Collector_, 11-1/2 Spring Street, Newburyport, Ma.s.s., and Edward Lind edits the _Jug_, Box 633, East Oakland, Cal., and is greatly interested in the National Press a.s.sociation. Both papers are models, the Table thinks, of what play journals should be. Of course Sir Ralph may send us that natural history morsel. He writes:

"When a person has decided to publish an amateur paper, he first prepares a 'dummy' showing the size of his pages and their number, the number of columns on a page, the place where he intends to print his sub-heading and editorials, and the amount of s.p.a.ce he intends to give to advertis.e.m.e.nts. Then he goes round among his friends and asks their subscriptions, and likewise solicits advertis.e.m.e.nts from his business acquaintances. Having established his paper on a comparatively firm financial basis, he next proceeds to prepare copy for his first issue, first consulting a printer as to prices which he should pay for a good job. After he has published his first number it is much easier to secure subscriptions and advertis.e.m.e.nts, as he has a paper to show to doubtful persons.

"The prices for printing depend largely on the quality of work and the size and number of papers printed. Printers will generally print five hundred papers at about the same price as that asked for one hundred. Remember that it is the amount of type which a printer has to set which decides the price. Sometimes the price is as high as seven or eight dollars per hundred, and again it is as low as two dollars and a half for five hundred.

"Of course, if you are lucky enough to have a press of your own, the cost of an amateur paper is not so large, but for a boy busy with school-work it pays better in the end to hire the greater part of his printing done. The size of an amateur paper is one of the most important points to be considered. It should not be too large, for then it has an overgrown appearance, nor yet too small.

A medium size is preferable. Good sizes are 8 by 5-1/2 inches, and 7 by 10 for each page. I am very much interested in botany, and would like to correspond on that subject. May I write again on natural history?

"RALPH T. HALE."

As there are amateur papers, there are also amateur printers. As a rule, these printers do good work for a much less price than professional printers charge. Perhaps the cheapest amateur printer is M. R. King, of Cobleskill, N. Y. Mr. King will print 500 copies of a paper, size page of HARPER'S MAGAZINE, for $1 per page. The National Amateur Press a.s.sociation convenes at Chicago July 16-18.

The ticket below is the one favored most by the Pacific coast: For President, David L. Hollub, of San Francisco; for First Vice-President, C. W. Kissinger, of Reading, Pa.; for Recording Secretary, A. E. Barnard, of Chicago, Ill.; for Corresponding Secretary, E. A. Hering, of Seattle, Wash.; for Treasurer, Alson Brubaker, of Fargo, N. D.; for Official Editor, Will Hanc.o.c.k, of Fargo, N. D.; for Executive Judges, C. R. Burger, Miss E. L.

Hauck, and J. F. Morton, Jun.

The Pacific coast is the most active amateur centre in the world.

There are thirty-four amateur papers in San Francisco. Seattle has a live amateur press club of thirty members. I shall be glad to send sample copies of amateur papers and to give further information.

EDWARD LIND.

Kinks.

No. 89.--AN ARBORET FROM THE POETS.

FOR SPRING-TIME.

1.

"Swelled with new life the darkening ---- on high Prints her thick buds against the spotted sky."

2.

"On all her boughs the stately ---- cleaves The gummy shroud that wraps her embryo leaves."

3.

"Far away from their native air The ---- ---- their green dress wear; And ---- swing their long, loose hair."

4.

"The ---- spread their palms like holy men in prayer."

5.

"The wild ---- ---- waste their fragrant stores In leafy islands walled with madrepores And lapped in Orient seas, When all their feathery palms toss, plume-like, in the breeze."

6.

"Give to Northern winds the ---- ---- on our banner's tattered field."

7.

"The ---- dreamy t.i.tans roused from sleep-- Answer with mighty voices, deep on deep Of wakened foliage surging like a sea."

8.