Harper's Young People, September 28, 1880 Part 6

GRAFTON, WEST VIRGINIA.

I don't know what I would do now without my YOUNG PEOPLE. I have taken it ever since it was published, and I hope I will always get it. Of all the long stories, I like "The Moral Pirates" best, but I like the others too.

I love to read about the pets the little girls and boys write about in the Post-office Box. I have some too. I believe I like my ducks the best. I have two old ones and ten young ones. I hope Bessie Maynard will stay at Old Orchard Beach a good while, and write some more letters to her doll. When I go away from home I always take my doll with me. I have a little sister Mabel, but she is only four years old. She likes the pictures in YOUNG PEOPLE better than the stories. I am almost nine, and I can read in the Fourth Reader.

CLOYD D. B.

Middletown, New York.

I send a recipe to the chemists' club, which, if not new to the club, may be to many readers of YOUNG PEOPLE.

_Metal Tree._--A bar of pure zinc two and a half inches long and three-eighths of an inch in diameter; ten cents' worth of sugar of lead. Fill a decanter with pure water; suspend the bar in it easily by means of a fine bra.s.s wire running through the centre of the cork; pour in the sugar of lead, and cork tightly. Let it stand without being moved, and watch the formations.

Our boy took a quart gla.s.s fruit jar, and bought a cork to fit it for a few cents. He could not get a solid bar of zinc, but had a piece of zinc folded which answered the purpose. Then following the rest of the directions, he placed the jar on the mantel-piece.

The next day; the formations began, and are constantly changing.

L. E. K.

I send some simple experiments for the chemists' club. Put into a small chemist's mortar as much finely powdered pota.s.sium chlorate as will lie upon the point of a penknife blade, and half the quant.i.ty of sulphur; cover the mortar with a piece of paper having a hole cut in it large enough for the handle of the pestle to pa.s.s through. When the two substances are well mixed, grind heavily with the pestle, when rapid detonations will ensue; or after the powder is mixed, you can wrap it with paper into a hard pellet, and explode it on an anvil with a sharp blow of a hammer.

To make iodide of nitrogen, cover a few scales of iodine with strong aqua-ammonia. After it has stood for half an hour, pour off the liquid, and place the brown precipitate, or sediment, in small portions on bits of broken earthenware to dry. When perfectly dry, the particles may be exploded with the touch of a rod, or even of a feather.

I would like to exchange crystallized quartz or gold ore for zinc or silver ore.

JOHN R. GLEN, Nacoochee, White County, Georgia.

We would advise our young chemists to buy some good work on the elements of chemistry, and study it well before they undertake any experiments, as handling reagents, when one is not aware of their true composition and behavior under all conditions, is a very dangerous pastime, by which absolutely nothing can be learned, and a great deal of mischief done to face, eyes, hands, and clothing, to say nothing of mamma's table-cloths and carpets.

NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.

I thought I would write to the Post-office Box about my white mice. At one time I had fourteen, and they did many funny tricks.

One of them would go on a tight cord, in the centre of which was fastened a pan of bird seed, holding on by his tail all the time.

Another would go up an inclined plane, and then down a string to get bird seed. I could tell many other funny tricks they did, but I am afraid my letter would be too long.

JOHN R. B.

PORT BYRON, ILLINOIS.

I am seven years old, and I live on the east bank of the Mississippi. My papa owns a raft steamer, which is busy towing rafts from the foot of Lake Pepin to Hannibal and St. Louis. Every summer my mamma and I take a trip with papa up or down the river.

We are gone a week or more. Oh, I just have jolly times! The men on the rafts make me whistles and little boats. The cook gives me dough every time he bakes. I make fried cakes, biscuits, and pies all out of the same piece of dough. I am not as particular as the little girls who send recipes to the Post-office Box.

My grandma in Wisconsin subscribed for YOUNG PEOPLE for me, and I enjoy it more than any present she ever gave me, because it is something new every week.

FREDDIE J. B.

ALBION, NEW YORK.

I live with my mamma and grandpa and grandma. I am four years old, but I am going to be five in October.

I have a little brother named Judson, but he calls himself "B." He is three years old. He had a birthday cake with three candles on it--a red one, a green one, and a white one. At breakfast a pair of little oxen stood at his plate with a load of candy and a little doll driver. He was so good he gave me more candy than he kept himself, and the dolly too.

"B" likes "The Moral Pirates" because it is about boats. We are too little to guess the puzzles, but we like the letters in the Post-office Box ever so much.

"LITTLE PEARL."

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

I think the "worm" described by Maggie P. B. is the caterpillar of the willow sphinx moth. I have found several of them on the willow-trees, and I kept them and fed them every day. In the fall they turned into chrysalides, which I kept all the winter. In the spring beautiful moths, nearly six inches across the wings, came out of them. I am collecting b.u.t.terflies and moths, and my father has given me a nice case for them.

CLIFFORD S.

I am collecting coins, minerals, birds' eggs, and postmarks, any of which I would gladly exchange with any reader of YOUNG PEOPLE.

WILL E. BREHMER, Penn Yan, Yates County, New York.

I take HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, and wish every one would do the same, as it is splendid.

I would like to exchange postage stamps with any of the subscribers, as I have a good many.

JAMES D. HEARD, Union St., Mount Washington, Pittsburgh, Pa.

I would be pleased to exchange birds' eggs with any readers of YOUNG PEOPLE. I have also a lot of postage stamps that I would like to exchange for eggs.

REGINALD S. KOEHLER, P. O. Box 370, Hagerstown, Maryland.

I am collecting birds' eggs, and would be very much pleased to exchange with any of the correspondents of YOUNG PEOPLE. Can any one tell me where to get a catalogue of birds' eggs?