The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 15, February 18, 1897

All they are to be charged is twenty cents a night. For this they will have all the comfort, warmth, and cleanliness that a man could wish for.

There is to be a restaurant in the house, where the lodgers can buy their meals. Their food will not be given them for the twenty cents, but it will be made as cheap as possible, and will be of the best kind, and cooked in the nicest way.

It is to be hoped Mr. Mills' experiment will be such a success, that many others will follow his example. This lodging-house is on Bleecker Street, and work is already commenced on it.

A sailor who has just come back from Japan brings word that sixteen American sailors are in prison in Siberia for trying to kill Russian seals, and carry away their fur to market.

The story the man tells is that in October, 1895, the American schooner Saitans was cruising in the Okhotsk Sea, off the Siberian coast. Some of the men landed on an island, and while they were ashore a heavy gale sprang up, and, to save herself, the Saitans put out to sea, leaving the men behind.

They remained where they were for five days, and then they were found by a Russian man-of-war. They were accused of trying to catch seals, and were sent to prison for five months.

The following May, one of the United States cruisers went to the port where the men were imprisoned, and the officers saw them.

The men begged the officers to do something for them, because they had been told that when their five months' imprisonment was over, they were to be arrested again, and sent back to prison once more.

The officers asked the police about this, and were told that it was all nonsense; the five months would be up in a few weeks, and the men set at liberty. The officers were satisfied that this was the truth, and went away.

But when the five months were up, the sailors found that their fears were only too well grounded. They were rearrested, and sent back to prison for eighteen months.

The sailor who brings this news says that, when he reached the port where the men are imprisoned, he managed to be taken to see them, and found them working on some Russian fortifications.

He says the men were very unhappy, and had almost lost their courage. Their second sentence will not be over till October, and they are afraid that they will be rearrested, and imprisoned once more, unless something is done for them.

They declare that it was not their fault that they were on the island. They insist that they were doing no harm, and their vessel put back to sea and left them in their unhappy position.

G.H.R.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

A New York newspaper has been making some experiments in signalling ships at night, which, if as successful as it is claimed to be, will be of the greatest service to sailors for all time to come.

Ships have a regular way of talking to one another, by means of flags arranged in certain ways.

This form of signalling is comprehended by all sailors. It is a universal language, and no matter from what country or in what seas ships may be sailing, the language of the flags makes it possible for them to be understood.

There has been one difficulty with the flag-signals, and that has been that they were useless at night. When it became too dark for the flags to be seen, sailors had no other means of communication.

The New York paper claims to have overcome this difficulty.

In saying that ships have no means of communicating with each other, it must not be forgotten that they can use lights and send certain messages with them. But the flag system enables them to say exactly what they wish to, while through the lights they can only show where they are, and call for help in case of accident.

The invention of the searchlight set men thinking, and at last the idea struck one man that if the searchlight were turned on the flags, it ought to be perfectly possible to see them in the darkest night.

A few nights ago two tugs went down to Sandy Hook to try if the experiment would work. To their great delight they found it did answer perfectly. The tugs were stationed about a mile and a half apart, and could read with ease the messages waved across the water.

More experiments will be made, and if on further trial the method is found to be practical, a great advance will have been made in navigation.

From Amsterdam, another report comes of a method that has been invented, to enable ships to speak directly with the shore at a distance of five miles.

This invention is in the nature of a powerful foghorn. It is, however, made somewhat like a musical instrument, so that different tones can be produced by it; and the idea is to have these tones arranged into a signalling code, after the fashion of the flag-signals, so that a conversation can be kept up in a similar way to that done with flags. G.H.R.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS

We have had a very large and interesting mail this week from the young friends of The Great Round World.

We take pleasure in acknowledging and publishing R.R.'s graphic and clever description of the fire near Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, Helen Z.C.'s pleasant chat about a Chicago suburb, and Seymour U.P.'s nice little note from Saranac Lake.

We also acknowledge the receipt of relief maps for the competition from Adrian Van A. and Harriot M., of Brooklyn.

Dear Editor:

I have just arrived home from school. I wish to tell you of the very large fire down-town. I go to school about one block from where the fire was. The fire started in a grocery store belonging to Hanson Brothers, about 7:30 o'clock. This grocery is No. 1317 Market Street. From there the fire spread to an umbrella store, which had the numbers 1309 to 1313 Market Street. From there a spark set fire to Wanamaker's store; it started there in the large clock tower, which soon after was a mass of flames. It fell with a loud crash soon after. The fire spread to the woodwork of the City Hall, where it was soon put out.

Wishing your magazine years of success, I amYour reader,        R.R.Phila., Jan. 25th., 1897.

Dear Editor:

I like The Great Round World very much, and anticipate their coming.

I receive them from my auntie of New York City. She reads them first, and then sends them to me.

They are very enjoyable, and as I am just in the interesting part of school, they help me very much. Perhaps you would like to know where Maywood is. It is a suburb of Chicago.

A very pretty place, and so much nicer than living in the city, because here we have fresh air and green grass.

Would you not rather live in the country?

We have a park here which is kept in order by the town authorities. This winter they have flooded it, and made a very nice skating pond, which is free to all.

So after school hours we boys and girls have a bonny time.

Hoping to receive an answer, I remain,Yours affectionately,    Helen Z.C.

P.S.—These "Sylvia's Caramels" you speak of in No. 3 are what we call "Fudges."

They are very nice. We make them often.

Maywood, Ill., Jan. 25th, 1897.

To the Editor of The Great Round World:

I am an enthusiastic reader of your most interesting little paper, and would like you to send me a "Who? When? and What?" chart.

I am up in the mountains for the winter, and there is fine skating and tobogganing here, and I have also a fine big snow house. We belong to the "Pontiac Club," and can therefore skate whenever we want. Wishing your paper much success. I remain

Your fond reader,      Seymour U.P.Saranac Lake, N.Y., Jan. 22d, 1897.

In reply to questions from Miss Lena Penn:

George du Maurier died in London, October 8, 1896, of heart disease.

There is a statue of Hans Christian Andersen in the market-place of Copenhagen. He was the author of the famous Fairy Tales which have given so much pleasure to so many millions of children.

If there are any statistics of the population of the earth since Adam, we are unaware of them.

The population of the earth, estimated in 1891, was 1,487,900,000.

At the death of the Emperor Augustus, the population of the earth was estimated at 54,000,000.

Dear Mr. Editor:

My father receives your little paper, The Great Round World, every week. I like it real well, and all the rest of the people and children I have let take one of the copies liked it so well I let them take more copies. I think it a very nice little paper, and wish you success. I send you the following extract, taken from "Wit and Wisdom," showing that the X-rays are not a recent discovery altogether.

Thomas C. Scott.Binghamton, N.Y., Jan. 25th., 1897.

"Dr. Milio, the celebrated surgeon of Kieff, while on a visit to St. Petersburg, explained the means he had invented for illuminating the body by means of the electric light to such an extent that the human machine may be observed almost as if skin and flesh were transparent. The Moscow Gazette asserts that to demonstrate the feasibility of his process, Dr. Milio placed a bullet inside his mouth, and then lighted up his face, upon which the bullet became distinctly visible through his cheek. Dr. Milio did not propose to lay bare all the secrets of the flesh, to explore the recesses of the heart, or to perform any miracles, physical or metaphysical. But he claimed to have discovered a new and effective way of dealing with gun-shot wounds: first, by means of electric illumination, he discovered the precise situation of the bullet; next, by means of magnetism, he proposed to extract the bullet, provided always that the bullet contained some portion of steel. Against leaden bullets his system is powerless, and he therefore intended to represent to the International Committee, which met at Geneva, the desirability of recommending an admixture of steel in the manufacture of all future bullets. Dr. Milio's experiments with bullets containing only a slight admixture of steel are said to have been thoroughly successful."

Dear Thomas:

Your letter is very interesting.

It has long been known that it is possible to see through matter if we only knew just how. The X-ray has shown us the way.

The Editor.

To the Editor of The Great Round World:

In your edition of Jan. 21st, 1897, you wrote of the swallowing up by the sea of Robinson Crusoe's Island, or the island of Juan Fernandez. Now I have always heard this island called "Robinson Crusoe's Island," and I think the reason is, that Alexander Selkirk was cast away there, and on his adventures the story of Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe. But I have read "Robinson Crusoe," and the island as described by him cannot be the Island of Juan Fernandez, but must be one of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean Sea, off the mouth of the great Orinoco River in South America, and I think is the Island of Tobago; this best fits the careful description of Daniel Defoe.

In Crusoe's first exploration of the island he says:

"I came in view of the sea to the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land,… extending from the W. to the W.S.W.... It could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off."

There is no land situated W.S.W. from Juan Fernandez. W.S.W. from the island of Tobago lies the great island of Trinidad. When Crusoe attempts to sail around the island he says:

"I perceived a strong and most furious current."

This could be no other than the current from the mouth of the great Orinoco River.

But what settles the matter is that after Crusoe had taught Friday to speak English, he had a conversation with him, in which Crusoe asks Friday:

"How far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me there was no danger; no canoes ever lost; but after a little way out to sea, there was a current and wind always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterward understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko, in the mouth of which river, as I thought afterwards, our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the W.S.W. was the great island Trinidad."

I like your Great Round World, Mr. Editor, but I like Robinson Crusoe, too. I like to know just where he was cast away, and hope if I am right you will tell other boys who read "Robinson Crusoe" the true place, where Daniel Defoe describes poor Crusoe as living all those weary years.

Edgar B.Aged twelve years.Chicago, Ill.

My Dear Young Friend:

After the very careful work you have done on Robinson Crusoe, and the evident affection you have for him, it seems a shame to have to tell you that no such person as Crusoe existed.

As we told in The Great Round World, No. 11, a Scotchman named Alexander Selkirk was put ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez, and lived there four years and four months.

When he was rescued and brought back to England, he wrote an account of his life there.

An English writer named Daniel Defoe saw this book of Selkirk's, and thought it would make a wonderful story if it was well handled. Selkirk's was a mere statement of what had happened to him, and while intensely interesting, was not written to amuse people.

Defoe created an imaginary person, whom he called Robinson Crusoe, dressed up Selkirk's facts to suit the purpose of his story, and wrote the wonderful and undying story of Robinson Crusoe.

His geographical facts, no doubt, were purposely altered from Selkirk's, and were made as graphic as possible, in order to add the semblance of truth to his story. In the early years of the seventeenth century geography was very little understood. The connection between Selkirk's sufferings on Juan Fernandez, and the adventures of Robinson Crusoe have always been so thoroughly understood that, as you read in your Great Round World, the island of Juan Fernandez has been called Crusoe's Island, and Selkirk's cave and hut, Crusoe's.

The Editor.

Editor Great Round World.

Dear Sir:—Your article on salting streets has greatly roused your subscriber, my small son.

Will you kindly tell him, through your magazine, how the children may help abate the terrible cruelty? What action do you suggest for them? He has interested a number of lads in the subject, but does not know how to put forth effort—when the discovery is made that the law is violated.

Complain to party giving offence, to police, or what?

Your magazine is warmly appreciated in this household by old and young, and we hope for its continued prosperity.

Very truly,D.K. Lippincott's Mother.194 Fairmount Avenue, Newark, N.J.

Dear Master Lippincott:

I am delighted that you and your little friends are interested in the matter of salting the streets, and that you are eager to put a stop to such cruelty.

In the first place, you can help by telling every one about it, and by getting people, old and young, interested. Do you know that not one person to whom I have spoken about it—aside from Dr. Johnson, the people at the A.S.P.C.A., and Mr. Harison—knew anything about it? Strange, was it not? A good many things are permitted because people do not know just how dreadful they are.

As to the method of learning just where salt has been used, I know only the one of which the article tells you, and that is: if there is snow or ice in other places, and the tracks are covered with water, then you may know that there is a reason for it. And inasmuch as the water would be twenty degrees below freezing, I believe that you could determine the presence of salt by means of the mercury. If you had a thermometer which would register that number of degrees, and were to plunge it into the slush, the sensitive mercury would tell the story.

As to the person to whom you should complain: at any of the offices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The New York Society is at 10 East 22d Street, and there are branches or agents of the Society in nearly every town of importance.

Yours sincerely,Izora C. Chandler.

BOOK REVIEWS

The editor is pleased to acknowledge the following clever account of Nora Perry's "A Flock of Boys and Girls," published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston.

To The Editor Of The Great Round World:

If any one wants to read an interesting book, I will tell you one of Nora Perry's books, called "A Flock of Girls and Boys." It is a collection of short stories, and tells of the scrapes they got into and how they got out of them, and it has the language boys and girls use every day. There is one story that I was especially impressed with: the name of it is "Major Molly's Christmas Promise." It was about a little girl who made a promise to a little Indian girl; and she kept her promise; and in doing that, although she did not know it, saved her mother's and father's life, besides her friends having to go to war.

Madeleine H.P.

SIMPLE LESSONS IN THE STUDY OF NATURE

By I.G. OAKLEY

This is a handy little book, which many a teacher who is looking for means to offer children genuine nature study may be thankful to get hold of.

Nature lessons, to be entitled to that name, must deal with what can be handled and scrutinized at leisure by the child, pulled apart, and even wasted. This can be done with the objects discussed in this book; they are under the feet of childhood—grass, feathers, a fallen leaf, a budding twig, or twisted shell; these things cannot be far out of the way, even within the stony limits of a city.

Nor are the lessons haphazard dashes at the nearest living thing; on the contrary, they are virtually fundamental, whether with respect to their relation to some of the classified sciences, or with reference to the development of thought and power of expression in the child himself.

The illustrations are few, and scarcely more than figures; it is not meant to be a pretty picture-book, yet is most clearly and beautifully printed and arranged, for its material is to be that out of which pictures are made. It will be found full of suggestions of practical value to teachers who are carrying the miscellaneous work of ungraded schools, and who have the unspeakable privilege of dealing with their pupils untrammelled by cast-iron methods and account-keeping examination records.

Sample copy, 50 Cents, post-paidWILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON3 & 5 W. 18th St. · · · New York City