Chapter XVII (2)

It is not our purpose to deal with the subject of diet. In passing it may, however, be said that the proper diet for a man training is any plain, wholesome, nourishing food. Highly seasoned foods, sweets, and all alcoholic stimulants should be avoided. The value of from eight to ten hours of good, sound, refreshing sleep cannot be overestimated. In general, one broad, comprehensive rule may be laid down with regard to training for athletic contests, and that is this: All training must be adequate to the demands of the particular kind of contest to be entered into. For light athletic contests, light training; for heavy contests, heavy training. The same training requisite for baseball would not be sufficient for rowing; nor can training for track athletics be at all adequate for football. Different sports make different demands upon the physical man. And the training for each must be adapted to meet the demands of each.

Football is the most vigorous and hearty of all our athletic sports. When properly played, it is also the most exhausting. It requires the quickness and speed of the sprinter, the endurance of the cross-country runner, the strength and power of a first-class wrestler; in fact, when critically analyzed, football seems to be a sort of composite of many sports. As to the proper style of training for an eleven, perhaps no two persons have exactly the same ideas. But, in general, there may be said to be two schools, the old and the new, or the old style and the new system. The old school is one of Herculean labors and Spartan discipline. The idea of the old school is physical development and bodily discipline. The idea of the new school seems to be that sport is simply a recreation. Work as little as possible seems to be the new creed. Periods of rest are emphasized rather than periods of work. The aim of the new system is to train the men for the final match, to bring them to the highest physical condition by the end of the season, which sounds rational enough. And if there is only a single important match to be played, the system is without doubt best adapted to that end. But the theory proceeds from the wrong premises altogether. Every one knows that an eleven plays at least two important matches before the end of the season, when the demands are just as great as in the final game. The two systems may lie fairly well illustrated by the accompanying diagram, for the idea of which the writer is indebted to Mr. W. C. Forbes.

Line A E represents the new school, which aims at the highest physical condition at point E. Line A B represents the old school, which aims at good physical condition at the end of the second or third week of training, and to take the team to E in the same condition.

Take two elevens: No. 1 will use the old system, No. 2 the new system. Let the two teams play a match. At the point marked October 1 the physical condition will be decidedly in favor of No. 1, and, besides, No. 1 will know more football, having played more. The difference in physical condition will be the line C G. Let them play November 11: the difference in physical condition will be D F. Suppose that No. 2 wins at point E, November 21, which is extremely unlikely: No. 1 will have two victories to No. 2's one. If the object be to win only the final match, it seems that the old system will be far better, as the No. 1 eleven must know more football, having played more, and will be in just as good condition. It has been urged against the old system that it is impossible to carry eleven men from A to E in good condition; that the team, as a whole, will come to the final game overtrained. The individual may go below the line occasionally, but the team as a whole must be better, because the weaker individuals who are unfitted for the game will be eliminated early, before the team is made up. The team training on line A E, the new system, is just as likely to be undertrained, and lose half of its best men before an important match is finished.

A team trained under the new system will play with considerable life and dash while it lasts, but the team trained under the old system stays, and comes in the winner. Let us notice some fallacies of the new system. As an argument for less work, the case of athletic teams is often cited, where men train very little, and still play very good games. Any reasoning by analogy from such cases is absolutely misleading. Men who play on athletic teams are for the most part matured men, many of whom have played on college teams for years. They would naturally have a strength and endurance and knowledge of the game which the youngsters in the schools must acquire by hard work and faithful, conscientious training. The boys must acquire what the men already have; therefore a different and more rigorous system of training is necessary.

The new system believes that an ignorant undertrained man is better than an experienced overtrained one. Comparisons are often made with the training of crews, prize-fighters, etc. But in such cases the training is for only a single contest, while in football the training must be for several important matches. Not every practice is a trial, as is urged, but only the lesser matches once or twice a week are properly trials; and surely in but few sports can any strong objection exist to such trials.

Another objection to the old style urged by the new style is the likelihood of injuries when men are played so much. That is true and not true. In the long-run there must be fewer injuries. The amount and kind of work a team should do will perhaps be best considered under mental training. The problem in training is really how to do the work necessary to learn the game without impairing the physical condition.

By mental training is simply meant the process of learning this game. One broad rule may be laid down for learning the game, and that is to play it. There may be different methods of teaching men how to play; hardly any two coaches or captains will begin the season in just the same way. But each captain should have some plan, schedule, or method of teaching. The football season covers a period of about eight weeks. The game must be taught within that time. Now football is divided, as has been said in a preceding paper, into the Individual and the Team. The first half of the season, the first four weeks, should be devoted primarily to the individual, teaching him the fundamentals, and how to play his own position. Assuming that the season begins about the middle of September, this work would carry the team until the second week in October; the balance of the season would be devoted primarily to the team, although it is often impossible to pick the team before the end of the third week in October. After this point in the season the individual coaching should be done during the intervals or let-ups in the practice, or before or after practice. During the period that should be given to the team the graduates come around, and the tendency is to neglect the team for the individual. The bulk of individual coaching should be done in that part of the season in which it should naturally come. So much in general. Now a few suggestions to the captain, in settling his work for the season, may not be altogether out of place.

First day out, the squad upon going upon the field should form a circle, and pass the ball around. The captain and coach should notice each man, and see that he can make the simple straight-arm pass correctly, and catch the ball properly. Next, let the men line up in pairs, forwards with forwards and backs with backs, and try a half-dozen mutual scratch starts. The purpose of this exercise is to make the men quick on their feet, and to secure quickness and agility. That done, line the men up, and have them fall upon the ball. Having them in line instead of in a circle, the captain and coach can see that each man is taught how to do it correctly. Take a moving ball first--a ball moving from the player. Next try a ball moving towards the player from the front. The practice on the first day should be short, lasting not more than half an hour, and ending with a good brisk run of a distance of a mile and a half.

The second day's practice should last about three-quarters of an hour, consisting of catching and passing, falling on the ball, scratch starts, two-mile run for the forwards, ten minutes' kicking for the full-back, and catching for the half-backs, with the centre man to snap the ball and quarter to pass to the man kicking.

On the third day practise one hour--falling on the ball, passing and catching, sprinting starts, two-and-a-half-mile run for forwards, kicking and catching for backs, centre men snapping the ball and quarter passing, two-mile run for the backs.

Fourth day. Practise starting with the ball. The centre man to snap the ball back for squads. There should be a good, sharp, hard sprint for fifteen yards. The aim is to train the eye so as to divine where the ball is going, so as to be able to beat it. Catching punted balls by forwards and backs. Arrange these in squads, and have the kicking backs punt to them. Begin with the end of the line, and have each man catch a punt in turn. They should be taught how to do this properly. Falling on the ball, one or two of all the different kinds of balls, and the dead ball from a dive in addition. Forwards should be lined up opposite one another and taught the theory of blocking. The centre man should snap the ball, and one side rush through while the other blocks, and _vice versa_. While the forwards are doing this, the backs may be kicking and catching. A short run for the whole squad of about two miles.

Work of this general description should be kept up for about ten days. In this time the captain should arrange to get in some work on the fundamentals each day. It will be impossible to take them all up in one day, but some can be taken up one day and some another. They are easily forgotten if not brushed up occasionally.

The first three weeks in October should be largely devoted to position-playing--picking the team. The captain should do all the experimenting within that period. Much straight football may be learned in the mean time. In that period, and that alone, should the coach be allowed to stop the play to coach the individual. "Wait a minute," can be allowed then, but not later. The team should have two practice matches a week. These should make no difference in the ordinary practice, except perhaps when a pretty strong team is to be played there should be a slight let-up in the practice the day before, or no actual play at all. On those days there should be plenty of practice at signals. All practice matches after the third week in October should be of the usual length, two half-hours. The practice game with the second eleven should not vary much as to the time of play from the matches. Two twenty-five or one thirty and one twenty minute half are not bad.

Toward the end of October the team should begin preparations for the final matches, which generally come off the last of that month, and little beyond mid-November. Team-play then has the field. The team should begin to learn its repertoire of plays, signals, etc. It should be taught the theory and practice of offensive and defensive team-work. In the odd moments the individual should have all the expert coaching possible. The fundamentals must be recurred to occasionally, but team-work now holds the boards. It is the most difficult to obtain, and requires constant and untiring practice.

The captain should be just as careful not to underwork his men as not to overwork them. If an individual is overtrained or off his feet, give him rest, but for the team hard work and plenty of it should be the rule. There is nothing that helps a man or a team more in the hour of supreme test or conflict than the consciousness of having done his or its work faithfully and well.

From what has been said of physical training it can be immediately seen that football is not a lazy man's game. It is needless to say that it is not a coward's game. If a man is afraid of over-exertion or of getting hurt, he had better play marbles. A player may have strength in abundance, but without sand it profiteth him nothing. High moral courage and unconquerable spirit are the prime requisites of a good football-player. By moral training, as has been said, is meant the mental state, the spirit of the eleven. The spirit of the eleven has to do with the execution, and the execution is everything. Formation counts for little. It is not the play, but the stuff that is put into it that makes it succeed. Without this spirit a team may know all that it is possible to know of the game, and may be in perfect physical condition, but cannot hope to win. It is one thing to know how to fight; it is another to be able to fight; but greater than either or both is the fighting spirit.

The whole team, each and every man on it, should enter a contest or match imbued with a just sense of the responsibility resting upon him as the chosen representative of his school or college. He owes to her the very best and all that there is in him. Her honor, her athletic prestige, are at stake, and she demands nothing more nor less of her sons than that they be retrieved or maintained. Hence the team should go upon the field with a _do or die_ spirit, with a determination to win at all hazards.

* * * * *

The portraits which appear at the head of these columns are those of the officers of the National Interscholastic Athletic Association, who were elected after the first annual field-meeting last June. C. B. Cotting, the president, is a member of the Newton High-School, and an officer of the New England Association. Hugh Jackson, the vice-president, comes from the Iowa Association, and is a student of the Cedar Rapids High-School. J. D. Tilford, the secretary, has for several years been identified with the New York I.S.A.A. as a competent official, and attends the De La Salle Institute. G. P. Smith, the treasurer, represents the new association in New Jersey, of which he is president; he attends the Plainfield High-School.

At a recent meeting of the Connecticut Football Association several changes were made in the constitution. Is was decided that nobody should be allowed to take part in any games under the management of the League who had not been registered at his school before October 1. Furthermore, it was decided that no student taking a post-graduate course should be allowed to play on any team. There was some discussion about establishing an age limit, but so much opposition developed that the plan had to be abandoned.

The schedule of games for this fall's championship season was arranged, and the first contests will be held October 31. In the Northern Division, Hartford Public High-School will play New Britain High-School at Hartford, and Norwich Free Academy will play the Connecticut Literary Institute at Norwich. On the same day, in the Southern Division, Meriden High-School will play Hillhouse High at Meriden, and Bridgeport High will play Waterbury High at Bridgeport.

The Bridgeport team will no doubt be very strong again this fall--Smith, centre, Wheeler, guard, Goddart, quarter-back, Deforest, half-back, and Delaney, tackle, being in school again. The Hartford team is expected to develop into a strong eleven as the season grows older, but it was defeated, 22-0, by Williston in its opening game a week ago. The Meriden High-School has the strongest eleven the school has ever seen. New Britain will be very strong, having the full eleven men of last year back in school again this fall. Hillhouse, Norwich, Waterbury, and the Connecticut Literary Institute are all weak.

The Englewood High-School, of the Cook County League, played a game against the Chicago University eleven on September 23, and held the 'varsity men down to twelve points. The school team played an excellent game, and showed some fine defensive work. The University made a goal in the first half after twelve minutes of hard play, and they got another by a fluke just before time was called. In the second half the University men were unable to make any headway against the Englewood lads, and time was called with the ball in the middle of the field and in Englewood's possession.

Other games of interest that have recently been played in the Cook County League were Hyde Park H.-S. against West Aurora H.-S., in which the former won, 4-0. The teams were pretty evenly matched, and Pingree of Hyde Park made the winning touch-down by a run of thirty yards, having secured the ball on a muff by the other side. The North Division team played an eleven of graduates, and defeated them, 12-0, but a few days later, on the return game, the graduates came out ahead by the same score.

JOHN FRETER, YONKERS, NEW YORK.--If the ball, being kicked, passes
the line of scrimmage and is not stopped by an opponent, any one of
the kicking side can pick it up and run with it, providing he is on
side. Of course, to be on side he must either have been behind the
ball when it was kicked, or he must have kicked it himself, or he
must have been put on side by the kicker.

J. D. WILLIAMS.--You will find just the information you want in the
chapter on "The Middle Distances," in _Track Athletics in Detail_.

"TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL."--ILLUSTRATED.--8VO, CLOTH, ORNAMENTAL, $1.25.

THE GRADUATE.

This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin
collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question
on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address
Editor Stamp Department.

The first instalment of the advance sheets of the 1897 catalogue has been forwarded to those persons who pay $5 for the same. Used U.S. stamps have remained stationary in many instances, with small advances in others; but unused U.S. have been greatly advanced. I quote a few instances, giving the 1896 prices first, the 1897 prices after. These prices refer, however, to unused stamps in mint condition, evenly centred, original gum, no perforations missing, etc. A slight falling off in any of these conditions reduces the value from twenty-five per cent. to fifty per cent.

1847 issue--5c., $5 to $7.50. 1851 issue--1c., ordinary type, 35c. to 50c.; 5c., ordinary type, $3.50 to $5; 10c., $1.25 to $3; 12c., $1.75 to $3; 24c., $6 to $7.50; 30c., $7.50 to $12; 90c., $22.50 to $27.50. 1862 issue--15c., $2.50 to $7.50. 1868 issue (grilled, 11 by 13)--1c., $5 to $6.50; 2c., $1.50 to $2.50; 3c., 40c. to $1; 10c., $3.50 to $6; 12c., $3 to $5; 15c., $20 to $25; grilled, 9 by 13, 2c., 75c. to $1.25; 3c., 25c. to 75c.; 5c., $10 to $12; 10c. and 12c., $3 to $5; 15c., $4 to $7.50; 24c., $12.50 to $15; 30c., $10 to $15; 90c., $35 to $50. 1869 issue--1c., $1 to $1.50; 2c., 60c. to $1.25; 3c., 25c. to $1; 6c., $3 to $4; 10c., $4 to $7; 12c., $2 to $5; 15c., $6 to $7.50; 24c., $16.50 to $20; 30c., $15 to $20; 90c., $35 to $40. 1870 issue, grilled, have advanced an average of one hundred per cent. The same issue, not grilled, printed by the American Bank-Note Company, 1c., 40c. to 50c.; 3c., 25c. to 40c.; 5c., 75c. to $1.50; 6c., 75c. to $2; 10c., 60c. to $1; 15c., reduced from 75c. to 50c.; 30c. remains $2; 90c., increased from $4 to $7.50. 1882 issue--5c., Garfield, 20c. to 50c.; 3c., re-engraved, 10c. to 15c.; 6c., re-engraved, 75c. to $1.50; 10c., re-engraved, 40c. to 50c. 1893 Columbian issue has been reduced an average of twenty per cent.

A. T. ADAMS.--There is no U.S. or Colonial cent of 1739. Your coin
is probably an English penny worth 2c.

PHILATUS.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

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ROYAL BAKING POWDER CO., NEW YORK.

JOSEPH GILLOTT'S

STEEL PENS

Nos. 303, 404, 170, 604 E.F., 601 E.F.

And other styles to suit all hands.

THE MOST PERFECT OF PENS.

This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the
Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our
maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the
official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen.
Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the
Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership
blanks and information so far as possible.

There is an important feature of bicycling which comes, or should come, to the attention of every rider about this time of the year; that is, the question of a thorough overhauling of the wheel itself. This is of the greatest importance, and should be done whether the bicycle appears to be in good running order or not. For example, you have been riding a wheel in the country, or near the sea-shore, and though you have kept the wheel in good running order, the spokes are a little rusty, and the bearings must be more or less filled with dust and sand. The rust on the spokes not only looks badly, but tends to weaken the wheel. A little grit mixed in with the oil and the balls of the bearings is quite enough to wear the bearings themselves as well as the balls, and in a short time render the wheel practically useless, unless an entirely new set of bearings is put in. Even if you have not been in the country, the fact that you have used the wheel a little each day, and only wiped off the outside of the machine and reoiled the bearings occasionally, is enough to prove that the machine should be taken apart before you begin the fall and winter season. This particular time, however, of the year applies rather to those people who are returning from the country with their bicycles, and who are likely to use them to some extent during the fall. But it is a good time for any one. If you are somewhat of a mechanic yourself, you can take the wheel apart and do the cleaning yourself; and in this connection the article on "The Care of the Wheel," published in HARPER'S ROUND TABLE for March 31, should be read before taking the wheel apart, and kept near by while the work is being done.

An extra caution, however, should be given to all those who take their bicycles apart--and that is, take the utmost care of the little balls; for if one of these, for instance, is lost from one side of the front wheel-bearings, the wheel may run easily enough for a time, but the strain on the others and on the walls of the bearing will soon wear both. If any of these do happen to lose themselves (and it is very probable that they will), the wisest plan is to go at once to the maker of your bicycle and purchase enough extra balls to make up the required number. To a great many people, however, the cheapest method for overhauling bicycles is to take them to the manufacturer and request him to go over every part of the wheel--clean it, polish it, and replace any weak point, straighten any bent cranks, supply nuts that are gone, and in every way renovate the wheel--which, by-the-way, he can do far better than any amateur. If the wheel is not yet a year old, the average manufacturer will do this without charge, but in any case a few dollars is all that a maker requires. The point of this renovation is evident. If the wheel is thus examined twice a year--in the fall and the spring--any little irregularity which may be wearing away vital parts of the machine can and will be corrected; whereas many a fault in a bicycle is not perceptible to the average rider until the injury has actually been done, when an entirely new part is necessary; and the larger the number of replaced or new parts, the less stable and firm is the bicycle. It therefore pays to have this renovation done twice a year, whether the wheel appears to need it or not.

An Irishman took his watch to a jeweller's to have it repaired. The jeweller, after examining it, said the mending would amount to eight dollars, and he asked if the man was willing to pay that much.

"Sure," answered Pat, "if you're willing to take the watch in part payment."

A FEW DON'TS FOR BICYCLE BEGINNERS.

I.--Don't pay any attention to people who tell you that the best bicycle path for beginners can be made out of fifty or sixty mattresses set end to end and running in a circle. It may be pleasanter, when taking a header, to land on a mattress than on a macadamized road, but it is a curious fact in bicycling that the softest road is the hardest to ride on.

II.--Don't try to make a century run within two days of your first lesson. If, however, you are too ambitious to follow this rule, purchase a high-gear cyclometer which will register a mile for every ten feet you travel. And, speaking of cyclometers, don't forget that people who call them cycloramas are apt to be set down as wanting in intelligence.

III.--Don't think, if you are learning to ride on the sea-shore, that because your wheels have rubber tires on they won't get wet if the waves dash up over them. The worst mistake any one ever made in bicycling was that of the small boy who thought the rubber tires were put on the wheels to keep them dry, just as rubber overshoes were put on his feet to keep them from getting wet.

IV.--Don't try coasting down joggly hills. Get out of your father's library the copy of Dr. Holmes's poem which tells of the wonderful "one-hoss shay," which suddenly went completely to pieces one day. What has happened to a one-horse chaise might very easily happen to a bicycle, particularly on a joggly hill. Nothing will loosen bolts and screws more quickly than joggles, and if it should happen some morning that while you were coasting down a hill full of thank-you-marms your wheel should suddenly come apart in every bolt and bar, you would go sailing through the air like a cannon-ball just from the cannon's mouth, and alighting finally on the ground, while not at all difficult, might prove painful. Be careful, then, to keep your feet on the pedals while going down a hill of this character.

V.--Don't try fancy riding until you have studied the art of bicycling for at least a week. One young man who ignored this rule, and tried to ride his wheel side-saddle-wise at the end of his third lesson, left a goodly half of his left ear on the road-side as a result, while a small youth of our acquaintance, who tried to ride backwards on the afternoon of his fourth day of study, got into a dispute with a picket-fence, which tore his clothes, and made the back of his neck look as if seven hundred mosquitoes had lunched there.

VI.--Don't be absent-minded when riding. One of the rules of good playing in the game of golf is, "keep your eye on the ball." An equally good rule in riding your wheel is, "keep your mind on the wheel." The writer of these hints, while riding in the mountains during his first year of wheeling, got thinking of something else, and the first thing he knew, instead of being out wheeling, he was in swimming in a very cold and wet mountain lake.

VII.--Don't forget the rule of the road. This is a very old rule, but it cannot be too often repeated. Not more than two weeks ago the writer saw a young woman out riding on her wheel who had forgotten the rule of the road, and she was met by another young woman who was absent-minded in violation of our rule numbered six. They met very forcibly, and the result was that both of them not only had to buy new wheels, but the spring bonnets of both of them were irretrievably ruined.

VIII.--Don't mount with a jump, but slip lightly into the saddle. A gentleman weighing two hundred and twenty-three pounds leaped into the saddle of his wheel one day not long ago, and as a result the upper bar was bent into the shape of a hair-pin, the hind wheel was changed in its shape to that of an oval, and the pneumatic tire of the front wheel burst with such force that for a moment the gentleman thought somebody had fired a gun at him.

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.

TONING OF SILVER PRINTS.

The color of the silver print when it is taken from the printing-frame is not very pleasing, and if it is fixed in this state it assumes a yellowish-brown or bricky hue which is quite inartistic. To change this color to a more agreeable shade it must be subjected to the chemical treatment called toning--a process which the early photographers called "coloring."

The theory of toning is that one metal is substituted for another, and in the toning of silver prints with gold the gold is substituted for the silver. Silver and gold have a great affinity for each other, and in the toning of the silver prints the gold is deposited on the print somewhat after the manner of plating metals.

It is a well-known fact that finely divided gold is of many shades of color, from a rich red to a deep blue. The combination of the red of the silver subchloride in the print with the deep blue of the gold gives beautiful purplish, sepia, and black tones.

The gold for toning is first made into chloride of gold. This chloride of gold is dissolved in water, and then the solution is rendered neutral by adding acetate or bicarbonate of soda.

"Gold is reduced to a metallic state from a neutral or alkaline solution." This toning-bath, therefore, contains a deposit of metallic gold, which is ready to be precipitated by any reducing agent with which it may be brought in contact. Now the action of light on the paper coated with the silver salts has changed the salts into a gold-reducing agent. When the silver print is placed in the gold toning-bath, this sub-salts of silver immediately decomposes the gold salt, and attracts the gold to itself, and it is deposited in a fine powder on the unfixed print, changing the reddish color to brown or black. The unaltered silver chloride on the paper--the portion of the print which has not been exposed to the light--contains no reducing power, so the white portions of the print remain unchanged.

The chemical action of the alkali on the chloride of gold is to separate the chlorine from the gold. The alkali unites with the chlorine, and sets it free from the gold. It forms with the hydrogen in the water a new chemical combination called sodium-trichlor-acetate and hydrochloric acid. The former is harmless to the print, but if there is not enough of the alkali in the solution to neutralize (render harmless) the hydrochloric acid, or, in other words, to liberate and absorb all the chlorine, the chlorine immediately reattacks the silver and stops the action of the gold. The result is a weak flat print. If the prints do not tone, the bath is too acid, and more of the alkali must be added. In order to test a bath to find out whether it is neutral, take a piece of blue litmus-paper and dip it in the bath; if it is acid it will turn the paper red. Add more of the alkali, until enough has been added to turn the paper which has been turned red back to its original blue color. A piece of red litmus-paper when dipped in the toning-bath will turn blue if the bath is too alkaline, but if the bath is neutral the paper will remain red.

Every silver print toned with gold contains four parts of silver to one of gold, the quantity of both being very small. One grain of gold will tone a sheet of paper.

There is a great deal of waste in the silver used in photography, there being thirty-three times as much silver used as remains after the picture is finished.

Silver prints may be toned with platinum, and this method is often used as a substitute for gold toning, the tones obtained being very pleasing in color, and quite as permanent as the gold tones.

SIR KNIGHT JOHN H. CHAMBERLAIN, 6 Franklin Avenue, Dayton, O., asks
why films are given a glycerine bath, and if the bath can be
dispensed with; what will remove the spot of glycerine from a
negative caused by the glycerine flowing to the edge and partly
drying. Sir John says he is a regular reader of the Camera Club
column, and would like to form a Chapter, and asks those of our
amateurs who are interested in the plan to please send him their
names. The reason for using a glycerine bath is to prevent the film
from curling when it is dry. The bath can be dispensed with, but
the film rolls up so tightly that it is hard to make it stay flat
while placing it in the printing-frame. Use 1/2 oz. of glycerine to
16 oz. of water, and there will be no trouble with the film being
sticky. A little alcohol applied gently with a soft cloth or brush
will remove the glycerine from the negative.

SIR KNIGHT JAMES MAYNARD, JUN., asks if the bottle containing the
sensitizing-solution for plain salted paper should be wrapped in
non-actinic paper; what camera, lens, plate, and developer Max
Miner used for the picture "Sweeping a Sliding-place"; what is the
price of Whatman's paper. The sensitizing solution should be
wrapped in non-actinic paper, or else kept in a dark place. Max
Miner writes as follows in regard to the picture "Sweeping a
Sliding-place": "The camera which I used is the Universal, made by
the Rochester Optical Co.; the lens is a Morrison R. R., 8-1/2-inch
focus, designed for a 6-1/2 by 8-1/2 plate. The camera was a 5 by
7. The plates which I have always used are made by the Blake
Dry-plate Co., North Adams, Mass. They are rapid, and always give
uniformly good results. I have the best success in developing with
pyro, potash, or soda, though I like the eikonogen two-solution
developer nearly as well. I never have trouble with pyro stains, as
I use an alum bath before fixing. The paper used is lithium, toned
and fixed in a separate bath." A large sheet of Whatman's paper may
be bought for fifteen cents.

SIR KNIGHT JOHN MILLS asks how to make a picture in a pin-hole
camera without using plates--if some kind of paper cannot be used.
The formula for preparing paper for negatives is too long to be
given in the column space devoted to answers to queries. The
process will be described later in the columns of the Camera Club.
If you have access to a public library, consult a cyclopædia of
photography, which will give a formula for making paper negatives.
Try a piece of bromade-paper, making an exposure of about fifteen
seconds, if in a bright sunshine.

SIR KNIGHT HUBBARD MARSH asks what makes the solio prints stick to
the glass when they are squeegeed to it for burnishing; a
preparation for coating the glass for burnishing; and a good
toning-bath. The reason why prints stick to the glass is because
the film is soluble, and is apt to soften in warm weather. A very
glossy surface can be imparted to prints by washing the glass or
ferrotype plate to remove all grease and dirt, then pour on a few
drops of a solution made of 1 oz. of benzine and 10 grs. of
paraffine. Rub dry with a clean cloth and polish with a piece of
chamois or soft cloth. For toning-solution formula see No. 825.

E. H. C. asks if, in photographic contests where no pictures are
accepted under 4 by 5, pictures taken on a 4-by-5 plate, and the
prints trimmed so as to come a little under this size, would be
accepted. Yes, if not trimmed too much.

There is a good story told of the well-known actor Frédéric Lemaitre. One of his weak points was his pride, and he expected the attachés of the theatre in which he played to show as great interest in his performance on the fiftieth night as the audience who were seeing him for the first time. For some time, to his infinite rage and disgust, one of the musicians had been in the habit of taking out a newspaper and perusing its contents during one of his best scenes, when his acting would hold the audience spellbound. He finally forbade this man to read his paper during the performance. The musician refused to submit to the demand, and Lemaitre, when he heard of the refusal, grew mad with rage, and stormed around in great manner. The offender happened to cross the stage while Lemaitre was in his bad humor, and the actor, catching sight of him, cried out, in angry tones:

"You, sir; is it you who has the audacity to read in my great scene, especially when I have forbidden it?"

"I!" mildly replied the musician. "What a mistake you are making! Monsieur, you have been misinformed: I am in the habit of going to sleep during that scene."

* * * * *

SICKNESS AMONG CHILDREN

is prevalent at all seasons of the year, but can be avoided largely when they are properly cared for. _Infant Health_ is the title of a valuable pamphlet accessible to all who will send address to the New York Condensed Milk Company, N. Y. City.--[_Adv._]

* * * * *

If you wish to earn a bicycle the advertisement of W. G. Baker, of Springfield, Mass., which appears on page 1203, will interest you. His store in Springfield is noted for the fine teas, spices, and baking powder which it sends out both by express and freight to all parts of the United States. A boy by going about among his friends and selling a mixed order of 75 lbs. can secure a good boy's bicycle, or a woman by selling 175 lbs. can secure a lady's high-grade wheel. If you feel interested write for catalogue and full particulars, which will be sent on application.--[_Adv._]

ADVERTISEMENTS.

Postage Stamps, &c.

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PLAYS

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About Naval Schools.

Bert Cunnington, who lives in Arkansas, Reed Kohl, a New York city member, and Fred P. Jackson, who lives in a Baltimore suburb, ask about _St. Mary's_ school-ship and naval apprentices. All get the various naval schools well confused. That they do so is no great wonder, since the provisions governing them are new, and have recently been changed. We will try to make these naval matters clear. In the first place, the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, is a school where men are trained to become officers in our navy. Indeed, entrance to the academy is at the same time entrance to our navy--naval cadet, and so on up, without leaving the United States service at graduation.

Entrance to this academy is had only through members of Congress--through the member from your district, Mr. Jackson. Representatives Baker, Rusk, and Cowen represent Baltimore.

Only one cadet from each district may be at the academy at a time. You must wait for a vacancy. Residents of other districts must address their member of Congress, or the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, who will give information about vacancies. The President of the United States has ten appointments--not annually, but may keep ten cadets at the academy. These cadetships are usually assigned to sons of naval officers. The Annapolis Academy was removed to Newport, R. I., for a time during the civil war. That is why, possibly, you get the naval apprenticeship school at Newport and the naval academy confused.

Naval apprenticeships have nothing whatever to do with the Annapolis Academy. They are enlistments for young men above fifteen and not above eighteen years of age, who may remain in the navy till they are twenty-one. These boys must have the full consent of parents or guardians, be of good character--for apprenticeships are not to reform bad characters--be sound of body, and be able to read and write English. Having been sworn in, they are sent on board naval vessels, where they are given the elements of a common-school education and taught naval seamanship. That is, they knot, splice, hitch, and bend rope; sew canvas; head, reef, and furl sail; learn the use of the various gear in standing and running rigging; become acquainted with the terms for the different parts of the ship; practise military tactics, broadside exercise, rifle drill; and learn how to fire the great guns, to row, and to swim.

Apprentices are enlisted as "third-class boys," and receive $9.50 a month. There is no condition from what part of the United Slates they come. They receive their board free. Their clothing is provided by the paymaster of the ship to which they are assigned and charged against their pay. There is a possible promotion to $11.50 a month. These apprentices never become line-officers, but may rise only to warrant-officer, gunner, or boat-swain. Warrant-officers are retired at sixty-two, as are other officers, and receive thereafter a fair proportion of their duty pay as an annuity. Apprenticeship recruiting stations are at New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Address "Recruiting Station for Naval Apprentices, Navy-yard," and add the city and State.

Wholly distinct from either of the foregoing are the various school-ships. These are not owned by the national government, but by cities, and are under the control of the boards of education. The _Saratoga_ is located at Philadelphia, and the _St. Mary's_ at New York. Address "Executive Committee, Nautical School." To join the _St. Mary's_ applicants must be residents of the city of New York. They must also be of good character, and between sixteen and twenty years of age; $30 is required as an entrance fee, and a large number of personal necessities, as clothing, thread, needles, etc. The course covers two years of two terms each, with two summer cruises. The _St. Mary's_ spends part of the year at the foot of Twenty-eighth Street, East River, New York, a part in Long Island Sound, and the cruises are usually to the coast of Europe and Mediterranean ports.

Rules governing the _Saratoga_ are similar to those governing the _St. Mary's_. Graduates of these nautical schools look about them for positions just as do graduates of other schools. The New York Board of Education say: "The passage of the 'Postal Subsidy Bill,' requiring all vessels receiving such subsidy to be officered by Americans, and to carry a cadet for each 1000 tons burden, enables graduates of this school to obtain a situation upon graduation, where the education obtained at this school will be of great advantage to them. Graduates of this school, with few exceptions, are competent to navigate a vessel, understanding thoroughly dead-reckoning, and how to find the latitude and longitude by the sun, moon, planets, or stars; they are also taught the duties of seamen, they have practice in handling a sailing vessel, in steering, heaving the lead, in handling boats, both under oars and sails, the rule of the road, and in fact everything that may assist in their advancement in the profession they have chosen."

* * * * *

A Distinct Difference.

The following story is told of the late Professor S----, the great teacher of German at the University of Pennsylvania, and a man of much hard and blunt sense. A man having a son whom he had reared in a most superficial way called on the professor, whom he knew slightly, and asked how much it would cost to give his son an education. The professor, looking intently at the son, who accompanied his father, and who was attired in uncomfortably big cuffs, high collar, and gave forth an aroma of up-to-date perfume, blandly observed:

"I can't say. But you can send him through college for about $2000."

* * * * *

Cruel, but Facetious.

When employees are discharged from the service of a firm or company they generally receive from such employers brief letters stating when employment is to cease. But the head of a great theatrical concern once took a quite different course in discharging his actors and singers. His season had been unprofitable, but he took a little of his remaining money and paid the way of his entire troupe to West Point. The members of said troupe were Europeans. After luncheon he arose, and in the blandest manner possible said:

"Ladies and Gentlemen,--Mark the beauties of America, the greatest, grandest, and most wonderful country in the world. Behold the noble Hudson before us; observe these magnificent mountains; consider everything well. For, by my word, you will never see them again at the expense of Messrs. Blank and Company."

Of course sorrow closed the day's outing, but the actors and singers had no alternative than to engage steamer passages to Europe--which they did.

* * * * *

Through Historic Country on a Bike.

One cool, sunny day in the beginning of this month we took a
fifty-one-mile bicycle trip out of the city. At the start our road
lay along the extreme west of the city, and soon the new Harlem
Ship-canal came into view. We halted on the bridge which spans it
to watch a diver at work--quite a novel sight; then went on toward
Yonkers. Yonkers passed, we took the open road for Dobbs Ferry. At
the latter place we were informed that our road, Broadway, was
first opened in 1844 under the name of Edgar's Lane.

Back of the road, under tall shady trees, stands Washington's
headquarters. A monument in front relates that here the French
allies under Rochambeau first joined our General and his forces;
also that here Washington planned the Yorktown campaign which
successfully terminated the Revolution; and that directly opposite,
on the river, an English sloop fired seventeen guns in honor of
Washington--the first official acknowledgment of our nation on the
part of the mother-country.

From Dobbs Ferry to Irvington the road is lined with handsome
suburban residences, and leads through a pretty bit of country.
Four miles more, and Tarrytown is reached. In Tarrytown we saw a
monument over the spot where Major André was captured in 1780. The
shaft of the monument was dedicated in 1853. One side bears a
relief picture in bronze of the capture; while another side has
carved on it a eulogy of the three brave citizens of Westchester
County who rescued their country from "imminent peril." The
remainder of the stone, which is capped by a heroic figure of a
Revolutionary soldier, was erected in 1880 by the Society of the
Sons of the Revolution.

Directly north of Tarrytown there is a bridge. Crossing it, a sharp
turn of the road brought us to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. We spent
some time examining the inscriptions on some of the stones. The
lower portion of the cemetery is evidently the oldest, for here
repose the ashes of many who died at the close of the last century
and the beginning of this. Sleepy Hollow lies on a hill. At the
top, in the centre of the family plot, is buried the "American
Goldsmith," whose pen made the region where he now rests famous.
His grave is simplicity itself, the headstone which covers it
bearing merely the inscription, "Washington Irving, born April 3,
1783, died November 28, 1859."

SIMON THEODORE STERN.
NEW YORK CITY.

* * * * *

Questions and Answers.

Music.--The only place to which we can refer you is the United States Marine Recruiting-office, 109 West Street, New York. That office wants boys from fourteen to sixteen to learn music. Apply for conditions. "Gold Fever" asks about gold-prospecting, especially in Alaska. The occupation has many risks, and only the hardiest of persons, not alone in body, but in determination and cheerfulness, ought to undertake it. The Alaskan field is well to the north--in the Yukon country, which is near the arctic circle. It is cold there. But perhaps the worst discomfort is mosquitoes. An odd pest for that climate, yes. But they abound there as they do in few other regions. A recent prospector says, "When a man goes up one of the creeks he must envelop his head in a mosquito-frame of cheese-cloth--their bills go through netting like a knife through tissue-paper--must wear gloves, and tie his trousers and shirt sleeves closely about his ankles and wrists." Mining is a lottery, and the young man ought to think not twice only, but a dozen times before undertaking it.

George J. Smith asks.--"Will you kindly tell me the names of artists who teach pen-drawing and illustrating? When does the annual contest for prizes begin?" Many artists take students, if such students possess native talent. They require students to come to their studios, though some of them have classes at art-schools. Apply to Irving R. Wiles, Charles Broughton, or Clifford Carleton. Their addresses may be had in the directory. Of course they charge for lesson-giving. And we do not say that these gentlemen will now take pupils. Why not join the classes at the Art Students' League? Round Table contests are announced, usually late in October. See one of the issues of this paper for them. It is not likely there will be an illustration contest unless there proves to be a good prize story to make a picture for. In almost no other way, save that of giving all contestants the same thing to illustrate, can conditions fair to all be made. Full information will be published in the Table later.

Frank S. Teal.--We know of no place to procure the Table button or pin save through this office, and we have none in stock. David A. Hill.--So great has been the growth of the Good Will institution that a building suitable to house its industrial school should cost, on the ground of present and future need, $10,000 at least. This sum is quite beyond the power of the Table to give. When, three years ago, the Good Will work began, the size of the Institution did not demand a building costing one-half that sum. The Table thought to raise $3000. It raised about $1600, when the situation developed as above outlined--a situation in which all of us, as friends of Good Will Farm and its work in behalf of poor boys, greatly rejoice. The money raised by the Table is to be, by vote of the founders, turned over to the trustees of Good Will, to be invested in a Round Table Fund, and the income used to help such boys as the trustees think most deserving of aid.

* * * * *

Another Mother and Man.