Chapter D: P. Stublefield

_Answer._—The formula for making Spaulding’s prepared glue is not available. The following (Dumoulin’s) is quite as good: Take soft water, 1 quart; best pale glue, 2 pounds; dissolve in a covered vessel by the heat of a water bath or in a vessel immersed in boiling water; cool, and add, gradually, of nitric acid (specific gravity 1.335) 7 ounces; when cold put it into bottles. It is very strong and does not gelatinize.

The following formula, known as “Chinese cement,” produces a cement for porcelain, glass, fancy work, jewelry, etc., so strong that wood or porcelain can be joined together so firmly that they will break anywhere else rather than where cemented: Take of finest pale orange shell-lac (broken small) 4 ounces; strongest rectified spirits 3 ounces, and digest them together in a corked bottle in a warm place until dissolved. It should have about the consistence of molasses.

THE MAN OF ROSS.

GREENVILLE, Ill.

Who was the “Man of Ross?”

IDA E. WHITE.

_Answer._—The “Man of Ross” is a title given to John Kyrle, of Ross parish, Hereford County, Eng., because of his remarkable spirit of enterprise and great benevolence. Although only an untitled, private gentleman of moderate fortune, he did far more for the good of his community than many a wealthy lord of the manor. Pope appreciated the true nobility of Kyrle, and has done full honor to him in the third epistle of his “Moral Essays,” “On the Use of Riches.” Coleridge, too, has paid a beautiful tribute to his memory in the lines:

“Richer than miser o’er his countless hoards,
Nobler than kings or kings’ polluted lords,
Here dwelt the Man of Ross. O, traveler, hear!
Departed merit claims a reverent tear.”

EASTERN CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

CLARENDON, Ark.

Seeing an Inquirer, in the Curiosity Shop, asks information in regard to Arkansas, I will say that the Eastern Central portion of the State is nearly level, and very fertile. All fruits, vegetables, cereals, tobacco, cotton, sorghum, sweet potatoes—in fact anything one may plant—gives large returns. Owing to this locality lying in the great cotton belt, and to the large quantities of cotton produced, the usual price per bushel of Indian corn is $1; oats, 90c, and oats will yield from forty to sixty bushels per acre, with the rude implements and tillage here in vogue—a one-horse cast-iron plow, and a small tree top for a harrow. After oats and wheat are harvested the same land is frequently planted in corn, or sown with millet, or Hungarian grass, thus producing two crops a year. Land here is cheap, water is soft and pure, and timber abundant. The rivers abound in fish, and the immense forests in game. I came from Indiana. I have lived here twelve years. Have never seen a case of consumption in the State.

DR. H. C. YOUNG,
Formerly Surgeon U. S. N.

PSEUDONYMS OF AUTHORS.

AUBURN, Ill.

I should like to have a list of the noms de plume of modern authors
of reputation.

CHARLES HERSHMAN.

_Answer._—The following is as long a list as there is room for here; although it contains but a small proportion of the over 5,000 pseudonyms known to literature:

Pseudonyms and real names. Born. Died.

Algernon Sidney—Gideon Granger 1767 1822
Amy Lothrop—Miss Anna B. Warner 1825
An American Girl Abroad—Miss Trafton
Artemus Ward—Charles F. Browne 1836 1867
Barney Cornwall—Bryan Waller Procter 1790
Boz—Charles Dickens 1812 1870
Christopher Crowfield—Mrs. H. B. Stowe 1812
Chrystal Croftangry—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
C. L. I. O. (Clio)—Joseph Addison 1672 1719
Cornelius O’Dowd—Chas. Jas. Lever 1806 1872
Country Parson—The Rev. A. K. H. Boyd 1825
Currer Bell—Charlotte Bronte (Mrs. Nichols) 1815 1855
Diedrich Knickerbocker—Washington Irving 1783 1859
E. D. E. N—Mrs. Emma D. E. (Nevette) Southworth 1818
Edward Search (2)—Abraham Tucker 1705 1774
Edward Search (1)—Wm. Hazlitt 1778 1830
Elia—Chas. Lamb 1775 1834
Eli Perkins—Matthew D. Landon
Elizabeth Wetherell—Susan Warner 1818
Ellis Bell—Emily Bronte 1819 1848
Ettrick Shepherd—James Hogg 1772 1835
Fanny Fern—Sarah Parton 1811 1872
Father Prout—Francis Mahony 1805 1866
Figaro—Mariano Jose de Larra 1809 1837
Gail Hamilton—Miss Abigail Hamilton Dodge 1838
Gamaliel Smith—Jeremy Bentham 1748 1832
Gath—George Alfred Townsend 1833
Geoffrey Crayon—Washington Irving 1783 1859
George Eliot—Mrs. Mary Ann (Evans) Lewes Cross 1820 1880
George Fitzdoodle—Wm. Makepeace Thackeray 1811 1863
Georges Sand—Mme. Dudevant 1804 1876
Grace Greenwood—Mrs. Sara J. Lippincott 1825
Horace Hornem—George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788 1824
Hosea Biglow—James R. Lowell 1819
Ik Marvel—Donald Grant Mitchell 1822
Jean Paul—Jean Paul F. Richter 1763 1825
Jedediah Cleishbotham—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Jennie June—Mrs. J. C. Croly 1840
John Chalkhill—Izaak Walton 1593 1683
Jonathan Oldstyle—Washington Irving 1783 1859
Josh Billings—Henry W. Shaw 1818
Joshua Coffin—Henry W. Longfellow 1807 1881
Junius—Probably Sir Philip Francis 1740 1818
Laertes—G. A. Townsend 1833
Launcelot Langstaff—Washington Irving 1783 1859
Launcelot Langstaff—William Irving 1766 1821
Launcelot Langstaff—Jas. Kirke Paulding 1779 1860
L. E. L.—Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 1839
Little Thomas—Thomas Moore 1779 1852
Luise Muhlbach—Mme. Clara Mundt 1814 1873
Malachi—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Malachi Malagrowther—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Malakoff—Samuel Johnson, LL. D. 1709 1784
Marion Harland—Mary V. (Hawes) Terhune 1835
Mark Twain—Samuel L. Clemens 1835
M. Quad—Chas. B. Lewis
Mrs. Partington—B. P. Shillaber 1814
Old Bachelor—George W. Curtis 1824
Oliver Optic—William Taylor Adams 1822
Owen Meredith—Edward R. Bulwer, Lord Lytton 1831
Paul Creyton—John T. Trowbridge 1817
Parson Lot—The Rev. Charles Kingsley 1819
Saxe Holm—Miss Rush Ellis 1858
Theophilus South—Edward Chitty 1807
Timothy Titcomb—J. G. Holland 1819 1881

CHICAGO NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION.

AURORA, Ill.

To settle a dispute, state which of the Chicago newspapers has the
largest circulation.

CONOVER.

_Answer._—The only criterion of newspaper circulation which there is absolutely no means of successfully disputing is the amount of postage paid on papers sent to actual subscribers. Below is given the amounts of postage paid on such circulation by each of the Chicago newspapers here named during the fiscal year ending June, 30, 1882:

THE INTER OCEAN $19,609.30
The _News_ 7,289.14
The _Times_ 6,581.10
The _Tribune_ 5,644.54
The _Herald_ 1,443.68

For circulation of papers outside of the mails there is nothing that can be regarded as an impartial standard of comparison; nothing which affords the reading and advertising public such unequivocal testimony as the above, but every intelligent person will naturally conclude that the proportions of circulation through the mails and outside of the mails will not differ very greatly.

TO POLISH SEA-SHELLS.

CRESTON, Iowa.

Please inform us through Our Curiosity Shop how to polish
sea-shells and prepare them for sale.

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—According to Cooley, one of the highest authorities on processes employed in the arts and manufactures, the surfaces of certain shells which have a natural polish should be first cleansed by rubbing with a rag dipped in hydrochloric acid (obtainable at any drug store) till the dull outer skin is removed. They must then be promptly washed in warm water, dried in hot sawdust, and polished with chamois leather. But shells destitute of natural polish may be either varnished or rubbed with a mixture of tripoli powder and turpentine, applied by means of a “wash-leather” (split sheepskin dressed with oil), and afterward with fine tripoli alone, and finally a little olive oil, the surface being brought up with vigorous use of the chamois leather. But there are shells which must first be boiled in a strong solution of potash, then ground on wheels, sometimes all the way through the outer stratum, to show an underlying one, after which they are polished with hydrochloric acid and putty powder. This last process better be left to men who make a business of shell-grinding; for it is said that “shell-grinders are almost all cripples in their hands,” owing to the dangerous nature of this operation.

STATES WITH COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

STECOAH, N. C.

Name the States and Territories which have compulsory education
laws; and show how their attendance and non-attendance compare with
the same in other States and Territories.

J. L. CRISP.

_Answer._—Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have compulsory education laws, requiring every male child between certain years—usually 8 to 14—to attend school not less than a specified period—usually twelve weeks each year. The Illinois law did not come into effect until the present school year, and in several other States these laws were not passed in time to affect the statistics of 1880, so the following table gives the total number of children of school age in none but such States as had compulsory attendance laws before 1880. It gives not the average daily attendance, but the total enrollment of pupils in the public schools:

Children of
States. school age. Enrollment.

California 215,978 158,765
Connecticut 140,235 119,694
Massachusetts 307,321 309,777
Michigan 506,221 362,556
New Jersey 330,685 204,961
New York 1,641,173 1,031,593
Ohio 1,043,320 747,138

The table below gives the corresponding statistics for an equal number of States not having such laws, as nearly adjacent as possible:

Children of
States. school age. Enrollment.

Oregon 59,615 37,533
Maine 214,656 149,827
Rhode Island 52,273 44,780
Pennsylvania 1,370,000 937,310
Delaware 35,459 27,823
Indiana 703,558 511,283
Iowa 586,556 426,057

This comparison sheds very uncertain light upon the question as to the effect of compulsory attendance laws, because the school age period is different in different States, and it does not show the number of pupils in private schools. It would be far more interesting in this connection if it included only all children of the ages within the compulsory period in each State, and gave the number of such children enrolled in schools of any sort before and after the passage of the law. Nevertheless, these tables do indicate plainly enough that such laws are not strictly enforced in any State, and are, comparatively speaking, a dead letter in others.

BASHFULNESS WORSE THAN FEAR.

OREGON, Ill.

What brave man was it that said he had suffered far more from
bashfulness than from fear?

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—It was “John Brown, of Ossawatomie,” the hero of the Harper’s Ferry plot to emancipate as many as possible of the slaves of Virginia and Maryland, and lead them on an exodus into Canada. Being asked, on the way to the scaffold, if he felt any fear, he replied: “It has been a characteristic of me from infancy not to suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from bashfulness than from fear.”

CHOKE-BORE SHOTGUNS.

PECATONICA, Ill.

Please explain the difference between “full choke” and “modified
choke” shotguns.

SPORTSMAN.

_Answer._—In a full choke shot-gun the bore is a perfect cylinder to within a few inches from the muzzle, where it swells inward slightly all around, and then opens out in the last six or seven inches to about the same diameter as in front of the choke. In a “modified choke” gun the barrel tapers from the shell chamber to the choke curve. In a “taper bore choke” the barrel tapers regularly from the shell chamber to the muzzle.

NIGHT GLASSES.

HARPER, Kansas.

What is a night glass? Is it true that a person can see as plainly
with one of these, in fair weather, at night, as he can without one
in daylight?