William S. Walsh

“ And indeed, in houses where children believe this, their faith is rewarded by the fact that candies and other goodies do stream down into the great open hearths and are gathered in by eager little people who have been singing the saint’s praises all through the evening.
In many households, moreover, the saint actually presents himself to the eyes of his worshippers and admirers. A knock is heard at the door; it is opened, and amid the breathless silence of the children, Santa Klaus, in flesh and blood, and in all the glory of scarlet robe and bejewelled mitre, steps into the room. ”

“ I cried out, 'George!' and George heard and understood me. George was saved."
Monsieur Dalize listened attentively: he was following up a train of reasoning. At the end of some moments he answered Monsieur Roger, who was awaiting with impatience the result of his thoughts.
"Alas, my poor friend! in spite of all my reason tells me, I should like to leave to you your hope, but it is impossible. I have seen Paul's father; I know him; I have spoken to him, I have touched him; that father is not a shadow,—he exists in flesh and blood. You have heard Paul himself speak of him. ”

“ GIANT’S CAUSEWAY, IRELAND. A singular mass of basaltic columns, situated on the coast of Antrim, Ireland, has obtained this name from the legend that it was the commencement of a road planned by the giants of old to project across the channel from Ireland to Scotland. And, indeed, it looks almost like a deliberate work of mightier men than we rather than a frolic of nature. It resembles an immense pier jutting out into the sea from the base of a stratified cliff about four hundred feet high, to the length of about seven hundred feet. ”

“ The symbol of our first parents is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christmas itself is the day of Christ, whose symbol is the tree of life or the cross. It is easy to see that when the minds of men were escaping from paganism into Christianity the tree of the old mythology grew to be associated with the birthday of Christ and thus with the cross. So the lights of the Chanuckah Festival of the Hebrews were borrowed to adorn the sacred tree, and the seven-branched candlestick, as a figure of that tree, was even introduced into the churches. ”

“ Monsieur Roger continued:
"By much reflection, by hard work and calculation, Newton made an admirable discovery,—that of universal attraction. Yes, he discovered that all bodies, different though they may be, attract each other: they draw towards each other; the bodies which occupy the celestial spaces,—planets and suns,—as well as the bodies which are found upon our earth. The force which attracts bodies towards the earth, which made this stone fall, as Newton's apple fell, has received the name of weight. ”

“ If you wish to travel, the world is yours to command. Fictitious heroes have circled it in eighty days; real men and women have accomplished the feat in less time. A little leisure and a little money will enable you to do what a century or so ago would have been impossible to the greatest potentate on earth, with twenty-four hours of leisure every day, and the wealth of Indies at his beck and call. ”

“ Monsieur Roger smiled.
"You are wrong," replied Monsieur Dalize, "to excuse by your smile Paul's indifference to the sciences.—And as to you, Paul, you would do well to take as your example Monsieur Roger, who would not have his fortune if he had not known chemistry and the physical sciences. In our day the sciences are indispensable."
Miss Miette, who had shoved herself a little away from the table, pouting slightly, heard these words, and came to the defence of the one whom she had begun by attacking. ”

“ The town folk think it funny to gather together in small crowds all playing on noisy horns and thumping discordant drums. The mobs parade up and down the streets. Their great delight is to fall in with some simpleton who is new to city ways. Such a man is easily made to believe that they are on their way to meet the three kings, who are expected to arrive at one of the gates some time that night. ”

“ There are certain compounds containing nitrogen which are indispensable to our food. An animal nourished entirely on food which is destitute of nitrogen would become weak and would soon die."
"Excuse me, Monsieur Roger," said Albert Dalize: "how can nitrogen enter into our food?"
"That is a very good question," added Miette, laughing; "surely you cannot eat nitrogen and you cannot eat gas."
"The question is indeed a very sensible one," answered Monsieur Roger; "but this is how nitrogen enters into our food. We are carnivorous, are we not? we eat meat and flesh of animals. ”

“ THE TOWER OF LONDON, ENGLAND. In all the world there is no more famous fortress than this ancient citadel of London. Situate in the oldest portion of the city, on the north bank of the Thames, it at once arrests the attention of every stranger in the English metropolis. Tradition ascribes its erection to Julius Cæsar, but tradition is unsupported by historical evidence, and at the most it is only conjectured that the Romans had a fortress on this site. ”

“ The wild revels of the Bacchanalia, the Saturnalia and the Twelve Nights survive in a milder form in the merriment and jollity which mark the season of Christmas to-day.
Christmas gifts themselves remind us of the presents that were exchanged in Rome during the Saturnalia. In Rome, it might be added, the presents usually took the form of wax tapers and dolls,—the latter being in their turn a survival of the human sacrifices once offered to Saturn.
It is a queer thought that in our Christmas presents we are preserving under another form one of the most savage customs of our barbarian ancestors! ”

“ About nine miles in length and from three-quarters of a mile to a mile and a quarter in width, it is sunk almost a mile below the level of the surrounding country. High granite walls rise sheer and inaccessible on each side. Cataracts of the wildest and strangest beauty abound. Flowers of every hue cover the ground. Where all is wonderful it might seem hard to select. Yet by common consent the surpassing feature of the valley scenery is the great cliff, known as El Capitan or The Captain. ”

“ If the moon had been closer to the earth it would have fallen long ago; but it is more than two hundred and thirty-eight thousand miles away, and, as I have told you, if attraction or gravity acts upon the planets, it loses its power in proportion to the distance at which they are. The same attraction which forces the moon to turn around the earth obliges the earth and the planets to turn around the sun; and the sun itself is not immovable. It flies through space like all the other stars, bearing us in its train, subject also to universal attraction. ”

“ After all, may it not be safe for us to decide that it is not the spirit but the fashion which alters, that the heart of Old Father Christmas still beats warm under the new garb wherein changing tastes have clothed him? ”

“ For twenty-two years twenty thousand men were employed in its construction, the total cost reaching $16,000,000. Built of white marble, it forms a quadrangle of one hundred and ninety square yards, surmounted by a lofty dome, with smaller domes at each corner and four graceful minarets one hundred and thirty-three feet high. The great central hall is paved with squares of various-colored marbles, while the walls, tombs and screens are ornamented by exquisite mosaic work. The elegance and delicacy of the design and the elaborate perfection in every detail of the workmanship are alike marvelous. ”

“ Why is it necessary to introduce air into the lungs?"
"Yes," said Miette; "let us pass to that."
"The blood, in going out of the heart, circulates to all the parts of the body in order to make necessary repairs; at the same time it charges itself with all the old matter which has been used up and is no longer any good and carries it along. Now, what is it going to do with this old matter? It will burn it. Where will it burn it? In the lungs. Now, there can be no combustion when there is no air. ”

“ Shrieking, praying, cursing, the doomed four fought with the flames and with one another. Women fainted; men who had never faltered in the fiercest battle sickened at the frightful spectacle. Eager as they would have been to assist their friends, the men knew only too well that no human arm could offer assistance.
All Paris had been aroused by the tumult and now crowded around the palace gates. At last the flames burned out. The four maskers lay, a charred and writhing heap, upon the floor of the dance-hall. ”

“ To come face to face with the great monuments of the past and of the present, to see what man has done and is doing, is to get a new idea of the vastness, the imaginative strength, the creative power of the human mind, to renew your respect for your kind and for yourself, because you belong to that kind. ”

“ So all bodies are subject to that force which we call weight; all substances, all matter abandoned to itself, falls to the earth."
Just here Miss Miette shifted uneasily on her chair, wishing to make an observation, but not daring.
"Come, Miss Miette," said Monsieur Roger, who saw this manoeuvre, "you have something to tell us. Your little tongue is itching to say something. Well, speak; we should all like to hear you."
"Monsieur Roger," said Miette, "is not smoke a substance?"
"Certainly; the word substance signifies something that exists. Smoke exists. Therefore it is a substance." ”

“ But for the sake of the six year olds it may be well to explain, as simply as I can in a few words, that comparative mythology is a branch of human knowledge which compares the myths and legends of one age and one people with the myths and legends of another age and another people, the object being to show how the later myths descend from the earlier ones, or how all the myths go back to some parent germ in the far-away past.
By the aid, then, of the science of comparative mythology let us seek to study the historical growth of the idea that is now embodied in the Christmas tree. ”

“ At six years old or sometimes later doubts begin to visit the youthful mind. These doubts are carried very far by the little girl—a juvenile Saint Thomas in pantalettes—who in Mr. J. R. Shaver’s picture, meets Santa Klaus face to face, yet tells him to his face that she doesn’t believe in him.
At this period in their lives young folks of both sexes will sympathize with the spirit of inquiry that summons Saint Nicholas, as in Mr. O’Malley’s cartoon, to answer before a judge and jury of their own age the question as to whether he has any real existence. ”

“ In this way Lavoisier discovered that the air was formed of a mixture of two gases: the first was oxygen, of which we have just spoken; the second was nitrogen. The nitrogen, which is also a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas, possesses some qualities that are precisely contrary to those of oxygen. Oxygen is the agent of combustion. Nitrogen extinguishes bodies in combustion. Oxygen is a gas indispensable to our existence, with which our lungs breathe, and which revives our being. The nitrogen, on the contrary, contains no properties that are directly useful to the body. ”