C. Stansfeld Hicks

“ The polishing brings out its beauty and makes it a lasting treasure. The polishing is nothing else than rubbing the pebble smooth. A flint pebble is so hard that when rubbed perfectly smooth it reflects light just as glass and water do. Nothing is put on to make the surface shine, as in polishing wood. The pebble is merely rubbed smooth; and when this is done, the surface proves to be so hard that no instrument of the hardest steel, not even a file, will produce upon it the faintest scratch. I am speaking of flint-pebbles or agates, which are to be found upon many beaches. ”

“ Yet, though travelling at this rate, we appear to be in a dead calm, and if a feather be dropped from the car it will sink slowly in a perpendicular line underneath us. When a balloon has left the earth there is no perceptible motion in it whatever. We seem to be stationary, while the fields have the appearance of rushing quickly along beneath us. We are really, as it were, part and parcel of the air, and as the current moves so we drift with it, like a cork on a running stream ”

“ Those who class model engines as mere toys, and fit only to amuse the very youngest members of the human family, entirely forget the important place they hold in the estimation of inventors and those interested in mechanism as a means by which they can practically carry out their ideas, because models not only have the advantage of cheapness in construction as compared with the full-sized machine, but also the still greater advantage of being, from the small size and light weights of their parts, capable of construction by the inventor himself without having to employ strangers. ”

“ I could not imagine how it was that just at the last moment, when I was putting the finishing touches to a pebble, some faint but hideous scratches would suddenly appear on its surface, ruining the beauty of the work. How many times have I despaired of success! ”

“ Pebbles can be obtained free of expense. Nature’s inexhaustible treasure-house is always open. She invites you to approach and help yourself at will. She offers with unstinting hand stones of imperishable beauty. It is ungracious to scorn her liberality.
We propose, then, to give particulars of British pebbles—how to recognise those worth collecting, where to look for them, and how to cut and polish them for yourselves. No writer for boys, so far as I know, has ever yet given practical instructions about cutting and polishing stones. The best pebble unpolished looks dull and dead. ”

“ If you wish to be impressed with the majesty of Nature, walk on the Chesil Beach after a fresh gale from the south-west, and the grandeur of the sea will be before you in all the magnificence of its strength. ”

“ As a game for one player there is no superior to Solitaire. Apparently easy and simple, it is really intricate and scientific. Governed by a well-defined principle, chance forms no element of its practice. Like Chess and Draughts, it is entirely a mental and demonstrable game, full of variety, and affording ample scope, in its almost endless combinations, for the display of thought and ingenuity. ”

“ I suppose there is no taste more universal amongst boys, old as well as young, than that for mechanism and engineering. What boy does not feel interested in the models displayed in the various shop windows in our large towns, and what lad with any mechanical bent but has a longing to make one for himself and feels an intense pleasure in being able to do so? And it is with the intention of helping those who would like to build one, but have not the necessary knowledge, that I purpose to explain, as simply as possible, the best method of building model locomotives. ”

“ Of course, all eyes are attracted to the clairvoyante, and all attention deliberately turned thereto, though the most difficult position is really occupied by the one asking the questions, he having to decide instantly as to his choice of words, and put them in such a natural, unstudied, and off-hand style—and so quickly withal—as to effectually nonplus those unlearned in the art and mystery. ”

“ A peeled orange or lemon will give the very best idea of the general shape of the gussets of a balloon. Speaking generally, the narrower you cut the gussets of your balloon the neater will be your turn out; but of course, if narrow gussets be employed, more of them will be needed than if you employed wide gussets. Neatness of manufacture is of no account when brought to bear on a toy firework that, after a few moments of ascent, reveals itself to lookers-on merely as a patch of moving light. ”

“ In the first place, a balloon is most certainly not what it is sometimes erroneously called—a flying machine. One might as well compare the gracefulness of a good swimmer with the aimless floating of a dead dog, as to pretend that the helpless drifting of a balloon has anything in common with the as yet only partially accomplished science of aërial flight. ”

“ But you had better rehearse once or twice privately before giving an exhibition, to see that you have everything in working order; by so doing you will acquire confidence, and produce your effects one after the other in a much shorter space of time, while you may hit on many others. For instance, if your table is one of those small, light, ornamental affairs resting on a single stem, you might cause it to rock violently by means of your tongs, and to ‘walk’ from one edge of the screen to the other, the audience being able to watch the motion of its feet. ”

“ Find the numbers, can you?’ ‘Yes,’ says the clairvoyant, taking the first four initial letters after ‘Very good;’ ‘eight thousand one hundred and twenty-seven;’ and great is the marvel of the audience thereat.
The last and most difficult problem of all appertaining to our subject—though, luckily, the most easily dispensed with for private performance—is the abstruse Alphabet, by which the clairvoyant may learn the name of a person or gain other particulars in a way quite unsuspected by the spectators. ”

“ When carving a handle, choose some design that will be smooth to the hand. As examples try a man’s head. One of the most extraordinary collections of walking-sticks ever made was formed by Robertson of Kincraigie, who was popularly supposed to be ‘daft.’ It was his practice to carve on his stick the head of any friend or foe he met with, and in time he owned quite a portrait gallery of wooden heads, which proved the cause of much wonderment to his visitors, for every batch he entertained had their features promptly reproduced in oak or hazel! ”

“ Copy the design through the glass, and it would be as well not to forget that unless you can draw properly on paper you are not likely to do so on a lantern slide, where in the intense light and enlargement every mistake and shakiness of line is exaggerated for the benefit of the spectators. For those who cannot draw, figures of men and animals can be cut out with scissors and pasted on the slide, so as to give a shadow entertainment, as a change from the bought slides. Others can buy transparencies and stick them on for themselves, but the result will never equal hand-painting. ”

“ Life’s sweetest enjoyments are gathered from the victories of faith. Out of slain lions come forth meat; out of conquered foes to the soul come its sweetest honeycombs. One of the joys of heaven will be the remembrance of victories won during our earthly conflicts.’ In Christ’s name and power, try it, boys! ”

“ Clever as the exhibitions were, also, one or two slips were made which were fatal to them, though it does not ruin a straightforward conjurer to have a trick accidentally discovered now and then. For instance, on one occasion, a dreadful fiery hand, pale and deathly, though glowing with light, was seen sweeping through the air, high overhead, rushing from end to end of the room with a swiftness that no being could have possessed unless provided with wings, and at times descending to give somebody a cold, clammy touch on the cheek. ”

“ Rafts are of all shapes and sizes, varying from the few booms of the Fairlie up to the elaborate raft of the Medusa, of which the model was shown in the London Fisheries Exhibition. A raft would seem to be any floating substance on which a man can sit or stand. Boys have paddled in a pond on rafts of a couple of planks, soldiers have crossed rivers on rafts of barn-doors, and we hear of armies using rafts of house-roofs, and wooden-shed walls, and casks and inflated skins, and pontoons of all shapes, of tin, zinc, copper, iron, leather, wood, and canvas. ”

“ The power of an engine is the nominal, and the duty is the actual work that it will perform. When the horse-power of an engine is spoken of it must be taken in a qualified sense. By urging the furnace greater effect may be obtained, and by keeping the furnace low an effect less than the nominal power is produced. Duty is the term used to represent the amount of work absolutely done; it disregards the size of the engine, and simply inquires how much work is done by a given expenditure of fuel. ”

“ When we consider how many men hunt for exercise, or for food or clothing for the body, one can hardly consistently condemn a little margin to feed the mind.
Most boys have a taste for natural history, and the following practical hints may, it is hoped, tend to develop it, by teaching them not only how to destroy life, but how to preserve what they have destroyed. Thus they may learn wonderful lessons regarding the habits and the structure of the marvellous insects and birds and beasts with which the Almighty has peopled this beautiful world of ours. ”

“ It is not necessary to give the moves of a game, as, except for its two grand distinctions, Polish Draughts is similar to the English game.
Here, then, we have pretty well all that can be taught on paper respecting this branch of the game. The next step is How to Open a game with advantage. This I shall proceed briefly to show; and after that the excellence is to be acquired by practice alone. Draughts, in all its varieties, is an admirable game, inculcating patience, caution, tact, and scientific calculation. Those who would excel in its practice must be content to go slowly. ”

“ By the process just described we press the diamond-powder into the substance of the disc, so that the edge becomes armed with grains of adamant; the edge becomes a mighty file, or an irresistible saw. The principle is so simple. When you have driven sufficient diamond-powder into the edge of the disc, you have invested the iron with an armature which can cut through every hard substance that exists in Nature except the diamond itself. ”

“ Any one acquainted with the moves and rules of ordinary chess can soon become a proficient, and as for the notion that it requires a great Single-chess player to make a good Double-chess-player, we must call attention, by way of analogy, to the fact that gamekeepers generally make wretched rifle-shots.
Exception must be taken to the name, ‘Four-handed Chess,’ given by some players to this game. Why not Four-brained Chess, or Four-person Chess, on the same principle? Must we call Single Chess Two-handed Chess? ”

“ In every experiment, whether it be merely in shocking, in rendering luminous half-a-dozen eggs placed end to end by sending the shock through them, in perforating a card by passing a spark through it as it rests on the foil, in splitting wood by driving the wires in until their points are close to each other, in breaking a glass by passing a spark from knob to knob in water, however simple it may be, remember always to discharge by touching the outside first. Otherwise you may receive an unpleasant surprise, and, like Cuneus, come to grief with your Leyden jar. ”

“ If a lad has the ability to build a canoe at all, he must be the best judge of the easiest way for him to set about it, and it is impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules as to what he shall use in its construction. All he requires is the general idea which is given here, and where a lad with every convenience and a long purse will use the best materials another, under different circumstances and perhaps far away from opportunities of getting the most suitable timber, etc., for his purpose, will have to exercise his ingenuity and bring into use those materials he is limited to. ”

“ And now about the tools. The hand, with its four fingers and a thumb, is so excellent a tool for an infinity of purposes, that certain thoughtless people would seem to be under the impression that whatever new thing they may have to do can be done without tools altogether. This is a mistake; tools you will want, but they are of the simplest description.
Inasmuch as cupro-ammonium not only stains the skin but irritates it, do not let it touch the skin. There is no danger in the matter, only inconvenience. ”

“ The quickness of hand and eye acquired by the practice is not only valuable in cricket, football, and other sports, but also can hardly fail to prove serviceable in the sterner duties and emergencies of life. If space permitted I could relate many stories of articles, and even life, being saved by the dexterous catch of one who had practised juggling. I am generally called upon, when in a gymnasium, to stand close to any one who is about to try a new exercise, or one attended with risk, either on the horizontal or trapeze bar, in case of a slip ”

“ If instead of a cork you were to take a lump of iron—say a cannon ball—then the very idea of such a heavy material floating would seem to you ridiculous. It will float, nevertheless, not in water, truly, but in any fluid of greater weight than itself. Quicksilver, otherwise called mercury, is such a fluid, and the very experiment I have supposed you to perform for curiosity is actually turned to practical account by artillerists when they wish to ascertain whether a cannon ball is equally heavy on every part of corresponding size around the centre. ”

“ Satisfactory effects can, however, be produced with almost anything bright and shining. The first kaleidoscope we, in the thirst for knowledge, took apart was found to have for its objects about forty pieces of red, green, blue, and brown stained glass, smashed up into irregular fragments of about a quarter of an inch in width and length, and as the shapes were varied and the colours crude, the patterns at every shake were almost as startling as those produced by a sixpenny catharine-wheel on the 5th of November. ”