Various

“ Colfax resumed, "and hope that the unusualness of your party will compensate for the expensive supper and orchestra of Hiram's."
"What would you give, mother? For you know right off I could never plan a new party any more than if I was a—"
"A what, my son?"
"A—barber's pole—or a wax figure, or any other know-nothing thing."
"You're interested in Indians, aren't you?"
"Indians!" and jumping to his feet John trod forcibly across the floor, as if he was on his way to encounter a whole tribe of them. Then he slowly stated: "I should remark that I am. But what have Indians to do with my party?" ”

“ Rather make up your mind what you want to do, and then try to make a financial success of it, as well as all other kinds of successes. If it is the hide and leather business, try to make money each year, but try also to make money fairly, to learn the trade thoroughly, and to keep pace with the literature, the politics, the life of your own day. If it is the ministry or law or literature, try to make both ends meet each year, and to make money just the same, but don't forget that all these branches of work require something besides cash to make them successes. ”

“ Nothing will induce him to ride in any but the mail-cars, where, curled up on the pouches, he will permit none but the mail-clerks to touch them. These men are very fond of him, and he never lacks for attention. He treats them all impartially, and comes and goes as he wills. As another dog knows a bone, so Owney does a mail-sack, and he will leap aboard the trains with them in the most unexpected places, to be always received with delight. Duly recorded in the history of the United States Post-office, he has its great army of employees, from the highest to the lowest, for his firm friends. ”

“ Bronislau Hubermann is a boy who plays the violin very much like a grown man. Now that means something more than merely sounding the tones correctly and smoothly. It means to show an understanding of the music and an artistic taste in its performance—two things which many adult players fail to do. Young Hubermann is therefore a remarkable boy, and it is not surprising that thousands of persons go to his concerts and sit as if spellbound while the youngster plays, for amazement joins with admiration to deepen the emotions caused by his fine performances. ”

“ Hopson sprang into the shrouds, ran out to the main-yard-arm, gained the French Admiral's yard-arm, and running aloft, cut away the French flag, and brought it safely on board his own ship. The effect was amazing. The British yelled "Victory!" believing the French had struck; and the Frenchmen fled below, not doubting, now that their Admiral's flag had disappeared, that the battle was lost. For this surprising act of heroism young Hopson was promoted to the quarter-deck.
Every one must regret that more is not known of these gallant worthies of past times. ”

“ It is to be regretted that writers for boys do not uniformly invent with some perception of the good taste, sound judgment, and high aspirations and feelings of the young public they address. The typical boy hero of the boy's book is, for the most part, impossible; the lad as he reads grows disdainful, he may even detect blunders in seamanship or in the employment of nautical words, and his confidence is gravely shaken. ”

“ If he has a lot of money also, and knows how to use it, he is all the better chap. If he has the money and none of the qualities mentioned, his money does him not the least good, and may very likely do him harm. You will find the thing just the same at college, for college is only a little larger school. There are many fellows at college who have money and use it well, but the mere fact that a man has cash in his pocket does not get him on to athletic teams, or into college clubs or societies, or at the head of his class. ”

“ This does not mean that a money-making business is an unworthy one; that idea is common among certain classes of short-sighted clergymen; but it does mean that to start out with no idea but choosing a business only with regard to money is wrong, and is likely to turn out to your disadvantage. We have all seen in school, and will see in college, fellows who have large allowances. They certainly can do things which are beyond us. Such men can have a better time because they have money, and they can give their friends a better time. ”

“ Teddy had ridden away on his wheel, accompanied by two of his brothers, and there was nothing for him to do but to await their return. When he saw the approach of the Misses Middleton he turned and fled.
"I wonder where Theodora is?" remarked Miss Middleton. "I hoped to find her with Arthur—such a nice, quiet little boy. Where can she be?"
And still Miss Thomasine held her peace.
Mrs. Hoyt was at home, and the ladies were ushered into the parlor.
"Sister, you must be the one to speak," said Miss Joanna to Miss Middleton, "and I will help you when it is necessary." ”

“ In the United States the hockey-players have not yet developed the team play which makes the Canadian game so interesting, our men, having been brought up on ice polo, relying more on their own quickness and individual skill. But the advantage of team-work is being more and more understood by us, and Americans will no doubt soon equal the Canadians at this feature of the sport. ”

“ There seems to be an idea among not only young but old men that if you make money in any way you will be fitted for anything else. In a certain way this is true. For if you can buy anything, you can buy men who know what you do not know, and hire them to do certain things for you that take lifetimes to accomplish. The truth is that if you start now and make up your mind to make money first, you will not be able to do anything but money-making business, and if you fail in this, there will be no other course open to you. ”

“ The next day, on board of the Warspite, a lot of offenders were brought before her Captain, who roared out in wrath, "Rig the gratings, call the boatswain and his mates, and all hands witness punishment!" Some eight men received two dozen lashes each, and from that day until the ship was paid off no guilty man escaped the cat. The tyrant knew the power of kindness to make men do their duty in battle, but when there was no prospect of fighting, his savage nature asserted itself. ”

“ In a certain way it is just as wrong to try to believe that money is an evil as it is to let yourself believe that money is the only thing worth having. It is a great and good thing when you have learned how to use it, and a mighty poor thing when it is abused. Decide therefore on what work you will set out, without regard to money, and then try to make a financial as well as an intellectual success of it. ”

“ Stories of this sort need the pen of a Defoe; they should be submitted to the world by the hand of genius, that, being in all senses things of beauty, they might be immortal as inspirations in such hours of conflict as young Shotten passed through. ”

“ The Warspite was in command of a Captain who had seen service under Nelson. The discipline under her previous Captain had been almost savage. The new Captain, by his mildness, soon won the hearts of his men; they almost worshipped him. One night in November, while carrying a press of sail, she crossed the stern of the American clipper-bark Rosiland, bound from Smyrna for Boston. "I suppose," hailed the Captain of the American, "you have not heard the glorious news. Codrington has blown the Turks and Egyptians sky-high!" ”

“ At the several in-door games of the New York schools this winter we shall look for the development of much new material in track athletics, for by graduation and other causes many of the best performers of the Interscholastic League have made room for other stars. The New York pole-vaulters will have their hands full to hold their own against Paulding, the Black Hall vaulter, who is now at Berkeley, and I doubt if there is any one who can surpass him. ”

“ He made his first appearance in America at a concert in Carnegie Hall, New York, early in November, and achieved an immediate success.
He is a tall and rather awkward boy, but all his awkwardness disappears as soon as he begins to play. He produces from his instrument a very beautiful tone, and he always plays in tune, which shows that his ear is correct, and that his left hand has been trained carefully. But what is of more importance is that he plays with a great deal of feeling, and with an insight into the emotional meaning of the music which is altogether uncommon in so young a person. ”

“ There are many geniuses and inventors hard at work to-day on devices for saving time and money, and one might say that daily the product of their thought is placed before the world in machines that seem almost human in their workings. ”

“ The Canadians are very strict about off-side play, and the referees invariably enforce the rule which declares that when a player hits the puck any one of the same side who is nearer the opponent's goal-line is off-side, and may therefore not touch the disk or prevent any other player from doing so until the puck has been played by an opponent. A penalty for off-side play is the surrender of the puck to the opposing side; the other players must then stand at a distance of not less than five yards from the puck ”

“ There are few things finer in the history of warfare than the story of the old sheikh on horseback at Abu-Klea, his banner aloft in one hand, his book of prayers in the other, advancing with his men and chanting his prayers till he had planted his banner in the centre of the British square, where he fell pierced with bullets. ”

“ Sir Knight Robert Guest, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, asks if taking money prizes in photographic contests makes one a professional photographer, and if one can sell his pictures and still remain an amateur. Taking prizes in competitions does not class one with the professional photographers, nor does selling prints make one a professional. By a professional is understood one who makes a business of photography, either in opening a gallery for portraits or in devoting himself to making pictures of all sorts of commercial articles, photographs of buildings, interiors, etc. ”

“ In fact, in and about New York hockey is fast superseding ice polo; the latter, purely American game, being played mostly in New England. Hockey is, of course, akin to ice polo, but it has a number of points of difference, and is considered by the Canadians a much better game than our ice polo. Perhaps one of the chief advantages of hockey is that more players can take part in the sport than in ice polo. ”

“ I am sure that if he had been an American I should never have escaped without telling a story of some sort, but the English are of a less curious temper than we are, and if they interfere in other people's business on the outside world, they have a talent for minding their own at home, and to this I testify readily. ”

“ The step has been decided upon, and it is believed the undertaking will not be extremely difficult; and yet if there is any fighting the British will meet the very men who in 1885 showed that half-civilized peoples can do all that any men can do on a battle-field. Fiercer fighting was never seen than that the Mahdi's Arabs gave General Wolseley's forces on those desert battle-fields; and no men could fight as those Arabs did, with nothing but spears in their hands against trained soldiers with the best of modern fire-arms, if they had not been consumed with fanatical zeal. ”

“ In the first place, no other half-civilized nation to-day is so well armed as the Abyssinians. They fought the British once, and later, the Mahdists, with spears and a few muzzle-loading rifles. None of the soldiers now carries a spear or a muzzle-loading gun. All the small arms are breech-loaders. King Menelek came to the throne nearly eight years ago, and being an enterprising and an intelligent ruler, he has made great changes. He imported, through French territory, large quantities of excellent rifles. ”

“ While Menelek was forcing his enemies back north, the Italians paused from time to time in places they had previously fortified. Menelek had thirty cannon, but in no instance succeeded in destroying the walls. The courage with which the Abyssinians charged up to the fortifications won the admiration of their enemies, under whose galling fire many hundreds of natives were killed. Menelek could not capture the strongholds, and the Italians could not shake him off. ”

“ The sticks of the Canadians are also somewhat differently shaped from those used in ice polo, the main difference being that they are longer, and wider at the bottom, and usually constructed of lighter wood. They do not strike the puck as polo-players strike the ball, but rather aim to shove it along the ice, and more often than not the Canadians use both hands, instead of wielding their club with one hand only. ”

“ The protest against Morgan, that he had worked for his living at one time, seems to be invalid, for, so far as I am aware, there is nothing in the constitution of the New York Interscholastic Association which prevents a boy from earning an honest living. Of course, when it comes to a question of a foul, that is a different matter; but I have it on very good authority that Paulding of Berkeley himself denies that he was in any way fouled by Morgan, and yet a protest against Morgan for fouling Paulding was entered. ”

“ Liberia is a republic modelled after our own. It was founded by some enthusiastic philanthropists who thought the colored people of our southern States could be induced to go back to Africa where their ancestors, as slaves and against their wills, came from. ”

“ Perhaps it is this quality of the disk over the ball which has made it necessary in the Canadian game to allow the defensive players to stop the puck in any way they choose, instead of as in ice polo, where the ball may only be stopped by the sticks, the feet, or the body.
The space demanded for Canadian hockey is 112 feet by 58 feet, although the game is possible in a more restricted area. The goal is placed at the middle point of the two shorter lines; it consists of two upright posts four feet high placed six feet apart, and to score a goal the puck has to be driven between the posts. ”

“ President-elect McKinley is free to select any persons he pleases for places in his cabinet, the only restriction being that Secretaries must be American citizens above certain ages. That which prevents him from selecting unfit men is his desire to make his administration successful. The President nominates his cabinet officials to the United States Senate, but that body, while it holds a legal right to confirm or reject such names, always, as a matter of courtesy, confirms them, holding that a President ought to be permitted to have such men in his official family as he desires. ”

“ You look through the lens and your stout friends will look like living skeletons, your thin friends like Dime Museum fat men, horses like giraffes and in fact everything appears as though you were living in another world. ”

“ In Boston the chief in-door event of the winter for the schools is always the big B.A.A. meeting in March, and then we will get our first line on the New-Englanders that will come down here to measure skill with New York in the Madison Square Garden. Judging from the place-men in the spring events of the New England league, the Boston schools will turn out some strong performers this season. ”