Various

“ Some few wailing squaws knelt beside their slain, sure that the white soldiers would not knowingly harm them; while others, like frightened doe, darted away into the shelter of rock or stunted pine. One little Indian boy sat straight up from a sound sleep, rubbing his baby eyes, and yelling with terror. Another little scamp, with snapping black eyes, picked up a gun and pulled trigger like a man, and then lay sprawling on his back, rubbing a damaged shoulder, and kicking almost as hard as the old musket. ”

“ It is doubtful if there is anywhere in the world a boy or a girl who has not at some time or another suffered from this very harmless disease of "collecting." It comes to most of us almost as surely as the mumps, but, unlike many other of the diseases of childhood, it can be had more than once, and there is no limit, apparently, to its phases. Stamp-collecting, and autograph-collecting, and the collecting of coins are most reasonable, instructive, and oftentimes profitable; but what can be said of a person who collects toothpicks? ”

“ The violence of the gale had spent itself that morning, and by noon had moderated into a gentle breeze, although a heavy sea was still running. It was the day that I was to have met the Cuban agents, and it was maddening to think that the place of meeting was only a few hours' run from where we were idly lying. I begged the Captain to venture forth, but he gravely handed me his powerful glass and pointed to a speck on the horizon. I looked, and saw the funnels of the Spanish cruiser that had passed us the night before.
"We shall have to wait for darkness," he said. ”

“ Bear in mind the fact that such great artists as Paderewski frequently charm and move an audience more by the amount of color and expression which they throw into easy compositions like Chopin's E-flat nocturne, while in their more brilliant playing, as in one of Liszt's Hungarian rhapsodies, they gain applause rather as the result of amazement at their conquest of technical difficulties than as the demonstration of sincere delight in the music itself. ”

“ If the community of wheelmen wish to have more rights on the road than they have to-day, or as many of them have to-day, the least they can do is to observe the ordinances, for by each infringement of a city ordinance the chances of securing better legislation become less. For example, there are city ordinances in New York which require that every bicyclist should carry a lantern after dark; that no one shall coast within the city limits; that every bicycle should have a bell in good order attached to it, which shall be rung on certain occasions. ”

“ If, however, you can play more difficult music, your choice will be extended. Nevertheless, I adhere to my first assertion that it is not at all troublesome to make up a programme of compositions which may be classed as easy. And here let me give you some final advice. Select for a musical at which you are to be the performer music somewhat easier than that which you are accustomed to study under your teacher. The reason for doing this is so plain that it is hardly necessary to mention it. If you are unaccustomed to formal piano-playing before an audience, you will undoubtedly be nervous. ”

“ With a roar of steam-whistles, amidst the soaring of sky-rockets, and fireworks of every description, the boom of cannon, and the hoarse cheering of the crowds lining the river's banks, the parade started, proceeding down the stream in stately procession, a thing of unusual beauty. Each vessel vied with the others in illuminating its masts, smoke-stacks, and decks with countless electric lights and colored lamps. A steady stream of fire trailed from some, while others set off fireworks. Powerful search-lights from the tall buildings of the cities threw their strong beams on the fleet. ”

“ If, instead of taking an autograph-album to a celebrity, and asking him to write his name in it, a collector might readily take a phonograph fully supplied with cylinders to the famous men of the time, and ask them to say a few words to be handed down to posterity, not by word of hand, but by word of mouth. ”

“ If you are not a brilliant player, all the more reason for adding interesting features to your entertainment. If you are an accomplished performer, your musical will still gain in artistic dignity by an intelligent arrangement of the programme. Of course there is one thing always to be borne in mind: you must compose your list of selections so that there will be constant variety. Do not, for instance, put three or four slow and plaintive pieces one after the other. As a rule, too, it is well to avoid a succession of compositions in the same form, such as sonatas, nocturnes, or valses. ”

“ And the squaw rose up and screamed too—something Master Sherry couldn't understand, but that drove terror to the white boy and lent him wings. "Run! run!" he cried as he seized Sherry by the hand, and, hardly knowing where they were going, back went both youngsters tearing like mad down the tortuous trail. ”

“ When Captain Wade presented me to the Cuban—who seemed by his bearing to be a man of consequence—as the agent of the patriots whom I was to meet, I thought that if there was such a thing as luck in the affairs of Henderson, Burt, & Co., it was not all necessarily bad. And I inwardly blessed troublesome boys and distinguished Cuban rebels who would run risk of capture and execution by rescuing a pair of youngsters from drowning in sight of what they supposed was a Spanish revenue-schooner. ”

“ The main idea of the discipline of an English school is that as much of it as possible shall be carried on by the boys themselves. At Winchester it was ordained from the beginning that eighteen of the older boys should, in Wykeham's own words, "oversee their fellows, and from time to time certify the masters of their behavior and progress in study." These eighteen are called Prefects, and are chosen from the men who stand highest in studies. To an American boy, I am afraid, it wouldn't seem much fun to have to take care of his schoolmates' behavior. ”

“ The laws against bicycling would be much more stringent were it not for the work of the League of American Wheelmen. This League maintains, in substance, that a bicycle should be treated practically as a horse and carriage on the road. The tendency, however, for legislators is to curtail the rights of bicycles. As a result, certain laws have been passed, and the contest is continually going on between the two parties: those who assert that bicycles have and should have as much right upon the road as carriages, and those who believe they should be more restricted. ”

“ Few readers of the Round Table could perhaps realize this at first sight, but it has been used time and time again in the New York city courts as an argument against bicyclists, and it is therefore the duty of every person who rides a bicycle to observe these rules. The questions of lights and bells are parallel. You may succeed in riding at night without a light in some small city where the laws are not enforced, but if any trouble arises you have done the best you could to bring the bicycle into disrepute. ”

“ The League also spends a large amount each year in keeping up the agitation for the movement for improved roads, and it makes every attempt, so far as it can, to protect wheelmen in their legal rights. The hand-books, maps, road-books, bicycle meets, parades, tours, and entertainments gotten out by each State for the benefit of members are all advantages that do not need to be explained. Any one member may not avail himself of all these, but he will find that at the end of the year he has obtained more than two dollars' worth of benefit from the League. ”

“ And he and the Captain's son, for they were sworn friends by this time, discussed the chances of the trip from the vantage-ground of the ship's boat, into which they had clambered.
"D'ye t'ink they'll see us, Chimmie?" asked the Bowery boy, anxiously, for it had been impossible to conceal the object of the trip from the crew.
"I don't know. I hope they do," answered the youngster, who had often been on voyages with his father, and knew the sailing-qualities of the Hecuba. "This breeze is going to freshen, and we're nearly out of the bay. Father will show those revenue-steamers a thing or two." ”

“ We three were close together, and advanced slowly towards the game, when, to our consternation, the wind shifted suddenly; if it shifted two or three more points of the compass, then the elephants would be aware of our presence.
After emerging from a cluster of plantain-trees, Okili suddenly stood still, put his finger on his mouth—a sign of danger. Looking around, we saw within twenty yards of us the bull elephant feeding on a bunch of plantains. ”

“ That kind of playing may astonish your friends, but it will not give them such genuine pleasure as the performance of a few comparatively easy compositions of real beauty in a sympathetic manner. Here the majority of girls will meet with their greatest difficulty, for I am sorry to say that many music-teachers ignore the easy pieces of the great masters, and give their pupils as studies the cheap rubbish which litters the counters of the average music-store. It is a mistake to suppose that the immortals among composers never wrote anything easy. ”

“ In order to get the cleverest possible pupils, they examine all boys between twelve and fourteen, and admit the best ones each year. About eight usually fail for one who gets in. The boys who succeed are, of course, those who have had the best training; and thus the fellows who get the benefit of Wykeham's money are usually sons of university graduates, and are often rich. Many people object strongly to this, and with good reason; yet the method has one great virtue. Fellows get almost as much credit in school for being studious and able, as for playing football ”

“ It is a pleasure to enlist, of course. There may not be any policeman about, and it is very possible that the bicyclist can have his coast and not be discovered. At the same time, if he is discovered and arrested, the case comes up in court; and especially if he is a well-dressed, respectable citizen of the city, the opposition at once secures a handle for argument that the bicycle must be restricted, that people do not observe the ordinances, and that the bicycle in general is a nuisance. ”

“ The League is not a money-making institution, the services of the officers are not paid for, and the two dollars which each member pays for membership go not to any one's individual advantage, but to paying the expenses of putting up signs throughout the country, of getting out the State Road Books and Tour Books, and to the expenses of carrying on correspondence, etc. The advantages that accrue to any one who joins the League are, in the first place, that he receives an interesting weekly paper, The L.A.W. Bulletin and Good Roads, which keeps him pretty well informed as to bicycling matters. ”

“ At both Winchester and New College the scholars are proud to call themselves Wykehamists; and when a fellow has been through both he is apt to tell you that he is a Wykehamist of the Wykehamists—which means more than you can ever understand until you hear and see a man say it. The first result of preparing boys to enter the university was to make them too far advanced for the teaching they found when they got there. To carry on their education Wykeham had to have a special body of tutors at New College. ”

“ Now if you go to the piano knowing that the music before you is going to tax your utmost powers, you will be still more nervous, and the probabilities are that you will not only not play the music effectively, but that you will play it badly and make many technical slips. The more you make, the more nervous you will become, till it would not be surprising if you should break down altogether. ”

“ In giving a musical, bear in mind that the player is to be the centre on which all eyes are focussed. If the piano is a grand, place it so that its right side will be toward the audience, but running a little obliquely, so that the keyboard will be visible, or partly so, to those on the right side of the room. The position of a square or an upright should be similar, but you may with advantage turn an upright so that the keyboard is more in view. If the room is very large, you may raise the lid of a grand half-way. ”

“ Yet everything I saw at Winchester went to prove that to be a Prefect was almost as great an honor as to be an athlete. Five of the Prefects have special titles, such as Prefect of Chapel, Prefect of Hall, etc. These are generally chosen from the five best scholars. The Prefect of Hall has charge not only of his special duties, but of the other Prefects. If any disturbance takes place, he quells it. If the boys have any favors to ask, he is their spokesman. He is thus the head of the whole school, and a far more important person, I should say, than the Captain of the cricket team. ”

“ Two minutes later, out from under a shelving rock came crawling a trembling squaw. Peering cautiously around, and assuring herself the troopers were gone, she listened intently to the sound of the pursuit dying away down the mountain-side; then in harsh whisper summoned some one else. Out from the same shelter, shaking with fear, came a little Apache boy, black and dirty, dragging by the hand another boy, white and dirtier still, and crying. Seizing a hand of each, the woman scurried back along the range, until she reached the narrow trail by which the troopers had climbed the heights ”