414

CHARADES.

CRYPTOGRAPH.

Neo arts neloa, fo lal eht narti,

Acn ixf het nisren's rawdingen yee."

ST. ELMO.

1

Here is another Locomotive! This is the third, and something must be done about it, or there will be a collision! Let No. 1 keep his name, as he was the first to adopt it, and let 2 and 3 change theirs, for names are plenty. - Friend Specs, your last rebus is excellent, "good enough to be accepted," but the quotation is wrong. Can't you get the correct quotation, and alter the rebus to correspond? and then we will print it. Look in Bartlett's Dictionary of Quotations. Cute & Specs' diagonal is A. We have Alice S. and Hattie C. in mind, and will do our best. We shall make use of one at least of Johnnie Anderson's puzzles. Nat's puzzles have been received; Saturday is our day of publication. We have a rebus from the "Doorkeepers' Department of the House of Representatives, Washington," and are impressed with the honor; but the rebus is an old one, and we are compelled respect-. fully to decline, &c. - Mact Marte's answers are correct, with one exception. - D. State's diagonal is A. - Little John is a good name for our Cincinnati friend, and we shall look for head work from him. - Charles S. Wayne's request is attended to, and one of his rebuses is A. Is not Fox's No. 5 a little mixed?One of Capt. Joe's acrostics will be used.

prospering, and his last letter has the true ring to it, and so has some head work which is quietly waiting its turn. - Deerslayer will meet with a hearty welcome when he calls upon us; as for books on coins, wait till you get to Boston, and then in our bookstores you can see a variety, and choose the best. Pedler is the last one to get discouraged: don't do it! There is a Trapper's Guide, price $2.00; Hunter and Trapper, $1.00.

P. & A's advice is so very good that it must

be taken: we will not decline more of the same sort. Silver Wing does not draw so well that we are captivated at first sight.-J. S. W. is rather too easy. — C. Sharp's rebus is certainly original, and we must use it. - Bluenose will find no one who can answer his first question correctly. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," but no human being can tell just when that "beginning" was, and guess-work is useless. Robespierre died on the scaffold under the guillotine, meeting the same fate he had so mercilessly meted to others.

One of them, friend Ski. We shall examine Tom Walton's work, and if it is good, shall use it. Hedwig and Ski seem to be rivalling each other in drawing. We trust that friend Hogan finds his wants fully met in the directions for boat-building published in No. 177. His other matters are attended to. - Jersey Boy's letter is jolly, as usual, and we reciprocate all good wishes. Harry Johnson, of Wellsville, N. Y., heads the list of boys who have gone into the boat-making business, according to No. 177 of our Magazine. - Sucker Boy gives a good description of his work, and he must be a pretty industrious fellow; we should like to take a peep into his garden.

- Sun

We take No. 2 of Fiddlestick's last rebuses. We thank Lucy for her little note; as for the rebus, we must think about it. C. C. F. inquires for Sarpedon; where is he? A. M. Button, Norwich, N. Y., wants to exchange drawings with some amateur artist. & Moon are bound to let their light shine. Shine on, we say, and we will help. - Quizit's criticism is just, we think; but what can we do about it? It would be difficult to answer the query made by Dimnorix; it is a matter on which our advice could not be very useful, as each case must be decided on its own merits.

WISH CORRESPONDENTS. - Clinton R. Adams, 557 West Court Street, Cincinnati. Dexter, 818 West Street, Wilmington, Del. Frank Helleberg, Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, O.- Rob Roy, Box 497, New York City.

OUR BOYS GIRLS

OLIVER OPTIC, Editor.

EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE.

DE

III.

EAR BOYS AND GIRLS: The best laid plans often fail, and though we have studied "Bradshaw" very diligently, we do not expect to avoid all of the disappointments and trials incident to travelling. We have had considerable experience as a traveller, having put our feet in twenty-five states of our own country, besides Upper and Lower Canada and New Brunswick of the Dominion; crossed the ocean twice; been in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and Belgium. We always did keep cool, and we intend always to do so; but we shall not knowingly encounter the cholera, the plague, or the yellow fever, nor break through even unreasonable quarantine regulations. We once saw half a dozen strong men die with yellow fever within as many hours; and we have seen scores of people laid low by the cholera. We are not disposed to see the sad spectacle again.

We believe in prudence for man and boy, and we deem it the height of imprudence to enter, a country which requires of the traveller a forty days' quarantine. We repeat, therefore, that we may be obliged to change our plans, in order to conform with sanitary regulations; and just now there are little scintillations of revolution in several countries of Europe which may turn the traveller aside from his path. When we went to Europe before, we laid down a programme beforehand, and reached Paris only one day behind time.

two, we were lost in the maze. We have in a measure remedied this defect of a traveller's education; and, under the excellent instruction of Professor De Leganlière, we have learned to utter and to understand a phrase as long as any reasonable man ought to use to an American tourist, who is always in a hurry.

A traveller can get along in Europe with only his own language, but he travels at very great disadvantage. If he is at all nervous, he sits upon nettles in the railway carriage for fear he going the wrong way. In going from Basle to Mayence, the conductor frequently had something to say. Whenever he opened his mouth, we thrust our ticket into his face, and thus kept ourself assured that we were on the right track. At last he addressed us very eloquently and forcibly, in good German, no doubt, and repeated his counsel so frequently that we suspected he intended to teach us his language. The more we didn't understand, the more eloquent and forcible he became, but with no better result. Finally a German student, after he had enjoyed the perplexity of conductor and passenger to his satisfaction, translated the oft-repeated expression, which was nothing more than "Change cars at Darmstadt." The carriage in which we were seated was going to Frankfort, which is a very fine city; but we did not wish to go there then, and we considered it a piece of remarkably good fortune that we were enabled to reach Mayence.

Besides, though one may get along, he may be compelled to pass a whole day, or even a whole week, without speaking a word, except at his hotel. We had a very interesting colloquy with a driver in a German city, he speaking in German, we by turns in English and French. Neither knew what the other said, and by mutual consent we gave it up at the same time. We have also corrected this defect; and, if we don't choke ourself to death in the attempt, we expect to be able to speak

"Never go to France

Unless you know the lingo, If you do, like me,

You will repent, by jingo."

We entirely agree with the great humorist, and we did repent, but without the profane jingo, though not so much in France as in Germany. We knew French enough to call for our bread and butter, and where shopkeepers and other Frenchmen had the grace to confine their discourse to a single word, we could understand them. If they ventured upon

excellent friend and skilful professor, Señor De Mena, has drilled us so diligently and faithfully in Spanish and Italian that we hope to understand and be understood in the use of these languages, though not enough to talk politics, or get up a revolution.

We have still something more to say about the preparation for travelling.

OLIVER OPTIC.

OLIVER OPTIC's new story, "Plane and Plank, or the Mishaps of a Mechanic,” will begin in the next number.