The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 15, February 18, 1897
TekstDear Sir:—Your article on salting streets has greatly roused your subscriber, my small son.
Will you kindly tell him, through your magazine, how the children may help abate the terrible cruelty? What action do you suggest for them? He has interested a number of lads in the subject, but does not know how to put forth effort—when the discovery is made that the law is violated.
Complain to party giving offence, to police, or what?
Your magazine is warmly appreciated in this household by old and young, and we hope for its continued prosperity.
Very truly,D.K. Lippincott's Mother.194 Fairmount Avenue, Newark, N.J.
Dear Master Lippincott:
I am delighted that you and your little friends are interested in the matter of salting the streets, and that you are eager to put a stop to such cruelty.
In the first place, you can help by telling every one about it, and by getting people, old and young, interested. Do you know that not one person to whom I have spoken about it—aside from Dr. Johnson, the people at the A.S.P.C.A., and Mr. Harison—knew anything about it? Strange, was it not? A good many things are permitted because people do not know just how dreadful they are.
As to the method of learning just where salt has been used, I know only the one of which the article tells you, and that is: if there is snow or ice in other places, and the tracks are covered with water, then you may know that there is a reason for it. And inasmuch as the water would be twenty degrees below freezing, I believe that you could determine the presence of salt by means of the mercury. If you had a thermometer which would register that number of degrees, and were to plunge it into the slush, the sensitive mercury would tell the story.
As to the person to whom you should complain: at any of the offices of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The New York Society is at 10 East 22d Street, and there are branches or agents of the Society in nearly every town of importance.
Yours sincerely,Izora C. Chandler.
BOOK REVIEWS
The editor is pleased to acknowledge the following clever account of Nora Perry's "A Flock of Boys and Girls," published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston.
To The Editor Of The Great Round World:
If any one wants to read an interesting book, I will tell you one of Nora Perry's books, called "A Flock of Girls and Boys." It is a collection of short stories, and tells of the scrapes they got into and how they got out of them, and it has the language boys and girls use every day. There is one story that I was especially impressed with: the name of it is "Major Molly's Christmas Promise." It was about a little girl who made a promise to a little Indian girl; and she kept her promise; and in doing that, although she did not know it, saved her mother's and father's life, besides her friends having to go to war.
Madeleine H.P.
SIMPLE LESSONS IN THE STUDY OF NATURE
By I.G. OAKLEY
This is a handy little book, which many a teacher who is looking for means to offer children genuine nature study may be thankful to get hold of.
Nature lessons, to be entitled to that name, must deal with what can be handled and scrutinized at leisure by the child, pulled apart, and even wasted. This can be done with the objects discussed in this book; they are under the feet of childhood—grass, feathers, a fallen leaf, a budding twig, or twisted shell; these things cannot be far out of the way, even within the stony limits of a city.
Nor are the lessons haphazard dashes at the nearest living thing; on the contrary, they are virtually fundamental, whether with respect to their relation to some of the classified sciences, or with reference to the development of thought and power of expression in the child himself.
The illustrations are few, and scarcely more than figures; it is not meant to be a pretty picture-book, yet is most clearly and beautifully printed and arranged, for its material is to be that out of which pictures are made. It will be found full of suggestions of practical value to teachers who are carrying the miscellaneous work of ungraded schools, and who have the unspeakable privilege of dealing with their pupils untrammelled by cast-iron methods and account-keeping examination records.