The Great Round World And What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 24, April 22, 1897

Several Congressmen said they would not have voted for it, unless quite sure that it would be much altered by the Senate before it is allowed to pass.

The Senate is still busy with the Arbitration Treaty.

Amendment after amendment has been made, until it is now a very different paper from the one handed in by Mr. Olney. Many of the Senators are so disgusted with all the talk and trouble over it, that they are inclined to vote against it, and put an end to the whole affair.

The Charter of the City of Greater New York has been prepared, and New York City is now ready to begin its life as the second largest city in the world, London being the largest.

Greater New York will take in the whole of Staten Island, Brooklyn, the Lower Bay as far as Far Rockaway, the whole of Queens County Long Island, then across the Sound to Pelham, and along the line of Westchester County, taking in Woodlawn Cemetery, the town of Mt. Vernon, and on until it reaches the Hudson River at Mount St. Vincent.

The new city will come into existence January 1, 1898.

The Charter for its government, which has been prepared, provides that the entire city shall be governed by one mayor, who shall hold office for four years.

The new city can build schoolhouses, public buildings, bridges, docks, tunnels, construct parks, establish ferries, open streets, and make railroads without going to the State Legislature in Albany for permission.

The number of square miles contained in the new city will be 360; the greatest length will be 35 miles, measured from Mt. St. Vincent on the Hudson to Tottenville on Staten Island.

It is expected that with the wonderful harbors and docks the new city will possess, its future as a centre of commerce will be most prosperous.

The Mayor of this great city will be a very important person, and great care must be taken in choosing the right man.

The election of the officers of Greater New York will take place next November.

Genie H. Rosenfeld.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY

Fish-Hook Book.—A book has been invented for carrying fish-hooks, and it promises to be of great use to all those who find pleasure in the gentle art of angling.

It is a book arranged somewhat like a wallet. At one end is a strong leather pocket for flies, then stretched across it are four ledges. Each ledge has a number of slits in it. At the end opposite the pocket is the first ledge, and into the slits in this ledge the hooks are placed. The short line attached to the hook is carried to the next ledge, and carefully slipped into a slit opposite to the one which holds the hook. The line is carried over another ledge to be finally anchored in the one nearer the pocket. When the book is closed the ledges fit into each other, and the fish-hooks are kept in place and therefore cannot get tangled.

The book is of a convenient size and is likely to find many admirers.

A patent was lately issued to a man who has invented a means of cutting the pages of the magazines for us.

His idea is to bind a strong thread into every page that needs cutting, and when we would cut the pages there is nothing to be done but to pull the thread and this cuts the page.

The next thing to be invented should be a machine that reads the magazine for us, and tells us what is in them.

The nearest approach we have made to this idea is in reading stories to the phonograph, and having the instrument repeat them to us.

G.H.R.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS

Another heavy mail this week. The Editor's friends are getting so numerous that a strike of the postmen on the route may be expected.

Dear Editor:

Three daily readers of The Great Round World wish to know if Queen Victoria is allowed to see the daily papers. We once heard or read somewhere that certain things are cut from the papers and handed to her on a beautiful silver tray—such articles as her advisors think it best for her to see; but she cannot read all the daily papers as common folks do. Will you kindly answer in next week's number of the Magazine, and oblige three constant and interested readers of the Magazine?

John Eliot R.

Ursula Francis R.

Helen L.H.

Plainfield, New Jersey, March 31st, 1897.

My Dear Young Friends:

In reply to your letter asking how Queen Victoria gets her news, I must tell you that she is perhaps the most advanced and progressive woman in the world.

Though she is such an old lady, she keeps herself thoroughly posted about everything that goes on in the world. There is no question as to what she shall be allowed to read—she reads everything that is of interest to her; but that she may not waste her precious time looking over worthless articles, her secretaries are instructed to read the papers first every morning, and see what is worthy the Queen's reading.

From long habit they know the subjects that are of interest to Her Majesty, and these they carefully outline with a blue pencil.

It has always been the custom for one of the Princesses, the Queen's daughters, to read these items to her.

No clippings are sent to the Queen; the papers are marked and sent to her as they are.

Her Majesty really has a Great Round World made for herself every day, for the secretaries are like your Editor—they do their best to call the Sovereign's attention only to such matters as are really important and true.

Editor.

To Ernest K., Lakewood, N.J.

Dear Ernest:—We were very pleased to receive your letter, but we will not publish it, because we think you could write us a much better one, that would be well worth putting in our paper.

Won't you tell us something about golf, or what you see when you go out riding? We think you could write a very interesting letter on either of these subjects.

Editor.

Sydney G., Baltimore, and A.V.N. Myers, Cornwall-on-Hudson:

Thank you for your kind letter. We are glad you find The Great Round World interesting.

Editor.

Dear Mr. Editor:

I have had only two of your papers. I like them very much. I am going to save them and have them bound. It is so muddy here, and it was muddier last week; the mud was half a foot deep. There is a man that runs a dray-wagon here, and he has two little mules. He whips them almost to death.

A little while ago a poor dog went by with a tin can tied to his tail; the boys that did this filled it full of dirt, and the poor dog was half scared to death.

Perhaps I ought not to be so familiar, as this is the first letter I have written to you.

Our neighbors are nice people. They have a little pug dog. There was a black cat in the yard, and the dog ran after it. It seemed as if the cat was crazy. It dragged its hind legs behind it, and pulled them with its front legs, and crawled under the barn before the dog got to it.

I guess I will close now.

Your loving friend, Gray F.

Wayne, Nebr., March, 1897.

My Dear Gray:

We enjoyed your letter very much; it is very bright and interesting.

When we read it we said, Master Gray has gone off with his pen and paper all by himself to write to us, and that pleased us very much, because we want all our boys and girls to talk to us in their letters just as if they were speaking to us.

You seem to be a friend of dumb animals. Read Little Friend's letter to us, in No. 19, page 498. Would you not like to form a Band of Mercy to help your animal friends? Think of that poor cat, who was probably half-dead with fright, and the doggie with the can tied to his tail. Would you not like to know just how to help these poor little kindly things, who cannot help themselves?      Editor.

Dear Mr. Editor:

I wish to tell Grace of some good books. Three of C.M. Yonge's books, "Dynevor Terrace," "The Daisy Chain," and its sequel, "The Trial," are stories of English boys and girls, much like "Little Women." Elizabeth Stuart Phelps' "Gypsy Breynton" series are good. The last of the series "Gypsy's Year at the Golden Crescent" is a boarding-school story. "The Five Little Peppers" series by Margaret Sidney are her best books. The five little Pepper boys and girls live in "the little brown house" with "Mamsy." Their father is dead, and they are very poor. They gain a rich friend, a very nice boy named Jasper, and all go to live in his father's house, "Mamsy" becoming the housekeeper. It is all written in a delightful and natural manner.

Flora Shaw's three books, "Hector," "Phyllis Browne," and "Castle Blair," are also good. In the first, Hector, a little English boy, goes to France to live with his little country cousin Zélie. In the second a little Pole, Count Ladislas Starinski, comes to England to live with his English cousins. The last is the story of five Irish boys and girls, their big dog Royal, and their two cousins Frankie and a French girl Adrienne (whose name they could not pronounce, and so they called her Nessa, after one of their dogs which had died, and which they said looked like her).

Elizabeth Champney's "Witch Winnie" series are very interesting. The first two, "Witch Winnie" and "Witch Winnie's Mystery," are boarding-school stories.

Other good books are: "When I Was Your Age," by Laura Richards; "Two Girls," and "Girls Together," by Miss Blanchard; "Half a Dozen Girls," by Anna Chapin Ray; "Dr. Gilbert's Daughters," by Margaret Matthews; "Captain Polly," "Flying Hill Farm," and "The Mate of The Mary Ann," by Sophie Sweet; "Summer in a Canon," and "Polly Oliver's Problem," by Kate D. Wiggin; The "Katy Did" series, by Susan Coolidge; the Quinnebasset Series, by Sophie May, comprising "The Doctor's Daughter," "Asbury Twins," "Our Helen," "Janet," and "Quinnebasset Girls"; "The Jolly Good Time" books, by Mary P. Wells Smith; and all the books of Lucy C. Lillie, Nora Perry, Mrs. Mead, and Mrs. Molesworth.

 

I have read and enjoyed all the above, and can recommend them to any one as delightful stories of boys and girls.

Edith.