Fim. My eye! three names. Belmont! that's a high sounder. You're rising in the world, it seems. There's a good long leap from Spriggs to Belmont! Ha, ha!

Augustus. I beg your pardon, Marie, but I know neither of them. I returned for your

handkerchief, as you requested me, and was accosted by those two fellows, whose acquaintance I ever have had, and never wish to have.

Fim. Ah, Jack, you're in a tight box, and can't get out! so there's no use of your tryin'.

[Enter MR. AFTON with DETECTIVE.]

Detective. I arrest you, Mr. Belmont, for forgery.

Mr. Afton. (Angrily.) Yes, sir, by Jove!

FRIENDLY HINTS TO BOYS AND GIRLS.

BY DR. J. H. HANAFORD. SKATING.

[CONCLUDED.]

AGAIN, accidents often result from such

violent exertions. Careless skaters frequently fall heavily on the ice, striking the head, "seeing stars" by day as well as by night, often injuring the brain. Very few know how much the brain is really injured by such falls and jars, the unfortunate results not always appearing at the time.

In short, if you would grow strong and healthful while enjoying innocent amusements, please listen to a few words of advice. If you sweat, or perspire freely, never stop to rest or "cool off," but either continue to skate, though less violently, till the body becomes cooler, or, better still, go home and change the damp clothing; give the body a brisk rubbing with a crash towel, securing a glow of warmth, as a means of avoiding a cold and illness. If you fall, striking the head, particularly if sickness at the stomach and headache follow, be sure

sician, especially if these symptoms are severe, since they denote considerable injury. If you break the ice and get wet, be very sure to dry yourself immediately: you cannot do so too soon. Look out for those uncovered ears, while the cold northern winds strike piercingly, since "Jack Frost" cares but little for your comfort. Your cheeks and ears may freeze, even when you are warm in body. Wrap up these unprotected parts, put on your warmest mittens, not gloves; let the straps round your ankles and feet be loose enough to allow the blood to circulate freely, keeping them warm. Skate for health, as well as for pleasure; breathe the bracing, health-giving air of heaven, so bountifully supplied; be cheerful and joyous, courteous and kind to your associates, male and female, and an hour daily so spent will be well spent.

One of Ned Sketchley's ever welcome letters, with characteristic illustrations, complains of the cold weather, and hopes for milder spring by and by. Harry M. L. says he is Ned Sketchley's chum. He appears to be his rival or associate in the sketching line, and claims to have had a partnership in "ye White Elephant." His pen and ink sketching is uncommonly spirited. - Oliver writes a pleasant letter. We take his double acrostic. - Delaware's Base Ball report came too late for this season. - Here is another model letter: "Mr. Oliver Optic: Enclosed you find $2.50 for one year's subscription to OUR BOYS AND GIRLS- the best paper afloat. Punch the Printer." Such letters afford us untold pleasure. Crusader sends an enigma bordering very closely on politics, but it will pass. He desires correspondents, especially Josiah Trinkle and Rita. Address Crusader, Toledo, O. -J. B. H., Daily Union office, Detroit, Mich., desires to exchange autos with Rob Roy, Tom Somers, Cliff Clipper, and others.

Our readers cannot fail to be as much interested as we were in the following letter from Sailor: "Dear Mr. Optic: I got all the back numbers of OUR BOYS AND GIRLS, the other day, and find 'The Starry Flag' and 'Breaking Away'jolly. In No. 9 I noticed an account of the killing of an elephant in Morat. I tasted some of that elephant's flesh. I was then at boarding-school in Neuchatel, and some of the elephant's meat being for sale in the market, our teacher bought a junk, and gave each of us a square little bit. It tasted very much like boiled beef." Rebus crowded out. - We take No. 2 of H. O. W.'s geographical rebuses. Does H. O. W. mean that he is a grown-up boy, or is he (or she) a girl?-G. H. B., we fear the sensation will have been forgotten before we could print your enigma. It is well

Now or Never is kindly disposed to be pleased with the Magazine as it is; thinks two chapters a week of the serial, and four serials a year, sufficient. Thank you. That is our opinion."Hathens" is suggestive of the cockney. Is the conundrum original? "When will the laundresses be likely to strike? When the iron's hot." - H. H. F.'s wee n could not pass the rebus blockade. - Yankee Middy's rebus had sh(awl) for shall. See answer to Batavia about covers. — We accept a rebus from Josiah Trinkle. - Ydrah Retep sends a rebus which contains much merit and some faults, the greatest of which is its length. - Rob Roy's facts are very good and instructive, but we have an abundance on hand from and other regular contributors, which we must use in preference to others, unless they are better than theirs. We have neglected answering Lorain Lincoln's letter, hoping to find the extract she mentions, but have failed to do so. Puzzle accepted; also Tatnai's rebus. We are glad Calliope is well.

The problem by Parlez Vous embraces mathematics of a grade beyond Our Boys and Girls.

1

- We must decline Richdore's Latin inverted pyramid; also those from Phineas. - A correspondent without any name sends Greek sans têtes. We cannot use Greek puzzles of any description. Cliff Clipper's historical facts are good, but we must reply to him as to Rob Roy, above. Edouard should send his subscription direct to the Publishers. Puzzles are very good for the first, but not hardly good enough to print. V. Jupiter has nearly exhausted his talents, he says, in the production of two sans têtes, which are too good for W. B. We hope he will soon recuperate. Hannah is Hannah, of course a very good Hannah too. - Jersey Blue may possibly find something new "in the present number. We humbly beg Bob's pardon; our only excuse must be, that Christmas was coming, and he was overlooked. We take his double acrostic. George Gimney's charade is good, as usual. C. B. W. says the first baseman of the Philadelphia Athletics is Fisler, instead of Fisher, as we had it. The double acrostic is preserved. - George Grant's first rebus will pass.

66

OUR BOYS GIRLS

ITALY

OLIVER OPTIC, Editor.

THE ITALIAN NATION.

TALY has not been free and united since the fall of the Roman Empire of the West. For centuries the Italians, with the exception of a few great men, seemed to have little ambition to tale a place among the nations of Europe. At 'ength came the great revolution of 1789 in France. The political agitation which followed that event spread beyond the Alps, and awakened there the first real enthusiasm for liberty and nationality. The "plenipotentiaries" who, after the power of Napoleon had been broken, met at Vienna to settle the affairs of Europe, parcelled out the Italian peninsula without the least regard to the interests of the inhabitants themselves, or to any notions which these inhabitants might have on the subject.

Sardinia occupied about half of Northern Italy; the rest was given to Austria. Tuscany, Modena, Parma, and Placentia were distributed among petty princes, some of them dependent upon the house of Austria; the pope returned to the States of the Church; and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies fell to a prince of the house of Bourbon, a descendant of Philip V. of Spain.

sia gave the Italians the opportunity of driving the Austrians out of Italy. The Italians were defeated at Custozza, but the Prussian victory at Sadowa gained for them all that they could have hoped to gain for themselves. Venetia was acquired. and Italy-except the dominions of the holy father - was free from the Alps to the Adriatic.

On the present question the Italians are divided into three parties. There is, very naturally, a papal party, in favor of the pope's temporal power. Those who compose the "diplomatic party" believe in monarchy, at least for Italy. They are also in favor of a free and united nation, with Rome as its capital. But they do not think it best to fight in season and out of season for these objects. They recollect how little they have been able to do without foreign aid, and prefer to try negotiations, and wait for a favorable opportunity, when they can have the support of some great power.

The "party of action" is made up largely of young men - men who are ready at any time to follow Garibaldi, with Rome or Death inscribed on their banners. Many in this party are in favor of an Italian republic.

It is not difficult to see, therefore, that the Italian government will not always be ready to support the movements of the Garibaldians, but will always come forward in season to gain all the advantages of those movements.

BOTH the Turks and the Persians are Mohammedans. But the former are followers of Omar, and acknowledge the Sunna, a commentary on the Koran, as inspired; while the latter, being of the sect of Mohammed's sonwhom they hold to have been a prophet, regard those books as apocryphal. So great is the hatred inspired by this difference of belief, that the Turkish doctors, after the Sunna texts, pronounce it more pleas

By the victories of Magenta and Solferino, due mainly to the French, — Victor Emanuel gained Lombardy and the central provinces; and in 1860, the kingdom of Sardinia expanded into the kingdom of Italy.

This kingdom did not occupy the whole peninsula, but its progress since has been rapid. Before the close of the year 1860, Garibaldi and his followers had added the Two Sicilies, and Victor Emanuel's troops were in possession of a portion of the Papal States.

S.