The Strand 1912-10 Vol-XLIV № 262 October mich

THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF SHORTHAND. 463 Cicero, becoming his private secretary and staunch friend. This is romance. There are both humour and tragedy in the fate of Cassianus, who was a teacher of shorthand at Imola during the fourth century. Whether it was the fault of the teacher or the system we are not told, but the class one day became so exasperated that they attacked and killed the unfortunate Cassianus with their styluses. The system he used was that of Tiro, which survived for many centuries, and though extremely useful in the absence of any better method, it did not always lead to that accuracy which could be desired, as a certain unhappy notary found when the Emperor Severus ordered that the sinews of the fingers of his right hand should to devise a method on alphabetical lines, a method crude indeed when compared with modern standards, but nevertheless the fore- runner of all our modern systems. Scholars are in doubt whether it was the system of Bright or Willis which was used for taking down Shakespeare's plays. For, little as we pause to reflect upon it, Shake- speare's plays were nearly all first taken down A T '0*1. fl/~X '(*r t- '• * 2_ C 2_ a-*\" /•» \"• •J.7 % f -T_, 3. <-Y 3_ ^ 2^/ A/ *t 2,' © • J>- ^_ i mr 3 2. Xr< . /*uW ^ N 0 X • 1-f I /7 /7 *-\" -/- /-\" /\"* -p / G~ ^^R,.^ PEPYS'S DIARY FOR AN ENTRY • FROM B«v JANUARY 5, 1660. SAMUEL PEPYS TAKING DOWN CHARLES II.'s ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF WORCESTER. be cut on account of some inaccuracy! Nevertheless, Tiro's system survived in a more or less imperfect state down to mediaeval times. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth there was a sudden revival of interest in shorthand in England. Dr. Timothy Bright published his system, the first English one, in 1588, and was followed in 1590 by Peter Bales. In 1602 came John Willis, who was the first in shorthand,and it is from the

464 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. \"'THEY TELL MK YOU'RE THE LEADING PHONO- GRAPHER,' SHE SAID TO SIR ISAAC PITMAN, 'AND I'VE COME TO HAVE MY PHONOGRAPH MENDED.'\" Samuel Pepys wrote his diary in shorthand, and by the same means took down, in 1680, Charles II.'s own account of the Battle of Worcester. Previous to this the debates in the House of Commons at the time of the arrest of the five members by Charles I. were said to have been taken down verbatim by one John Rushworth. All sorts of names have been given to systems of shorthand—besides tachygraphy, brachygraphy, stenography, and phono- graphy. As to this last, another and quite different invention has now rendered it dubious, and the late Sir Isaac Pitman was once quite annoyed when a woman came to him at his house in Bath and carefully unwrapped a large parcel. \" They tell me you're the leading phono- grapher,\" she said, \" and I've como to have my phonograph mended.\" Gurney, who published his system in 1752, wrote in the preface :— Good or bad Sense are wrote with equal Speed, No need of Grammar Rules to write or read ; L*t wise or foolish with their words abound The faithful Pen shall copy every sound: Ages unborn shall rise, shall read, and say, \" Thus! thus! our Fathers did their Minds convey.\" It was Gurney's book, at half a guinea, that young Charles Dickens bought when he resolved to become, as his father had done before him, a shorthand writer. There are several notebooks in existence used by Dickens as a reporter, and speci- mens even of his writing many years after he ceased to be a professional shorthand writer. How vividly he describes his acquisition of the art ! \" The changes that were rung upon dots, which in such a position meant such a thing, and in such another position something else entirely different; the wonderful vagaries that were played by circles;' the unaccount- able consequences that resulted from marks like flies' legs ; the tremendous effects of a curve in a wrong place ; not only troubled my waking hours, but reappeared before me in my sleep. When I had groped my way blindly through these difficulties, and had mastered the alphabet, there appeared a procession of new horrors, called arbitrary characters ; the most despotic characters I have ever known ; who insisted, for instance, that a thing like the beginning of a cobweb meant expectation, and that a pen-and-ink sky-rocket stood for disadvantageous. When I had fixed these wretches in my mind, I found that they had driven everything else out of it; then, beginning again, I forgot them ; while I was picking them up I dropped the other fragments of the system; in short, it was almost heart-breaking.\" \" Boz \" was fond of relating stories of his shorthand career. Once, at Exeter, he took A SPECIMEN OF CHARLES DICKENs's SHORTHAND, TAKEN FROM ONE OF HIS NOTE-

THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF SHORTHAND. 4<>5 down an election speech of Lord John Russell \" in the midst of a lively fight maintained by all the vagabonds in that division of the county, and in the midst of such a pelting rain that I remember two good-natured colleagues who chanced to be at leisure held a pocket-handkerchief over my notebook, after the manner of a state canopy in an ecclesiastical proces- sion.\" Lord Chief Justice Campbell, who held office at the time of the trial of Warren Hastings, found occa- sion to complain of the inaccuracy of the shorthand reports. Burke had remarked that \" Virtue does not depend upon climates and degrees.\" Ac- cording to Lord Camp- bell, Hastings's short- hand-writer had ren- dered this as \" Virtue does not depend upon climaxes and trees.\" But the Lord Chief Justice seems to have been himself mis- taken, for the tran- script of the original shorthand notes, pre- served at the British Museum, gives a dif- ferent version of the mistake, and reads \" but by climaxes such as these.\" A volume could be filled with amusing stories of shorthand mistakes, the greater number of them due to mistaken vowels. For instance \" This CHARLES DICKENS TAKING DOWN AN ELECTION IT i • hitr it'h f \" SPEECH OF LORD JOHN RUSSELL IN THE RAIN, aa> i; Dig vmn late, WHILB TWO COLLKAGUKS HF.LD A HANDKERCHIEF was transcribed, This OVER HIS NOTEBOOK. dajr is big with fat,\" whilst \" Do not indulge in spite \" came out \" Do not indulge in spit,\" and \" A house of many gables\" was transformed into \" A house of many gabbles.\" The use of a wrong vowel may have the most amusing result, as in the phrase,\" Man, know thyself,\" which was once converted, in the report of a sermon, into \" Man, gnaw thyself.\" To misplace a vowel is, in shorthand, the easiest thing in the world. Mr. T. A. Reed, the well-known reporter, tells of a pupil who by this means turned \" mighty acts \" into \" mighty cats,\" and another report of a sermon was spoiled by the advice \" Return a blow with an axe \" instead of \" a kiss.\" The \" reporting style,\" in which the vowels are omitted altogether for the sake of rapidity,

466 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. and spatter me with abuse \" as \" They bring out their penny pop-guns and spatter me with peas.\" The people of Edinburgh were once highly indignant that Professor Blackie should have referred to the \" greasy \" atmo- sphere of their town, when he had really been commending its \" breezy atmosphere.\" A really expert shorthand writer can do some surprising things at times. Mr. B. de Bear, the well-known principal of Pitman's School, tells how he made use of his art in somewhat unusual circumstances, and how he has found it of value when no other means of communication would have been possible. \" I remember being in a railway station in a country town at holiday time,\" said Mr. de Bear. \"The station was besieged with ' trippers,' and, having got in, it was impossible to get out again. I was most anxious to communicate with a friend standing in the street some little distance away, and on the win- dow-pane of the waiting - room I c o m m u n i cated my message by writing reversed shorthand, the outlines thus reading correctly to my friend in the street. By using the thumb for thick strokes and the first finger for thin, there was no difficulty at all in telegraphing my thoughts. In no other circumstances would it have been possible to effect the same purpose.\" On another occasion, when Mr. de Bear was lecturing on shorthand matters at Harrogate, the proceedings were opened by \" I COMMUNICATED MY MESSAGE BY WRITING REVERSED SHORTHAND, THE OUTLINES THUS READING CORRECTLY TO MY FRIEND IX THE STREET.\" was the purer for his demise.\" Shorthand writers will appreciate the errors. \" The second instance,\" said Mr. de Bear, \" reminds me of a clever mnemonic furnished by a foreign student some years ago. According to the Pitmanic rules, ' poor ' and ' pure ' would be written in the same manner, both ending with the downward ' r.' Special distinction is, however, provided, so that these two likely words will not clash. The student referred to informed me one day that he had discovered the means of remembering which was which, adding: ' For when you are \" poor \" you go down, and when you are \" pure \" you go up.' \"In the early

THE STORY AND ROMANCE OF SHORTHAND. 467 \"A NOTE, MARKED 'URGENT,' WAS PASSED UP TO HIM.\" Once, when giving evidence as an expert witness before the late Lord Chief Justice Russell of Killowen, the whole of the dispute turned upon whether a certain outline in a shorthand clerk's notebook was intended as a thick or thin stroke. Mr. de Bear gave his opinion, and was supported by the counsel on the one side, Sir Edward Clarke, himself a shorthand writer of no mean attain- ments. Lord Russell, in a particularly bad humour, would have none of it, and despite all the weight of evidence from people who might be supposed to know, positively refused to accept the suggestion that anybody in any circumstances could pre- serve a distinction between the values of strokes when taking notes. \" Only I observe,\" he said, turning to Mr. Asquith, counsel for the other side,\" that our friend is resolved to stand by his client ' through thick and thin.' \" Once a well-known M.P., speakingata political meet- ing in the provinces, was becoming carried away by his own eloquence and was delivering his speech faster and faster as he became more excited. Just as he had reached the climax of his oration and was holding his audience spell-bound with a flood of eloquence, a note, marked \" urgent,\" was passed up to him. Opening it, he read as follows: \"Will you be kind enough not to talk so fast ? I can only write ninety- words a minute, and you're firing away like an express engine. Please go a little slower.\" \" Right,\" answered the speaker, and the rest of the speech was delivered at a pace well within the amateur reporter's powers. The story is probably apocryphal about Mr. Gladstone rebuking a certain youthful reporter for making him say that certain nuns had taken the \" cows of chastity,\" and adding that \" he had not premeditated this accusa- tion of bovine larceny.\" Once, during the Midlothian campaign, noticing with chagrin a masterly inactivity amongst the journalists during a certain part of his speech, the orator said, \" I am rejoiced to see that my friends of the Press are not taking this down. For I wish to speak to you in strict confidence, etc.\"—a manoeuvre which had the effect, of course, of setting the pencils busily at work again. It was John Bright who said of a very rapid but physically diminutive gallery stenographer, \" The Almighty seems to have writ him in shorthand.\" To Mr. J. D. Sloan, secretary of the Sloan- Duployan Society, we are indebted for the following:—

468 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. A MISSIONARY INITIATING A CLASS OF REDSKINS INTO THE MYSTERIES OF SHORTHAND. If there be any romance in shorthand, here it is. A Breton missionary, Father J. M. Le Jeune, arrives in British Columbia to take charge of a large territory some fifty miles square in extent. With so much ground to cover, his personal visits to each little settle- ment can only be few and far between. He realizes the urgent necessity for a means of written intercommunication between his head- quarters and the numerous native villages. Btit the Indian tribes in these districts possess no written language, and the missionary's persevering attempts to teach them to read and write end in repeated failure. He is on the point of abandoning hope when a happy inspiration occurs to him : \" They have failed at longhand ; why not try them with short- hand ? \" He is already acquainted with the Duployan system, and immediately puts the idea to the test. His first class proves an entire success, and its members, when proficient, are sent forth to spread the new knowledge throughout the territory. The result is that to-day there are some thou- sands of redskin stenographers in the North - West able to write and read their own language by no other means than shorthand. They subscribe to the Kam- loops Wawa, which not only gives them local and religious news, but also the chief items of world news, all in shorthand. Kamloops is the headquarters of Father Le Jeune, and wawa. in the Chinook, means \" talk,\" hence the title of this remarkable newspaper. Of the humorous shorthand drawing by Lord Albemarle, which is here reproduced, his lordship furnishes the following descrip- tion. \" The faces of the happy pair are out- lined by the two principal classes of phono- graphic letters, the man's face by the surds p, t, ch, k, and the breaths f, th, s, sh, which are male sounds—mere consonant contacts without voice or affection ; and the woman's face being formed by the affectionate vocal surds and continuants. On the neck of the woman lie the vocal or affectionate nasals, liquids, and coa- lescents ; and between the sturdy male and the smiling female lies the aspirant h, waiting for the first of the six vowels beneath to give utterance to ' Ha ! ha ! ha! formed for each other |'\" A DRAWING IN SHORTHAND BY THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE.

SILISSA_ \"THE A STORY FOR CHILDREN. Illustrated by H. R. Millar. N a certain kingdom there once lived a merchant. He had been married for twelve years, but in that time there had been born to him only one child, a daughter, who from her cradle was called Wassilissa the Beautiful. When the little girl was eight years old the mother fell ill, and before many days it was plain to be seen that she must die. So she called her little daughter to her, and, taking a tiny wooden doll from under the blanket of the bed, put it into her hands and said :— \" My little Wassilissa, I leave to you this little doll. It is very precious, for there is no other like it in the whole world. Carry it about in your pocket, and never show it to anyone. When evil threatens you or sorrow befalls you go into a corner, take it from your pocket, and give it something to eat and drink. It will eat and drink a little, and then you may tell it your trouble and ask its advice, and it will tell you how to act.\" Little Wassilissa grieved greatly for her Copyright, 1912, by Post Wheeler. Re-told from the Russian by Post Wheeler. mother, and her sorrow was so deep that when the dark night came she lay in her bed and wept, and did not sleep. At length she bethought herself of the tiny doll, so she rose and took it from the pocket of her gown, and, finding a piece of wheat-bread and a cup of milk, she set them before it and said:— \" There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little and drink a little, and listen to my grief. My dear mother is dead, and I am lonely without her.\" Then the doll's eyes began to shine like fire-flies, and suddenly it became alive. It ate a morsel of the bread and took a sip of the milk, and when it had finished it said :— \" Do not weep, little Wassilissa. Grief is worst at night. Lie down, shut your eyes, comfort yourself, and go to sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening.\" So Wassilissa the Beautiful lay down and went to sleep, and the next day her grieving was not so deep and her tears were less bitter. Now, after the death of his wife the mer- chant sorrowed for many days, as was right, but at the end of that time he began to desire to marry again, and to look about him for a suitable wife. The one who suited him best of all was a widow of about his own age, with two daughters of her own, and she, he thought, besides being a good house- keeper, would be a kind foster-mother to his little Wassilissa. So the merchant married the widow, and brought her home as his wife, but the little

47° THE STRAND MAGAZINE. of this all three envied and hated her. They gave her all sorts of errands to run and diffi- cult tasks to perform, in order that the toil might make her thin and worn, and that her face might grow brown from sun and wind, and they treated her cruelly. But all this the little Wassilissa endured without com- plaint, and while the stepmother's two daughters grew always thinner and uglier, in spite of the fact that they had no hard tasks to do, never went out in cold or rain, and sat always wijth their arms folded like ladies of a Court, she herself had cheeks like roses and milk, and grew every day more and more beautiful. Now, the reason for this was the tiny doll, without whose help little Wassilissa could never have managed to do all the work that was laid upon her. Every night, when every- one else was sound asleep, she would get up from her bed. take the doll into her arms, and, locking the door, give it something to eat and drink, and say :— \" There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little, drink a little, and listen to my grief. I live in.my father's house, but my spiteful stepmother wishes to dfive me out of the world. Tell me : how shall I act, and what shall I do ? \" Then the little doll's eyes would begin to shine like glow-worms, and it would become alive. It would eat a little food and sip a little drink, and then it would comfort her and tell her how to act. While Wassilissa slept it would get ready all her work for the next day, so that she had only to rest in the shade and gather flowers, for the doll would have the kitchen garden weeded, and the beds of cabbage watered, and plenty of fresh water brought from the well, and the stoves heated exactly right. And beside this the little doll told her how to make. from a certain herb, an ointment which pre- vented her from ever being sunburnt. So all the joy in life that came to Wassilissa came to her through the tiny doll that she always carried in her pocket. Years passed, till Wassilissa grew up and became of an age when it is good to marry. All the young men in the village, .high and low, rich and poor, asked for .her hand, while not one of them stopped even to look at the stepmother's two daughters, so ill- favoured were they. This angered their mother still more against Wassilissa ; she answered every gallant who came with the same words : \" Never shall the younger be married before the older ones ! \" and every time when she had let a. suitor out of the door she would soothe her anger and hatred by beating her stepdaughter. So, while Wassilissa grew every day more lovely and graceful, she was often miserable, and but for the little doll in her .pocket she would have longed to leave the world. At last there came a time when it was necessary for the merchant to leave his home and to travel to a distant kingdom. He bade

WASSILISSA THE BEAUTIFUL. 471 other light in all the house, and our tasks said the one who was making the lace, \" and are not done.\" I will not go.\" \" We must go and fetch fire/' said the first. \" And I have enough light from my silver \" SHE ANSWERED EVERY GALLANT WHO CAME WITH THE SAME WORPS, ' NEVER SHALL THE YOUNGER BE MARRIED BEFORE THE OLDER ONRS.' \" \" The only house near is a hut in the forest, needles,\" said the other, who was knitting where the Baba-Yaga lives. One of us must the hose, \" and / will not go.\" go and borrow fire from her.\" \" You, Wassilissa,\" they both said, \" shall \" I have enough light from my steel pins,\" go and fetch the fire, for you have neither

472 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. steel pins nor silver needles, and cannot see to spin your flax ! \" They both rose up, pushed Wassilissa out of the house, and locked the door, crying : \" You shall not come in till you have fetched the fire.\" Wassilissa sat down on the doorstep, took the tiny doll from one pocket and from another the supper she had ready, put the food before it, and said :— \" There, my little doll, take it. Eat a little and listen to my sorrow. I must go to the hut of the old Baba-Yaga in the dark forest to borrow some fire, and I fear she will eat me. Tell me : what shall I do ? \" Then the doll's eyes began to shine like two stars, and it became alive. It ate a little and said :— \" Do not fear, little Wassilissa. Go where you have been sent. While I am with you no harm shall come to you from the old witch.\" So Wassilissa put the doll back into her pocket, crossed herself, and started out into the dark, wild forest. The wood was very dark, and she could not help trembling from fear. Suddenly she heard the sound of a horse's hoofs, and a man on horseback galloped past her. He was dressed all in white, the horse under him was milk-white, and the harness was white, and just as he passed her it became twilight. She went a little farther, and again she heard the sound of a horse's hoofs, and there came another man on horseback galloping past her. He was dressed all in red, and the horse under him was blood-red, and its har- ness was red, and just as he passed her the sun rose. That whole clay Wassilissa walked, for she had lost her way. She could find no path at all in the dark wood, and she had no food to set before the little doll to make it alive. But at evening she came all at once to the green lawn where the wretched little hut stood on its hen's legs. The wall around the hut was made of human bones, and on its top were skulls. There was a gate in the wall, whose hinges were the bones of human feet, and whose locks were jaw-bones set with sharp teeth. The sight filled Wassilissa with horror, and she stopped as still as a post buried in the ground. As she stood there a third man on horse- back came galloping up. His face was black, he was dressed all in black, and the horse he rode was coal-black. He galloped up to the gate of the hut, and disappeared there as if he had sunk through the ground, and at that moment night came and the forest grew dark. But it was not dark on the green lawn, for instantly the eyes of all the skulls on the wall were lighted up, and shone till the place was as bright as day. When she saw this Wassilissa trembled so with fear that she could not run away. Then suddenly the wood became full of a terrible noise ; the trees began to groan, the branches to creak, and the dry leaves to

WASS1LISSA THE BEAUTIFUL. 473 pocket, put before it a bit of bread and a little cabbage-soup that she had saved, burst into tears, and said :— \" There, my little doll, take it. Eat To-morrow when I drive away, clean the yard, sweep the floors, and cook my supper. Then take a quarter of a measure of wheat from my store- house, and pick out of it all the black grains and the wild peas. Mind you do all that I bid you ; if not, then you shall be eaten for my supper.\" Presently Baba-Yaga turned towards the wall and began to snore, and Wassilissa knew that she was fast asleep. Then she went a little, drink a little, and listen to my grief. Here I am in the house of the old witch, and the gate in the wall is locked, and I am afraid. She has given me a difficult task, and .if I do not do all she has bidden she will eat me to- morrow. Tell me : what shall I do ? \" Then the eyes of the little doll began to \" HIS FACE WAS BLACK AND THE HORSE HE RODE WAS COAL-BLACK.\" into the corner, took the tiny doll from her shine like two candles. It ate a little of the Vol. xliv.—4O.

474 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. bread and drank a little of the soup, and said :— \" Do not be afraid, Wassilissa the Beautiful. Be comforted. Say your prayers and go to sleep. The morning is wiser than the evening.\" So Wassilissa trusted the little doll, and was comforted. She said her prayers and lay down on the floor and went fast asleep. When she woke next morning, very early, went out. The old witch was in the yard; now she began to whistle, and the great iron mortar and pestle and the kitchen broom flew out of the hut to her. As she got inco the mortar the man dressed all in red, mounted on the blood-red horse, galloped like the wind around the corner of the hut, leaped the wall, and was gone, and at that moment the sun rose. Then the Baba-Yaga shouted : \" Ho ! my solid locks, unlock ! My stout gate, open ! \" And the locks unlocked and the gate opened, and she rode away in the mortar, driving with the pestle, and sweep- ing away her path behind her with the broom. When Wassilissa found herself left alone she examined the hut, wondering to find it filled with such an abundance of every- thing. Then she stood still, remembering all that the old witch had bade her do, and wondering what to begin first. But as she looked she rubbed her eyes, for the yard was already neatly cleaned, and the floors were nicely swept, and the little doll was sitting in the storehouse picking \"IMMEDIATELY THREK PAIRS OF HANDS APPEARED AND SEIZED THE MEASURE OF WHEAT.\" it was still dark. She rose and looked out of the window, and she saw that the eyes of the skulls on the wall were growing dim. As she looked the man dressed all in white, riding the milk-white horse, galloped swiftly around the corner of the hut, leaped the wall, and dis- appeared, and as it went it became quite light, and the eyes of the skulls flickered and the last black grains and wild peas out of the quarter-measure of wheat. Wassilissa ran and took the little doll in her arms. \" My dearest little doll ! \" she cried. \" You have saved me from my trouble ! Now I have only to cook the Baba-Yaga's supper, since all the rest of the tasks are done.\"

WASSILISSA THE BEAUTIFUL. 475 \" Cook it, with God's help,\" said the doll, \" and then rest, and may the cooking of it make you healthy!\" And so saying, it crept into her pocket and became only a little wooden doll. So Wassilis'sa rested all day and was refreshed; and when it grew towards evening she laid the table for the old witch's supper, and sat look- ing out of the win- dow, waiting for her coming. After a while she heard the sound of horse's hoofs, and the man in black, on the coal- black horse, galloped up to the wall-gate and disappeared like a great dark shadow, and in- stantly it became quite dark and the eyes of all the skulls began to glitter and shine. Then all at once the trees of the forest began to creak and groan, and the leaves and the bushes to moan and sigh, and the Baba- Yaga came riding out of the dark wood in the huge iron mortar, driving with the pestle, and sweeping out the trail be- hind her with the kitchen broom. Was- silissa let her in ; and the old witch, smelling all around her. asked, in a voice that made her tremble :— \" Well, have THE BABA-YAGA SEIZED FROM THE WALL ONE OF THE SKULLS WITH BURNING EYF.S AND FLUNG IT AFTKR HER.\" you done perfectly all the tasks I gave you to do, or am I to eat you for my supper ? \" \" Be so good as to look for yourself, grandmother,\" answered Wassi-

476 THE STRAND MAGAZINE. with milk, honey, beer, and wine. The Baba- Yaga ate and drank it all, every morsel, leaving not so much as a crumb of bread ; then she said snappishly :— \" Well, why do you say nothing, but stand there as if you were dumb ? \" \" I spoke not,\" Wassilissa answered, \" because I dared not. But if you will allow- me, grandmother, I wish to ask you some questions.\" \" Well,\" said the old witch, \" only remember that every question does not lead to good. If you know over-much you will grow old too soon. What will you ask ? \" \" I would ask,\" said Wassilissa, \" of the men on horseback. When I came to your hut a rider passed me. He was dressed all in white, and he rode a milk-white horse. Who was he ?\" \" That was my white, bright day,\" answered the Baba-Yaga, angrily. \" He is a servant of mine, but he cannot hurt you. Ask me more.\" \" Afterwards,\" said Wassilissa, \" a second rider overtook me. He was dressed in red, and the horse he rode was blood-red. Who was he ? \" \" That was my servant, the round, red sun,\" answered the Baba-Yaga, \" and he too \"'BEAUTIUJI, MAIDEN,' SAID THE CZAR, 'YOU SHALL BE MY WIFE.'\" cannot injure you,\" and she ground her teeth. \" Ask me more.\" \" A third rider,\" said Wassilissa, \" came galloping up to the gate. He was black, his clothes were black, and the horse was coal- black. Who was he ? \" \" That was my servant, the black, dark night,\" answered the old witch, furiously ; \" but he also cannot harm you. Ask me more.\" But Wassilissa, remembering what the Baba-Yaga had said, that not every question led to good, was silent. \" Ask me more ! \" cried the old witch. \" Why do you not ask me more ? Ask me of the three pair of hands that serve me ! \" But Wassilissa saw how she snarled at her, and she answered :— \" The three questions are enough for me. As you have said, grandmother, I would not, through knowing over-much, become old too soon.\" \" It is well for you,\" said the Baba-Yaga, \" that you did not ask of them, for the three pair of hands would have seized you also, as they did the wheat, to be my food. Now I would ask a question in my turn. How is it that you have been able, in a little time, to do perfectly all the tasks I gave you ? Tell me ! \"

WASS1LISSA THE BEAUTIFUL. 477 Wassilissa was so frightened to see how the old witch ground her teeth that she almost told her of the little doll; but she bethought herself just in time, and answered :— \" The blessing of my dead mother helps me.\" Then the Baba-Yaga sprang up in a fury. \" Get out of my house this moment! \" she shrieked. \" I want no one who bears a blessing to cross my threshold ! Begone ! \" Wassilissa ran to the yard, and behind her she heard the old witch shouting to the locks and the gate. The locks opened, the gate swung wide, and she ran out on to the lawn. The Baba-Yaga seized from the wall one of the skulls with burning eyes and flung it after her. \" There,\" she howled, \" is the fire for your stepmother's daughters. Take it. That is what they sent you here for; and may they have joy of it! \" Wassilissa put the skull on the end of a stick and darted away through the forest, running as fast as she could, finding her path by the skull's glowing eyes, which went out only when morning came. Towards evening of the next day, when the eyes in the skull were beginning to glimmer, she came out of the dark, wild forest to her stepmother's house. Now, since Wassilissa had gone the stepmother and her two daughters had had neither fire nor light in all the house. When they struck flint and steel the tinder would not catch, and the fire they brought from the neighbours would go out immediately as soon as they carried it over the threshold, so that they had been un- able to light or warm themselves or to cook food to eat. Therefore now, for the first time in her life, Wassi- lissa found herself welcomed. They opened the door to her, and the merchant's wife was greatly rejoiced to find that the light in the skull did not go out as soon as it was brought in. \" Maybe the witch's fire will stay,\" she said, and took the skull into the best room, set it on a candle- stick, and called her two daughters to admire it. But the eyes of the skull suddenly began to glimmer and to glow like red coals, and wherever the three turned or ran the eyes followed them, growing larger and brighter, till they flamed like two furnaces, and hotter and hotter, till the mer- chant's wife and her two wicked daughters took fire and were burned to ashes. Only Wassilissa the Beautiful was not touched. In the morning Wassilissa dug a deep hole in the ground and buried the skull. Then she took the little doll from her pocket, and asked its help. And the doll became alive, and said :— \" Set out and walk from village to village

PERPLEXITIES. By Henry E. Dudeney. 103.—THE HONEYCOMB PUZZLE. HERE is a little puzzle with the simplest possible condi- tions. Place the point of your pencil on a letter in one of the cells of the honeycomb, and trace out a very familiar pro- verb by passing always from a cell to one that is contiguous to it. If you take the right route you will have visited every cell once, and only once. The puzzle is much easier than it looks. 104.—A SHOPPING PER- PLEXITY. Two ladies went into a shop where, through some curious eccentricity, no change was given, and made purchases amounting together to less than five shillings. \" Do you know,\" said one lady, \" I find I shall require no fewer than six current coins of the realm to pay for what I have bought.\" The other lady considered a moment, and then exclaimed : \" By a peculiar coincidence, I am exactly in the same dilemma! \" \" Then we will pay the two bills together.\" But, to their astonishment, they still required six coins. What is the smallest possible amount of their purchases —both different ? 105.—A WONDERFUL VILLAGE. THERE is a certain village in Japan, situated in a very low valley, and yet the sun is nearer to the inhabi- tants every noon, by three thousand miles and upwards, than when he either rises or sets to these people. In what part of the country is the village situated ? prettiest designs that can be formed by representing the moves of the knight by lines from square to square. The chequering of the squares is omitted to give greater clear- ness. St. George thus slays the Dragon in strict accord- ance with the conditions and in the elegant manner we should expect of him. ioi.—AN EASY SQUARE PUZZLE. THE diagram explains itself, one of the five pieces hav- ing been cut in two to form a square. Solutions to Last Month's Puzzles. loo.—ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. WE select for the solution of this puzzle one of the 102.—THE UNION JACK. THERE are just sixteen points (all on the outside) where three roads may be said to join. These are called by mathematicians \" odd nodes.\" There is a rule that tells us that in the case of a drawing like the present one, where there are sixteen odd nodes, it requires eight separate strokes or routes (that is, half as many as there are odd nodes) to complete it. As we have to produce as much as possible with only one of these eight strokes, it is clearly necessary to contrive that the seven strokes from odd node to odd node shall be as short as possible. Start at A and end at B, or go the reverse way.

CURIOSITIES. [We shall be glad to receive Contributions to this section, and to pay for such as are accepted.} WHAT IT? THE curious photograph shown above was taken during rny visit to Rochester, N.Y., this year. I was in the Genesce Gorge taking photographs of the ice effects, and, finding myself standing right under the cliff, I pointed my camera up and took this pic- ture. It shows the huge icicles hanging from the cliff. I think that no one is likely to guess what the photograph really represents. —Mr. T. N. Chambers, c/o Williamson, Balfour, and Co., Valparaiso, Chile. CAN YOU READ THIS? THIS sign is on a building at Nankow, the point on the Peking-Kalgan Rail- way where the Great Wall can be seen at its best. As you can see, it is painted directly backwards, and should read, \" Lee Stshinte, Representative, The Asiatic Petroleum Co., Ltd.,\" the reason for this being that the Chinese read, write, and do most things in directly the opposite direction from us.—Mrs. A. N. Hoagland, Y.M.C.A., Peking, China. A GRAVITY CLOCK. A UNIQUE timepiece has re- cently been invented by Mr. Eugene Walser, a watch- maker in Los Angeles. Four years of work has perfected a clock which keeps accurate time, but is without a spring in its entire make-up. The motive-power is gained by the clock rolling down an incline, regulated by a wonder- ful arrangement of weights on the inside of the clock. There is no winding to be done, but every thirty days the clock is lifted to the top of the incline and begins to slide downward. The dial does not revolve with the case, but remains as an ordinary dial with the figure 12 at the top. The incline is of polished wood, sixteen inches long, with an eight and a third per cent, grade. There is no relation between the wood and the clock—it is simply a matter of properly-adjusted weights which move the hands and control the downward motion of the timepiece.—Mr. L. Edholm,4,624, Figueroa St., Los Angeles, California,

THE STRAND MAGAZINE. r- - T' NOT SO EASY AS IT LOOKS -HE smaller of these two photo- graphs repre- sents an inter- esting oak puzzle-box, re- puted to be the only one of its kind in exist- ence, which has been in the pos- session of a Bristol family f or overone hun- dred years. It consists of thirty parts—shown in the larger of the two photographs—which are most difficult to put together, many people having spent weeks, and even months, in endeavouring to do so, without success. Is it possible that any \" STRAND \" readers have a similar box in their possession ? CAN ANY READER MATCH THIS? A BABY twenty-six months old registering the extraordinary weight of one hundred and twenty-seven pounds is almost beyond belief, were it not for the fuct that I found one living with its parents not twenty miles from the centre of the Citv of Ottawa. The fact becomes more amazing when it is stated that the baby in question has a younger brother which shows every promise of fol- lowing in the same remarkable path of growth; for, though it is only fourteen months old, its pre- sent weight is nearly fifty-seven pounds. For the purposes of U, comparison, it may be added that : the average baby boy at twenty- j six months old is doing well if it weighs thirty-two pounds, and one at fourteen months is doing \\ likewise if it weighs twenty-three pounds. The parents, Mr. and , Mrs. Paul Bres, come of an old country French family. The elder child, which bears the name of John, was quite a normal baby at birth, weighing only five pounds. It was fed by the bottle, J and only developed its present extraordinary growth about twelve months ago. It is perfectly healthy, and has always slept well, but can only walk with assistance, the weight of the body being too great for the legs. It is eating something pretty well all the day, and before going to bed drinks a quart and a half of milk, and during the night a further pint of cold water. A baby - carriage of ordinary dimensions cannot contain John, but a wheelbarrow com- fortably fitted up serves as an ideal substitute. The parents are naturally deeply attached



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