GYMNASTICS: OR SPORTS FOR YOUTH. 309 ducking, and the liberty of swimming a- it also-it is better therefore to endeavor shore as soon as he liked. to leave it behind, after throwing the body over the height, whatever it may be, and to trust to your agility to alight safely. This by no means precludes the other mode, namely, taking the pole with you-only the line will be knocked down every time. Let each now shoulder his pole and follow me to the leaping apparatus. I should have told you to notice that these said poles are made of ash, rather thicker, if at all, at the end which is to be placed in the ground,-nine or ten feet is sufficiently long for you lads; but for grown-up persons, who can use them, twelve feet will not be too long. The greatest difficulty with which you will have to contend, in leaping with the pole over the line, is to leave the pole behind you after you have cleared the line, and are descending perpendicularly on your feet. But as I said before, boys, gymnasts can do any thing, if they make up their minds to the trial. My old Mathematical Master used to 'he really believed boys could find out longitude, if they only set about it.' say, You ask me, Why must the pole be left behind? In the first place it is of no use to you, after you have cleared the line, but rather an incumbrance for by this time you are quite capable of coming down on your feet without assistance from anything else; secondly, if it were actually and really a wall or fence you were springing over, without some little care, you would receive an unpleasant jerk, by the pole coming in contact with the top, and perhaps you would be thrown down. Again, if there were a party of you, and only one pole for the use of the whole, those behind would want to use Hold the pole then in the same manner as I directed you in leaping the ditch, taking a run of about a dozen yards towards the rope, plant the pole on the ground, not more than a foot from the rope, and immediately spring over it. When you perceive that you have passed the rope, let go the pole, at the same time giving it a slight push from you, for your fellow gymnast, who should be standing ready to receive it. As the height increases, let the knees be kept pliable, and bent a little, in order to break the descent, and prevent its jarring you. This is perhaps one of the most healthy and least dangerous of all the gymnastic exercises. We have occupied more space than usual this month with our Gymnastics, because we wish to finish the whole subject in this volume; and school teachers will find it a complete treatise, whenever they purpose to practise the system. As an exemplification of the advantages of Gymnastics, read the account of the dreadful burning of the Erie, which we insert in another page. Breakfast Table Science for Young People. CHAPTER XVII. What is to be seen in a cup of tea. Tom. FATHER, I think I have made a discovery. Mr W. A discovery! In what? is called the "attraction of small tubes," small tubes formed in the sugar, when it Tom. I'll show you. May I take a it over the edge, it all climbs up the lump of sugar? Mr W. Certainly. tubes of the cloth, and drops over; so, if I get my coat rather wet in a shower, I feel nothing of it until I have sat down for half an hour; it then becomes damp inside. Is this by capillary attraction? In some walls the damp rises. Tom. Is it by the same invisible tubes? Tom. Then look: there-there-see! Now, I just dip the end of the sugar in the tea; see it rises-it mounts up to the very top! Mr W. Alas, Tom, it is no discovery; you may see it in linen cloth dipped in water; you may feel it every time you are wet with rain. Every to prevent the damp rising, is to cover damp wall shows it. You know, our the first course of bricks, above ground, old parlor paper never stuck to the wall. with sheet lead. Amelia. I remember; it turned the crimson paper a bluish white. Ella. O pray, father, do tell how it does this. Mr W. Certainly; and the only way Amelia. But, father, how does the damp turn the crimson paper purplish us white? Mr W. My dear girl, we know nothing about how it does it; as you grow older, this how will often puzzle you. We know it is so, because we see it in Tom's sugar; and we must be satisfied. I take this small glass tube-a hair could scarcely be put up the opening. If it be put in coloured water, it rises in it; if it were narrower, it would rise higher. If I procure a larger tube, and suck the air out, the coloured fluid would rise in that: but the air keeps in this, and still it rises. This Mr W. The damp acts upon the lime of the walls, and produces liquid lime, which destroys the crimson colour. Tom-fetch in some rose leaves, and put them in this cup of boiling water. It is pale red. Put in a little acid, such as oil of vitriol. Now it is bright red. If you now put in a piece of lime, it changes to blue or green. Now, the red paper is acted upon by the lime in the same way. Tom. Then I should think, if, instead of canvass, and lead, and such contrivances, they soaked the wall with dilu SIGHTS IN A CUP OF TEA. ted oil of vitriol, it would prevent its taking off the red colour. Mr W. A most admirable remedy, Tom, if all paper hangings were red; but what would happen to the blue colours? Put a few drops of acid into this bluish liquid. Kenneth. Oh! what a bright red it has turned it to! Mr W. You see, my dear boy, this discovery is very beautiful till it is tried. You will find it is no easy thing to discover anything. Let us talk again, to-morrow morning, about what else is to be seen in a cup of tea. Mr W. Tom! Can you see nothing? Tom. I find, if I drop a wetted lump to the bottom of the cup, no bubbles rise up; if I drop a dry lump, some do. How is that? Mr W. In lump-sugar, these little bubbles are shut up in little prison-cells; the hot tea sets them all at liberty, by bursting open their prison doors. Ella. O dear! how very strange! How can it be so? Mr W. Tom, my dear, bring that bladder here-blow it full-quite full of air. Now hold it to the fire. What is the matter? 311 Mr W. Just so with the sugar. The hot tea has heated and swelled out the air-bubbles in the sugar, and they have burst from their cells, and now swim at the top. What makes them all keep in the middle of the tea-cup? Tom. Attraction. Amelia. And what is attraction, Tom? Tom. Why, Milly, one little bubble likes another, and so they all cluster together. See, if one bursts, how they all rush to fill up his place. Mr W. All that is right; but why do they keep in the centre? Tom. Each side of the cup would like to have them; but when they all attract equally, they must keep in the middle. Mr W. Put the spoon in, and what takes place ? Kenneth. They all run to that side, and hold fast to the spoon. Tom. That side is now the strongest side; it attracts or draws them, more than the opposite. See how they cling to one another; that is, by attraction ; see how they follow the spoon; that is, by a greater attraction. Mr W. These attractions are the most wonderful of all God's works. By the first-the capillary-the moisture rises from the depths of the earth to refresh the parched root or plant; by it, probably, the sap rises in the sap-vessels of the tree; running to the very topmost bough-making them gladden the eye and heart, with bloom and foliage. By the last-invisible attraction-all the planets and comets have rolled on, for ages in their appointed orbits. By it every solid keeps its solid form. Deprived of it, for one minute, the sun, and moon, and stars, would rush through space, with accelerated speed; and the whole of this beauty, and order, and harmony, would cease; and Death would stalk, with giant strides, over the gigantic remnants of shivered and shattered worlds! The whole creation would be one vast Mausoleum, in which all the living beings of this earth would be entombed! Pray what else is to be found in a cup of tea? Amelia. There can be nothing else. Mr W. Yes, there is: look at the vapor, or steam as you call it, that rises from it. ing in that but smoke. upon Ella. Yes! no!-What do you mean? Mr. W. I mean it is, and it is not. Do you now know? Tom. Not at all. Mr W. Lend me your finger. Now look at the kettle-spout, about half an inch from the spout; nothing can be seen: beyond that distance is what you call steam, and I vapor. Mind you do not put your finger in the vapor, as that may scald you. What can be the matter with you? Tom. Why, it is hotter than hot boiling water, father. Mr W. Then it must be the steam, for that can be heated higher than water. Tom. I do not mind the burn. I know now--steam is invisible, and vapor is visible steam, or condensed steam. Mr W. Just so: and at some future Ella. We see it; but there is noth- time we will talk about a contrivance, called Papin's Digester, in which he But dissolved bones by heated steam. we have forgotten Ella's ten thousand thousand little balloons. What are they? Tom. We none of us can tell. Mr W. Let the sun's rays fall this smoke, as you term it. Now, blow upon it. What see you? Ella. Oh! ten thousand thousand little balloons. Am. How very pretty! What are they? Tom. I always thought they were the same. Mr W. You cannot see steam-you can see vapor. Kenneth. Is not that steam that comes out of the kettle-spout, when it boils? Mr W. Yes-no. Mr W. They are nothing more than heated air, in a coating composed of tea, sugar, and milk. Let us now break up. The great Advantages of Gymnastic Exercises; Or the providential Escape of Master Beebee from the burning Steamer Erie. THIS appalling disaster has filled the public mind with horror, and the public press with terrible and agonizing descriptions of the scene, as related by some of the survivors. Much has been said of the astonishing preservation of Levi T. Beebee, a boy of twelve years old, the son of W. T. Beebee, esq. of Cleaveland. As this fine lad exhibited a degree of self-possession, heroism, and unflinching endurance of mental and bodily suffering unsurpassed, we have obtained from the boy's own lips his simple story of what he saw and did during the awful Before giving this story, it is proper to state, that young Beebee is an unusually athletic and manly boy of his age-that from his childhood he has been trained to manly sports and exercises. During the year last past he has been a member of Major Duff's scientific and military school for boys at Cooperstown, Newyork. Once or twice a week he was required to bathe in the river, and instructed to dive and swim under water. It was this training which enabled the boy so wonderfully to save himself. He was cool and self-possessed, while all was confusion and agony around him. |