The Great Round World And What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1. No. 23, April 15, 1897 | Page 8

while the men drilled a hole about two inches in diameter and one foot deep, which they afterward filled with dynamite. After sending the tools up, the other man and I went up, while the man we left in the shaft lit the fuse. We all pulled at the windlass, and he was soon at the top. After taking off the bucket we ran up the hill about a hundred yards to watch the result.
With an awful explosion and a tremendous shower of rocks the dynamite blew a big hole in the side of the shaft. After driving out the smoke by dropping large cedar bushes in the shaft, we went down again.
We filled the bucket with rocks, which were drawn up. We soon emptied the shaft in this way. Then we went to the top and assorted the ore. I filled a large box with the richest rocks I could find, and they were shipped the next day.
Besides blasting for the ore, I panned a little, that is, I had a shallow pan with a little of the dust from the shaft and some water. I washed the dust until I had very little dust left; then I took a quill toothpick and picked the small nuggets from the pan and put them into a small gold vial full of water.
After staying at the mine four days, I went home, having had a fine time "roughing it" in a gold mine.
Please send me full particulars of the "Who? When? What? Chart" as soon as you possibly can, and also tell me whether you will send me one of those books which you want criticised. I am eleven years old. I like to read very much--history, travel, and adventure being my favorites. The books I like specially are Oliver Optic's works for travels, and G.A. Henty's works for historical facts and thrilling adventures. I like other books also.
Hoping that I do not inconvenience you, I am respectfully,
JULES W.L., Jr. GREENSBORO, N.C., March 25, 1897.

EXHIBITION OF CHILDREN'S WORK.
There has been a very interesting exhibition, in New York, of sewing done by the children in the public schools.
France, England, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, China, and Japan have all sent exhibits of their work, and so it has been possible to see what kind of sewing is being done all over the world.
It is very much to the credit of America that the home work far outshines that of any of the foreign countries.
This exhibition was not one of fancy work or embroideries, though every country sent some specimens of the special work for which it is celebrated. The work shown was plain sewing, the cutting and making of new garments, and the mending of old ones.
The first principles of sewing were shown on neat little squares of cloth--running, hemming, stitching, gathering, and buttonhole-making. Then there were garments in which all these first steps were applied.
While every country has sent specimens of clothing made by its children, and each exhibits its own system of teaching sewing, none of these systems seem so complete nor the finished garments so perfect as those of our own country.
In foreign countries no particular attention seems to be paid to the cutting, shaping, and ornamenting of garments. The little underclothes from Switzerland and Germany, especially, were made of such coarse cloth, of such a hideous pattern, and so utterly without ornament, that it is not pleasant to think there are really people in the world contented to wear such unsightly clothes.
In the American exhibit, every garment, for rich child or poor child, had its little frill of lace, or its row of feather-stitching, which gave it a finish that was very pretty.
The daintiest set of garments came from the Industrial School for Colored and Indian Children, in Hampton, Va.
The most complete exhibit, which included plain sewing, dress-making, hat-trimming, and fancy work of all kinds, was sent by the Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn. The useful sewing from that school was above the standard of excellence, and the art work fully equal to that of the New York School of Applied Design.
A very interesting part of the exhibit of every American school was the darning and patching. We hear a good deal about people not learning to sew properly nowadays, since the sewing-machine has come into such common use, but the patches and darns shown by the twelve-year-old pupils of our public schools would put the far-famed patching of our grandmothers to shame.
There were square patches, with the patterns matched so exquisitely that you had to feel the edge before you could realize that the patch was there; three-cornered "jags" darned so perfectly with their own threads that they were invisible, and every kind of rent and tear and hole was treated in its own particular way.
The Japanese sent a number