Newspaper Page Text
388
BURKE’S WEEKLY
FOK BOYS AND GIRLS.
MACON, GA., APRIL 6, 1868.
Contents of No. 49.
About Harry Twiggs—illustrated page i? BS
Little Things
Poetry —Good Night
Marooner’s Island, by the Rev. F. R. Goulding
Chapter XXVll.—original 386
Can’t Leave the Store 387
Our Darling Minnie
Sowing Seed 3 s 1
Editorial— A New Volume; Missing Numbers.. 388
Grandpa's Philosophy for Young Folks—original 388
Poetry —Answer to Riddle —original ...■ 389
The Ventriloquist —original —two illustrations 389
But and No 389
Poetry— Now I Lay me Down to Sleep 390
Ellen Hunter: A Story of the War—Chap. XX.,
original 390
The watch and its Hour Verses—original 392
Our Chimney Corner, illustrated 392
A New Volume !
af the number for July 4, BURKE’S
gHyl WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
will enter upon its second year, and
fthe publishers have peculiar pride in
directing attention to certain contem
plated improvements and additional
attractions which will characterize the new volume.
The Editorial Department will remain in the
same hands as heretofore, and while its editor will
continue to avail himself of every opportunity to
secure the very best things from every possible
source, the publishers are enabled to promise cer
tainly the following attractive features :
Mr. Goulding will conclude his admirable
serial, “ Marooner's Island,” which is being read
with the most intense interest by thousands of
boys and girls from Maine to California. The
Rev. Dr. Rice, of Mobile, pronounces Mr. Goul
ding “the De Foe of our times,” a title which he
has justly earned by his admirable story, the
“Young Marooners” —a story equalled in interest
only by “ Robinson Crusoe.”
A well known gentleman, whose name we are
not at liberty to mention, will contribute a thril
ling story of Indian life , the scene of which is
laid in the Northern and Northwestern portions of
Georgia, in the time of the early settlement of the
State. In this story will be recounted the adven
tures of a boy who was captured by the Indians
and held a prisoner among them for many months,
making his escape from them at last, after endu
ring almost incredible hardships. It will be fine
ly illustrated, and the opening chapter will appear
as soon as Marooner's Island is completed.
The authoress of “ Florilla and the Dove” will
contribute a serial fairy tale, entitled The En
chanted Spring.
“Byrd Lyttle,” whose Story of the War has
been so popular in the columns of the Weekly ,
will contribute some of her excellent stories and
poems.
“ Clara LeClerc,” a favorite writer for chil
dren, is engaged as a regular contributor, and will
furnish several of her beautiful stories.
Mrs. Mary Ware, whose sweet poems have al
ready enriched our pages, will continue to write
for us.
“ Grandpa' s Philosophy for Young Folks ” will
be continued. These papers are from the pen of
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
a talented scientific gentleman, who possesses the
peculiar faculty of making his writings both
useful and entertaining.
Other writers, well known at the South, will
contribute many choice articles for the new vol
ume.
The Illustrations will continue to be the very
best that can be obtained, and it is the intention
of the publishers to greatly increase their number
in the coming volume.
The children’s favorite department, —“ Our
Chimney Corner,” —will receive more attention
in future than the editor has been able to bestow
on it in the past, and it is our intention to intro
duce anew feature, —“ Oor Letter Bag,” in
which he will, from time to time, converse fami
liarly with his little readers and correspondents.
Each page of the Weekly will contain four col
umns, instead of three , as heretofore, thus giving
our readers thirty-two columns of reading matter,
instead of twenty-four. In spite, however, of this
greatly increased expense, the publishers have de
termined to continue the subscription price the
same as heretofore, viz : One copy, one year, $2;
three copies, $5; five copies, $8; ten copies,
sls; twenty-one copies for S3O. Small amounts
may be sent by mail, but sums of $5, or over,
should be sent in registered letters, or in post
office money orders.
May we not hope that all of our present subscri
bers will renew their subscriptions promptly, and
interest themselves in extending our circulation ?
Recollect what we have given you in the past
twelve months. We venture the assertion that no
juvenile publication in the LTnited States has fur
nished to its subscribers three such stories as
“Marooner’s Island,” “Jack Dobell’s Adven
tures in Texas” and “Ellen Hunter,” to say no
thing of all the other good things we have given
you. Let us beg every little friend of the Weekly
to work for it during the next four weeks as they
never worked before, and we promise that they
shall have, for the next twelve months, such a pa
per as they wouldn’t be without for three times
its price.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
Guandpa’s Philosophy for Young Folks.
NO. XII. —ATMOSPHERIC AIR.
(Cjjp' BELIEVE I will now talk with you awhile
about the gases. In doing this, I will have
to go into the department of Chemistry.
f Natural Philosophy considers the pheno
mena and laws of matter, and the effects
only, which are not attended by any change
in the nature of matter. Chemistry deals with the
nature and constitution of substances. Now. we
propose to consider atmospheric air. But, before
proceeding, let me say that the number of gases
we are now acquainted with, is thirty-four. Os
these, four are simple—that is, not made of com
pounded elements. These four are oxygen, ni
trogen, hydrogen and chlorine. Seven are found
free in nature, viz: oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic
acid, light carbureted hydrogen, heavy carburet
ed hydrogen, sulphurous acid, and ammonia.
The air we breathe, called atmospheric air is a
compound, surrounding the earth like a vast sea,
and extending to the height of about forty-five
miles. It is rather a mechanical mixture of its
two elements, than a compound. Being a mix
ture, the two elements retain their own peculiar
character, and can be very easily separated. Y' ; hen
two or more substances combine, there is a com
plete change in the nature of their original ele
ments. As, for instance, take a piece of lead—
you know it is a soft, heavy metal, which will not
dissolve in water—pour vinegar on the lead, and
the acid disappears, and the lead also. Now. you
have a substance differing entirely from these two
elements. This is the well known salt— sugar of
lead. The elements can be separated, and you !
recover the lead in metallic form, and the acid
too, which is called acetic acid. The compound
then, is properly the acetate of lead. Now. if
the elements of the air were combined, you would
have anew substance entirely.
Nitric acid, one of the most important and
strongest acids we have, is a compound of oxygen
and nitrogen. It is said that, during severe thun
der storms, where a great deal of electricity is
liberated, the rain water is perceptibly sour. In
this case, by the agency of the electrical fluid, the
two gases are combined, and the result is a new
substance, nitric acid. The proportions forming
atmospheric air are about eighty parts nitrogen to
twenty parts oxygen in the hundred. The oxygen
is the vital element, the nitrogen acts simply as a
dilutent. The oxygen in its pure state would be
too stimulating. Essential as it is to life, yet it
must be diluted. Nitrogen alone will not support
life. It is a negative as to its character. Noth
ing noxious about it, yet if you deprive the air of
its proportion of oxygen, you would die immedi
ately. The oxygen performs the part of a purifier
to the blood, combining with the carbon, with
which it goes loaded to the lungs.
And right here let me answer a question which
has been propounded, and which you perhaps are
ready to ask. How does the oxygen get to the
blood, which is shut up in tubes circulated through
blood vessels? It is a well known fact if you
fill two vessels, one with hydrogen and the other
with oxygen, and place the hydrogen on the top
of the other vessel, covering the lower one with a
piece of bladder, that, notwithstanding the inter
position of this dense membrane, the gases will
in a short time mingle, forming an explosive mix
ture. Here the gases pass freely through a dense
membrane and intermingle. In the lungs, the air
meets with a structure endowed witlx vitality and
capable of absorbing the oxygen and bringing it
in immediate contact, with the circulating blood,
We may not explain by what process the air thus
permeates a dense membrane, but with clear de
monstration before us, we cannot ignore the fact.
Missing Numbers.
E have had a great many complaints,
JIA-1 from all sections of the country, on ac
count of irregularity in the receipt ot
(f, fV-Y the Weekly. We can assure our reau
ers that, the fault is not with us. 0
have used our utmost endeavors to in
Sure accuracy in the mailing of our paper, and me
confident that, in a large majority of cases, wbcie
it has not reached subscribers, the fault is in 'ln
mails. We are still enabled to supply ncail} all
the back numbers to those who have not recei'"
them—Nos. 27, 28 and 30 are entirely exhausted.
Nos. 2 and 4 are nearly all out, but we can sti
supply a limited number.
Hereafter, we beg that subscribers will nod}
us promptly when a number of the paper faib t 0
reach them. We are always ready to suppb 1111
sing numbers.
—
right in everything and you 11 be bap] l }'