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WEEKLY GHAT WITH CORRESPONDENTS
LlT are afraid our little friend,
xTTj Lout a C., of Davenport Fe
male College, Lenoir, N.C.,
Y3y will never forgive us for so
long delaying to notice her
T pretty little letter of Oct. 3.
We beg to assure her that the delay
was unintentional; her letter was put
upon the wrong file, and was overlook
ed. She says:
‘’Dear Mr. Burke : My brother takes
your nice little paper, and I read it
every week, and like it very much. I
see in one of the late numbers that you
offer ‘The Rock of Ages’ as a premium.
The artist who designed and painted
that beautiful picture is our rector, the
Rev. Mr. Oertel, who preaches for us
every Sunday, and attends to our Sun
day-school in the mornings, and the
colored school in the afternoons, and
will not take one cent for his services.
“ ‘ The Rock of Ages’ was first called
‘ Faith,* and there is a large oil-painting
of it, also one of ‘Hope,’ and one of
‘ Charity,’ which have been on exhibi
tion in London and Paris, but have
now just reached New York, to be ex
hibited there this winter.
“ He has just finished five large pic
tures : one of our Saviour as a High
priest, which is more than eight feet
high; the other four are Angels, two
representing the Cherubim, and two the
Seraphim, which are life-size. They
were exhibited here, with many other
pictures, four days, and were sent on
to be put in the Church of the ‘ Hea
venly Rest’ —anew church in New York
city. More than six hundred people
went to see them, and were delighted
with them. If you ever come to this
little mountain village, you must visit
Mr. Oertel’s studio.
“I am nearly twelve years old, and
am a day-scholar at the Davenport Fe
male College.”
If we ever visit Miss Lout a’ s pretty
mountain home, it will afford us great
pleasure to visit the studio of so ta
lented and good a man as we feel sure
Mr. Oertel must be. The picture al
luded to—“ Rock of Ages”—is one of
the finest we have ever seen.
Miss Mary E. Bradford, of Moreau
ville, Avoyelles Parrish, La., sends us an
account of a narrow escape of her father
and brother, and two young men, their
neighbors, from alligators, recently.
They were taking a row on a large
lake that is situated near her father’s
place. She says:
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
“This lake is about five miles
long, and about four miles wide, and
is full of the finest fish I have ever
seen. My father kills them with a
harpoon, when we need them, and
he has killed some that weighed 80
pounds. In the centre of this lake
there is a large cluster of cypress
trees, the tops of which rise a few
feet above the surface of the water.
It is in the tops of these trees that the
waterfowls build their nests, and almost
every limb on them bears a nest of
some kind. Throughout the summer
these nests contain eggs or young birds,
and around them the alligators concen
trate for the purpose of devouring the
young birds that may unluckily fall into
the water.
“To this place my father and bro
ther, and their two young friends, went
for the purpose of enjoying the sport of
harpooning fish.
“They had scarcely reached the spot,
when they were attacked by about fifty
immense alligators. They were attack
ed on all sides, and a life and death
struggle ensued, which lasted about
thirty minutes. Had it not been for a
couple of axes, which had been provi
dentially put into the boat, there is but
little doubt but that they would all have
been lost. Once the boat was very
nearly upset by five or six large alliga
tors attempting to climb into it; and
my brother would have been dragged
from the boat by one of largest of the
bloodthirsty creatures, if it had not
been for a timely blow dealt by one
of his friends, with one of the axes,
which sent the fellow lifeless to the bot
tom of the lake. As soon as they had
succeeded in repulsing their enemies,
the party lost no time in hastening to the
shore, where they all landed in safety.”
Writtenfor Burke’s Weekly.
EVENINGS AT GLENWOOD.
w* - ■
iJL HAVE already alluded several
times,” said Mr. Cranford, “to
* the Illustrated Library of
Wonders , a series of books that cannot
be too highly commended. One of the
latest volumes issued of this series is
a reprint of an English work on Light
houses and Lightships, which is full of
information in regard to the subject
treated of. That branch of Natural
Philosophy now under discussion na
turally leads us to speak of the light
house, as it is indebted to the lens for
the means of its great usefulness to the
seafaring world.
“ Arthur, can you tell me what light
houses are? ”
“ They are towers erected along the
sea-coast, with lanterns in their tops,
which are lighted at night, as a guide
to ships at sea.”
“Are they" of modern origin?”
“ The present form of lighthouse is
of comparatively modern origin, but
‘ there seems some reason to believe
that long before Greece became a mari
time nation, light-towers had been built
by the Lybians and the Cuthites along
the coast of Lower Egypt.’ ”*
“ One of the most famous lighthouses
of antiquity was situated on the little
island of Pharos, near Alexandria in
Egypt, which was included by ancient
writers among the Seven Wonders of
the World. Iu olden times, lighthouses
were illuminated by fires, built of wood,
coal, or some bituminous substances;
but at a later period, these methods of
* “Lighthouses and Lightships,” Scribner
& Cos., N.Y.
illumination were superseded by oil
lamps placed in front of concave reflec
tors, which served to concentrate the
the rays, and thus heighten their illu
minating effect. But the reflectors
used, being made of metal, were soon
tarnished, and the light afforded be
came feeble, and failed in its object.
“ Various means were resorted to to
overcome these difficulties, all of which
are fully set forth in the volume already
alluded to ; but in 1822, Jean Augustin
Fresnel, a distinguished French engi
neer, who had devoted much time to
the subject, invented anew system of
illumination, which is now being adopt
ed in all civilized countries.
“Abandoning the reflectors, which
became tarnished by the influence of
sea fogs, he substituted for them plano
convex lenses, in the principal foci of
which he placed powerful lamps with
four concentric wicks, each of which,
for the quantity of oil consumed, and
the amount of light given out, was
found to be equivalent to seventeen
carcel-lamps.* The difficulty of con
structing large plano-convex lenses,
together with their great absorption of
light, led finally to the adoption of a
particular system of lenses, known as
echelon lenses.
“A lens of this kind consists of a
plano-convex lens, about a foot in dia
meter, around which are disposed seve
ral annular lenses, which are also
plano-convex, and wbojrc ci'rvati.TQ 1 -H
--so calculated that each one shall have
the same principal focus as the central
lens. A lamp being placed at the prin
cipal focus of this refracting system,
the light emanating from it is refracted
into an immense beam of parallel rays.
“ Besides this refracting system, seve
ral ranges of reflectors are so disposed
as to reflect such light as would other
wise be lost, to increase the beam of
light formed by refraction.
“ By this double combination, an im
mense beam of light is afforded, which
renders the light visible for fifteen or
twenty leagues ; but this beam is only
visible in a single direction. To reme
dy this defect, Fresnel united eight
systems similar to that just described,
which combination presents the appear
ance of a pyramid of glass, nine or ten
feet in height.
“ The engraving represents a section
of the lantern of a lighthouse of the first
order, which was actually constructed
by M. Sautter, and exhibited at the
great ‘ Universal Exposition’ of France,
in 1855.
“In order to illuminate all points of
the horizon, the system is made to re
volve on a vertical axis by clock-work.
The clock-work is shown at M in the
figure, and the weight at P. To pre
vent friction, the system turns upon six
wheels, or rollers, shown in the figure
to the left of M.
“ In consequence of this rotation, an
* A lamp in which the oil is raised through
tubes by clock-work.
189