Page:Peterson's Magazine 1862.pdf/350

 344

PARLOR AMUSEMENTS.

has lived where individuality is marked, and has probed Mistakes of Educated Men. By John S. Hart, LL. D. some of the deepest recesses of some of the strongest na- Editor of the Sunday-School Times, and late Principal of tures. In descriptive power, also, this writer is superior.the Philadelphia High School. 12 mo., muslin gilt. Price What others do by elaborate delineation she brings out by 50 cents ; paper covers 25 cents. Published by J. C. Garri a few bold dashes of the pencil. Hers is, everywhere, gues, 148 South Fourth street, Philadelphia.-In a former what artists call the broad style. She writes idiomatic, number we noticed, at some length, this very excellent picturesque English, so terse, at times, that it is hardly work. We are now glad to herald a new and more elegant continuous : you see her thoughts, as you see a landscape edition, handsomely bound in cloth, or paper, as purchasers in a thunder-storm, only by broken flashes of lightning. may prefer. The book ought to have a large sale. But we must close. It would give us pleasure, if we had Charles O'Malley. By Charles Lever. 1 vol., 8 vo. more space, to analyze thoroughly this new genius, who Philada: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.-A new edition of has, so suddenly, risen in our midst, and who, if she re- this popular novel, the best military one ever written. mains as faithful and pains-taking an artist as she has The cover is handsomely illustrated in gold, red, white, shown herself to be in " Margret Howth," will eventually and blue, adding much to the material attractiveness of be confessed to be the greatest of American novelists. The the book. Price fifty cents. volume is very handsomely printed. A Strange Story. By E. L. Bulwer. 1 vol., 8 vo. New York: Harper & Brothers.- A cheap edition of Bulwer's PARLOR AMUSEMENTS. last novel. The name is well chosen ; for the tale, though THE WAISTLE.A whistle with a string attached to it is not undistinguished by the writer's usual ability, deals to be fastened to the back of one of the company secretly so much with the improbable, if not the impossible, that it is the strangest of strange stories. There is a fashion, and without his knowledge. He is to be placed in the however, in literature, as in all things else. Just now the centre of a circle of the players, and another whistle is to supernatural is fashionable. The old days of " The Castle be shown him, which he is told to find where it is. When ofOtranto" and " The Mysteries of Udolpho" have returned, his back is turned, some one who is behind him seizes the only the supernatural element now is varied in character. whistle, blows it and drops it quickly ; he hearing it will turn around instantly, when another person must blow it The present novel will, consequently, have a large sale. again, and so keep him constantly turning around and Of all living writers, Bulwer, in spite of his affectation of about in hopes to find the.whistle which he supposes to be high art, follows most the taste of the hour. He began with " Pelham," when Byronism still lingered in society; passing from hand to hand around the circle. LITTLE WHO CAN'T DO THIS.-This is played SHE CAN wrote "The Last of the Barons," when the historical school tongs. The one who understands it places her left still had its votaries; culminated in " My Novel," after with hand on the knob of the tongs and the other one on one of stories of every-day-life had become popular ; and now exlegs; she then knocks the tongs on the floor three times, hibits his versatility, though hardly his genius, in this tale, its saying, " She can do little who can't do this." The next a sort of hotch-potch, as lawyers would say, of mesmerism, person then takes them, knocks on the floor and repeats clairvoyance, and Arabian magic. The volume is sold for the words, and if not acquainted with the play, has not the low price of twenty-five cents probably held them in the proper manner; the tongs are The Flower of the Prairie. By Gustave Aimard. 1 vol., then passed on to all of the company in turn, each one 8vo. Philada: T. B. Peterson & Brothers.-The author of trying to do it right, but few will chance to hold them exthis novel is a Frenchman, who is said to have spent many actly as the first one did. But if any are familiar with the years of his life among our North American Indians, and play, they must not tell the others until all have tried it. whose fictitious narratives, in which they figure, are de- Forfeits can be exacted of all who fail to do it correctly. clared to be as popular in France as Cooper's novels are in the United States. The story before us, which has been translated from the French, is certainly full of adventures SCIENTIFIC RECREATIONS. spiritedly told. Action, action, action is the law of the BEAUTIES OF CRYSTALLIZATION.-Dissolve alum in hot book. Messrs. Peterson & Brothers, we understand, design issuing a series of these novels, many even superior to water until no more can be dissolved in it ; place in it a "The Flower of the Prairie." The venture, we think, smooth glass rod and a stick of the same size ; next day, must be a highly successful one. The public mind is in the stick will be found covered with crystals, but the glass crystals cling the mood for novels of exciting incident. Price fifty cents. rod will be free from them: in this case, the to the rough surface of the stick, but have no hold upon The Harbinger ofHealth ; Containing Medical Prescrip- the smooth surface of the glass rod. But if the rod be tions for the human body and mind. By Andrew Jackson roughened with a file at certain intervals, and then placed Davis. 1 vol., 12 mo. New York: A. J. Davis & Co.- This in the alum and water, the crystals will adhere to the work contains many valuable suggestions in regard to rough surfaces, and leave the smooth bright and clear. avoiding disease. They are mixed up, indeed, with the Tie some threads of lamp-cotton irregularly around a peculiar ideas of the author; but it is easy to separate the copper wire or glass rod ; place it in a hot solution of blue wheat from the chaff, and the result is really worth the vitriol, strong as above, and the threads will be covered trouble. It is indisputable that health, as Mr. Davis de- with beautiful blue crystals, while the glass rod will be clares, is best secured by good food, regular exercise, and bare. the avoidance of all excesses whether of body or of mind; Bore a hole through a piece of coke, and suspend it by a in a word, as the old adage says, " an ounce of prevention string from a stick, placed across a hot solution of alum ; it is worth a pound of cure." T. B. Peterson & Brothers are will float, but, as it becomes loaded with crystals, it will the Philadelphia agents of the work. sink in the solution according to the length of the string. The National School of the Soldier. By Capt. W. N. Gas-coke has mostly a smooth, shining, and almost metallic Van Ness. 1 vol., 18 mo. New York: Carleton.- This is surface, which the crystals will avoid, while they will cling an elementary work on military tactics. It conforms to only to the most irregular and porous parts. Ifcrystals be formed on wire, they will be liable to break the army regulations, adopted and approved by the War Department, and is arranged in questions and answers. off, from the expansion and contraction of the wire by The whole volume is comprised in seventy-five pages. changes of temperature.