POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



8S7 



these games not subordiaated to such ex- 

 clusively polite practice that the dress of 

 the players is even one of the chief requi- 

 sites to the successful conduct of the game. 

 The amusement is captured by the dress- 

 makers and dudes, so that even this means 

 of exercise without flannel suits and rubber- 

 soled shoes is not regarded as permissible. 

 As in dancing, the accessories become so 

 elaborate and costly, and beset with so many 

 formalities, that physical recreation is not 

 expected from it. The game merely answers 

 as a scheme to bring people together who 

 are hankering for some opportunity to be 

 near each other, and exchange the senti- 

 mental platitudes of unsatisfied and instinct- 

 ive social emotions. If Gustave and Regi- 

 na, at fifteen years of age, are to be im- 

 proved by scurrying about in the manner 

 and time of the modern waltz, then 'twere 

 well that the latter were dressed so as to 

 give her freedom of limbs and lungs, and 

 the recreation given in the afternoon, so 

 that regular sleep at proper time may allow 

 that recuperation of energy and nourish- 

 ment of wasted tissue consequent upon ex- 

 ertion. As Wesley remarked in apology 

 for the liveliness of Methodist singing, 'It 

 is not right for the devil to have all the best 

 tunes,' so it may he said of dancing, that 

 recreative means should not be monopo- 

 lized by the social usages and occasions 

 where circumstances exclude the greatest 

 benefit from the exercise, and sometimes 

 induce positively injurious consequences." 



What is a Glacier ?— The Philosophical 

 Society of Washington, some months ago, 

 had a symposium on the question "What is 

 a Glacier? " Mr. I. C. Russell, taking both 

 the Alpine and continental types into con- 

 sideration, would define a glacier as an ice- 

 body, originating from the consolidation of 

 snow in regions where the secular accumu- 

 lation exceeds the loss by melting and evapo- 

 ration, or above the snow-line, and flowing 

 to regions where loss exceeds supply, or be- 

 low the snow-line. Mr. S. F. Emmons de- 

 scribed a glacier as a river of ice, possessed, 

 like the aqueous river, of movement and plas- 

 ticity. The neve field is the reservoir from 

 which it derives not only its supply of ice, 

 but the impulse which gives it its first move- 

 ment. Mr. W. J. McGee held that the phe- 



nomena of glacier ice and neve ice appear to 

 belong to a graduating series ; and in conse- 

 quence the two phases can only be arbitra- 

 rily discriminated. Mr. W. H. Dall defined 

 a glacier as a mass of ice with definite lat- 

 eral limits, with motion in a definite direc- 

 tion, and originating from the compacting 

 of snow by pressure. Mr. T. C. Chamber- 

 lin, disclaiming attempts to give a rigorous 

 definition, thought the better distinction be- 

 tween neve and glacier was genetic. There 

 is an area of growth and an area of waste 

 in every glacier. Superficially the area of 

 growth coincides with the neve ; the area of 

 waste with the glacier proper. Mr. C. E. 

 Button said there was little difficulty in 

 recognizing a glacier when all those feat- 

 ures that characterize it are present, and 

 where the conditions are of the ordinary na- 

 ture ; but exceptional cases arise to make 

 an exact definition impracticable. 



Tlie Beauty of Old Wronglit-Iroii Work. 



— Mr. J. Starkie Gardner has observed, in a 

 Society of Arts lecture on " Wrought-Iron," 

 that old iron-work possesses interest and at- 

 tractions which few examples of modem 

 work can equal. This is partly because, esti- 

 mating by the eye and working his scrolls 

 by hand, the workman "produced an irregu- 

 larity and play in even the most monotonous 

 design which is artistically charming to us, 

 but was perhaps even a source of chagrin 

 to him." The modern smith works in a dif- 

 ferent way, and turns out uniform rods and 

 scrolls, while he considers any irregularity 

 a sign of bad smithing. The scarcity of 

 straight bars among the oldest examples 

 was probably due to the fact that it was ex- 

 tremely hard to handle a long bar and beat 

 it out perfectly true with mathematically ex- 

 act and sharp angles. Another element of 

 artistic superiority in the older work lay in 

 the fact that it was intrusted only to per- 

 sons who had a special aptitude ; and, if 

 such a person were not forthcoming, the 

 work was either not executed, or was made 

 in the simplest form ; while, if he were at 

 hand, the details of the design were left to 

 his fancy, and were, therefore, well within 

 his own powers. It was the existence of 

 the skilled smith that created the demand, 

 rather than the demand that created the 

 smith ; and it seems a reasonable inference 



