870 



YOUNG MEN'S CHKISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 



United States more than half their reservation, 

 the Government getting about 1,100,000 aci'es, 

 out of a total of about 2,000,000 acres. For the 



a cash payment of $50,000 will be put into funds 

 for the benefit of the Indians, and the annual 

 interest expended in the purchase and mainte- 



lands ceded the Indians receive $600,000, or nance of an Indian cattle herd, in giving them 

 about 55 cents an acre. Of this amount, all but irrigation ditches, schools, and other things. 



XYLOPHONE, a musical instrument com- 

 posed of strips of wood, whose sounds are deter- 

 mined by wooden hammers in the hands of the 

 performer. The name by which it is known in 

 Europe and America is derived from two Greek 

 words meaning " wood " and " to sound." It is 

 called Strohftedel or " straw fiddle " and Holz- 

 harmonica in Germany, and staccato in Italy. 

 It is of ancient origin, and is used in various 

 modifications in many countries. In the usual 

 modern instrument the strips of wood are of 

 graduated lengths and thickness, according to Ihe 

 tone desired to be produced from each, arranged 

 in regular succession from left to right, with 

 their wider surfaces uppermost. They are made 

 of ebony or other seasoned or hard woods, and 

 are held in place by two parallel lines of inter- 

 laced or knotted cord, while they rest upon slen- 

 der strips of bound straw laid horizontally for 

 their support, or they are suspended within a 

 box or frame for deeper resonance. If they are 

 pierced and strung upon the cords it is done at 

 a slight angle. The largest slip gives the lowest 

 note, and is usually not the first note of the scale, 

 but the fifth below, and the highest is three or 

 more notes above the octave. The compass of 

 the instrument can thus be varied to any extent. 

 The mallets are small sticks tipped with balls. 

 The xylophone was derived from the East, and 

 is of great antiquity. It was. known in China, 

 in Siam, and to the Hebrews and the natives 

 of Barbary, being still found in primitive use 

 at Preretown, Mombase, on the eastern coast of 

 Africa, composed of five large separate pieces 

 of wood, each thinner at one end, and laid upon 

 two strips of fresh banana wood resting on the 

 ground, and their tones are produced by strik- 



ing upon them with hollow short sticks. The 

 natives call it the marimba, and it is known by 

 this name also in Guatemala, Central America, 

 where it is frequently seven feet long, with forty 

 strips of hormego wood fastened with cords 

 tightly stretched, with hollow tubes of varying 

 length underneath them to produce more full- 

 ness of tone. The Guatemalan native player 

 varies his instrument at will by inserting pieces 

 of beeswax under the end of any piece of wood 

 that may be defective in mellowness of tone. 

 The ravat-harmonicon of Siam is the xylophone 

 of that country, and in Japan it is the mok-kine 

 instrument. The wooden strips are held with 

 cords in the same manner as in the modern in- 

 strument, but are hung upon wooden frames 

 shaped of planks, like an old-fashioned cradle for 

 an infant. The xylophone is an evolution from 

 the castanets of Asia Minor, the transition from 

 which is natural and easy. The Chinese king 

 was an upright frame with horizontal bars, from 

 which the clappers were suspended by looped 

 cord, and were struck with small mallets. The 

 instrument used by the natives of Samoa is 

 merely a movable wooden slat fastened to a 

 board, on which they beat time with two sticks. 

 The gambang ganza harmonica of Java has hol- 

 low cups of wood, or gourds, under the strips, to 

 give depth of tone. It has two minor thirds not 

 contained in the diatonic scale from third to 

 fifth, and sixth to octave. This scale is known 

 in Asia as the pentatonic scale. The latest 

 adaptation of the xylophone, called the metallo- 

 phone, has thin strips of metal on frames of 

 wood. The xylophone has been used by Lum- 

 baye's orchestra, and Saint-Saens has introduced 

 with it peculiar effects in his " Danse Macabre." 



YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIA- 

 TION. World's Conference. The twelfth 

 World's Conference of Young Men's Christian 

 Associations met in Amsterdam, Holland, Aug. 

 18. Lord Kinnaird, of London, presided at the 

 opening session, and spoke of the growth of the 

 work of the associations on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. Addresses were made by Mr. Paton, 

 of London, and other speakers, on the training 

 and development of voluntary workers. The 

 question, "How may the Secretary get Young 

 Men to enter the Work ? " was discussed by Mr. 

 Robert R. McBurney, of New York. Mr. Wishard, 

 Secretary of the College Association, gave the 

 results of his observations during a tour of three 

 years and a half in the East with reference to 

 the work of the associations, speaking particu- 

 larly of the work in Japan, and of the needs of 



India. China, and all Asia. Mr. Hyde Smith, of 

 Australia, also spoke on this branch of the sub- 

 ject. Other special topics discussed during the 

 sessions were : " The Bible in the Associations " ; 

 "The Work and Place of Secretaries"; "The 

 Young Men's Christian Association in Roman 

 Catholic Countries, and how to counteract the 

 Difficulties which prevent their Development"; 

 " The Attitude of the Association with regard to 

 Socialism " ; and " Spiritual Life in our Associa- 

 tion ; the Dangers that threaten it in our Actual 

 Development ; the Best Means of maintaining 

 and increasing it, and for constantly recruiting 

 Active and truly Converted Members." The 

 members of the conference made an excursion 

 to Nymengen on the Waal, and visited there the 

 ancient heathen temple which Charlemagne con- 

 verted into a place of Christian worship. 



