THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
181 
A more ornate way of adapting the 
:same idea would be to add to the binding 
of brown paper a strip of plush or velvet 
■entirely hiding it, and put on after the 
paper is dry with a touch of glue or bind- 
along each edge of the brown i)aper, 
the velvet or plush being put on when the 
.adhesive substance is nearly dry or 
"tacky," as it is technically called. For 
some subjects the velvet margin might be 
wider, and touch the line of tlie drawing 
or photograph itself with good effect. 
To those who live in our larger towns a 
constant opportunity of picking u[) suit- 
able engravings presents itself, as almost 
any old bookstall has some part of an 
illustrated magazine or frontispiece of an 
old and valueless book that is well worth 
.securing and utilizing in the way sug- 
gested. It may not be an early Durer, a 
noted Rembrandt, or a Meryan in a tine 
state, that is to be found ; but [)ictures 
less valuable, in a money if not an art 
sense, may often be met witli, I came 
across a copy of Flaxman's " Eight Illus- 
trations to the Lord's Prayer" (an early 
set), for a few cents ; and a nice Barto- 
iozzi or bits of Claude's "L'ber Studio- 
rum " are often to be bought (out of the 
commou run of tourists), very cheaply. 
And now, in concluding this article, as 
I ruumy eye over it and wonder if I have 
not said too mucli in praise of my idea, I 
look up and see a long, low^ gallery, hung 
with a greenish-grey paper, wit h here and 
there a shelf of blue and white pottery or 
a few Dutch tiles catching the light". I 
see that half its charm lies in the pictures 
that I liave framed in the " simi)le In'own 
paper," and feel that "The Sappho," 
■"Sunflowers " and " Quiet Counsellors " 
of Tadema, Arthur Mooi'e's "Pansies," 
Leighton's " Daphije[)horici,," Burne- 
Jones's "Studies," and a. Meryan (" Notre 
Dame "), are a true source of beauty and 
pleasui-e ; for tliat, if it had entailed the 
<;ost of some thirty frames of even the 
simplest sort of wood, would have been 
■sadly but of necessity foregone; and so 
with the proof positive so near, I offer no 
-apologies for my much-lauded method, 
but hope that many a reader of this will 
follow the example, and thank me in- 
wardly for suggesting this " Arrangement 
In Brown Paper." 
A New Boy." 
BY AN OLD BOY. 
HEEE is a real and an undeni- 
able awkwardness in most new 
positions, but of all new posi- 
^ tions, that of the " new boy " in 
a public school is ]>robably the worst. A 
lad fresh from home and the gentle, re- 
iined society of mother and sisters, is 
turned loose in a large school-room or 
playground, amongst a noisy, callous 
throng, of all sorts and sizes, of the genus 
school-boy. It is an ordeal from which 
the bravest may instinctively shrink — 
and suffer small reproach in consequence. 
In a long life many very momentous 
changes are sure to occur, but in dozens 
of cases this hrst will hold its own in the 
memory right to the very last. It will 
stand by itself, with its sharp outlines of 
loneliness, of isolation, of painful ditti- 
dence, unsoftened by any lapse of time. 
The most trivial circumstances and acces- 
sories of the starting introduction to a 
crowded class-room will often be stamped 
indelibly upon a lad's brain. The ink- 
stained desk in one corner, the battered 
books in another, will reappear years 
after, kindled into life by some like sur- 
roundings—just as the scent of a simple 
faded flower will sometimes bring back 
to the vision a whole landscape belong- 
ing to a long-past holiday trip. 
Amongst future schoolfellows first ac- 
quaintances are to a great extent deci- 
sive. Boys are usually impulsive ani- 
mals ; they quickly rush to conclusions 
respecting the new-comer, and, having 
reached them, are not easily persuaded 
to retrace their steps. What they see— 
or imagine they see, which practically 
comes to much the same thing — at the 
outset colors their views right along the 
course. Not seldom a nickname is be- 
stowed on the first day of a boy's school 
career, which clings to him to the final 
one. Any oddity of his personal appear- 
ance, dress, or manners will be seized 
upon Avith avidity, canvassed by the 
whole group, and emphasized until it 
Ijecomes ludicrous, whether it was so be- 
fore or not. 
Even, sometimes— and one grieves to 
write it— deformities of physique, over 
which the new boy has certainly no con- 
trol, and for which he has no responsi- 
bility, will be turned into weapons of 
bitter humiliation. Boys have sca.nt pity 
as a class, however it 'may be individu- 
ally. Being sturdy and whole of limb 
themselves, they lack that fellow-feeling 
with suffering and infirmity which is the 
foundation of genuine sympathy. It is 
not always so, of course; there are ])leas- 
ant exceptions to be found even in schools 
dominated by the bad moral influence of 
a Mr. Creakle. But the exceptions, we 
fear, once again prove the rule. 
The rattle of the coach-wheels has died 
away u|)on the gravel walk without, and, 
with the echo tijereof fainter and fainter, 
has grown our new boy's courage. But 
his wits are soon fetched back from wool- 
gathering. The babble of voices that at 
ilrst has been vague and indistinct in his 
ears resolves itself into a very tenq^est of 
qiK^stions, some bona fide, some satirical; 
some kindly, some ' threatening ; some 
