August 21, 1875. 
300 
f ' 
b 
LiSSARY TABLE. 
Harper’s for SEPXEirBER. — Contents; Gloucester 
and Cape Ann (illustrated); A Dream of Fair 'Weather; 
The Mountains (illustrated); The South Kensington 
Museum; The Colonel; The 'Yello-w- Hammer’s Nest, 
(illustrated); Recent English Caricature continued; Art’s 
Exchange; The Tournament of the Middle Ages; The 
Song of Deborah and Barak, illustrated; The Stowe 
Age in Europe (illustrated), continued; Grandpa Der- 
ringer’s Will; The First Centurj' of the Republic (mone- 
tary development) ; Garth; A Shopper by Proxy; To a 
Butterfly; The Wit and Wisdom of the Haytians (con- 
tinued); Back Windows; Can we Speak English; Easy 
Chair, etc. Altogether a full and most complete num- 
ber. There is no best where all are good. Priums inter 
pares is the only form of commendation. The pen and 
pencil of Porte Crayon have always had a great charm 
for us, while the South Kensington museum in its 
quality of art popularization is no less precious. No 
article but is heav}^ with matter, yet nothing but is light 
enough after its kind for a summer afternoon’s reading. 
— EmeriluH. 
The Galaxy for September, continues “Dear Lad}* 
Disdain,” and “Leah,” both of which maintain their 
interest. “ Leah,” indeed, is perhaps the best storj- 
from the pen of its authoress, who, if she does not plunge 
her heroes and heroines into the depths that delight 
Ouida and Jliss Braddon, yet walks perilously near the 
brink of terrible temptations, even if she extricates them 
dexterously. The new pieces are: “Through Utah,” a 
.sketch of Far Western travel. “ Sherman’s Memoirs,” 
the first chapter of what promises to be a length}' re- 
view of the famous book. “ A Peculiar Princess” is a 
piquant title, but nothing near so piquant as the very 
clever and very eccentric woman of whom it is an 
analytic rather than a biographic sketch. Madame 
R;itazzi, nee Marie Bonaparte AVyse, a compound of 
genius, beauty and flagrant defiance of social proprieties 
wlio has never been exceeded. Junius Henry Browne 
has made one of his best articles out of this extraordi- 
narj' woman — “ A Slight Misunderstanding.” “French 
Plays,” by Albert Rhodes, who affects French subjects 
as the themes of his articles, and of whom we have 
more than once observed he is French as a Frenchman, 
and has caught the lightness of touch so peculiar to 
French critical literature. “ Summer Days in London,” 
by Lucy C. White, a pretty notice which shows us the 
great city under another guise than its customary murky 
vail of smoke and fog. It is a good enough place to 
live in is London, and strange as it may sound to butter- 
fly tourists there are those who like London better than 
Paris. “ Mr. Tennyson’s Drama,” another review of a 
subject which will bear writing about. “The Spelling 
of the Future,” by Richard Grant White, introduces a 
topic that occupies more or less attention from every 
thinking writer. Mr. White sets his face against the 
policy, not the necessity, of change on the ground of 
general inconvenience, an argument which will apply 
with equal force to the maintenance of any other vested 
wrong. Our English language is perhaps the noblest 
the world has seen in its power of expressing compact 
thought, or clothing noble ideas in majestic vesture; 
but its exceptions, irregularities and incongruities are a 
stumbling block. It certainly would be a Herculean 
task to remodel its orthograpii}’, but it would be a labor 
worthy of the god. 
Lippiscott’s, for September, comes to us full of read- 
able matter, short and piquant, as befits the season. 
Contents jire “ Mose Underwood,” an episode of pioneer 
life simply told and possibly true, as it purports to be. 
“Glimpses of Polynesia.” “ The Atonement of Learn 
Dundas,” the first of a new story. “ Our Architectural 
Future,” a short but suggestive article on American 
styles of building, in which the author insists that archi- 
tecture has relation to the uses of the structure, the 
habits of the people and the conditions of the climate; 
and that America having a right to an architecture of 
her own, there is no good reason for Mansard roofs or 
other styles in building wherein congruity is sacrificed 
to sensation and eccentricity takes the place of fitness. 
“ The Comrades,” a sympathetic novellette, by Sarah 
W. Kellogg. “ A Rococo Love Story,” a bit of litera- 
ture ftom the days of Buhl and Marqueterie, cleverly 
written by Mrs. Wister. “The Hospice of the Great 
St. Bernard,” an item of Alpine travel, not new but 
pleasant. “A Sawdust Fairy,” one of Charles W. Stod- 
dard’s clever life sketches. “The Mother of Ba’tiste,” 
an Indian tale of a child lost and found. “ A Prefect 
and Prefecture in Sicily,” by T. A. Trollope. “ Smith- 
ers,” a curious bit of revolutionary history. “SVith a 
good miscellany; altogether lively and readable. 
“Care of the Sick;” “Accidexts and Emer- 
gencies.” — These are the titles of two little books 
neatly got up and published by the Mutual Life In- 
surance Co. of New York, one of the largest and most 
succe.ssful companies in the world. One of the best of 
our recent jokes tells us how an insurance agent 
“fetched” a man whom he had been after for a long 
time to insure his life, by pointing out to him that as a 
member of the Peace Society he was bound to suiiport 
an institution that was opposed to war, tumult, blood- 
shed or violence in any shape or on any pretence. Just 
so. Where can you find a man who has a direct interest 
in the preservation of health or the prolongation of 
human life equal to your insurance man? The longer 
you live the better for him; the healthier you are the 
surer , he is of his premiums. You are an annuity to 
him; and with this make-weight added, that the more 
you pay the better it is for your wife and children at 
last. So that the joke, good as it is, is all the better 
for being true. Here we have the great insurance office 
filling the role of a Board of Health, or rather half a 
dozen Boards of Health, with this difference, that the 
officials act by pain and penalty, the insurance philan- 
thropist by suasion and personal gain. It is a pleasant 
thing for mankind when love of money takes the form 
of doing good. We sow thistles and reap figs. For the 
little books themselves, they are sound, practical ad- 
vice, within the understanding of the simple, on subjects 
that come home to every man, sleeping or waking, at a 
feast or on a journey. We don’t know if the}' are for 
gratuitous distribution; but if they are, it enhances 
their value, and the axiom that what we get for nothing 
is worth little is an untrue saying for this once. 
The Westminster Beviete, for July, Leonard Scott 
Publishing Co., New York. Contents: 1. “Sunday 
and Lent;” 2. “Macready’s Reminiscences;” “ Allo- 
tropic Christianity;” 4. “ The Pacific Islanders’ Protec- 
tion Bill;” 5. “ Education in Prussia and England;” 
6. “ The Guiewar of Baroda;” 7. “ House Ventilation 
and Warming;” 8. “The Evidences -of Design in Na- 
ture;” “ Contemporary Literature.” -Vrticlel, beginning 
with Lent, maintains that there are no valid ecclesiasti- 
cal reasons for observing it, traces its history “ in the 
early Christian Church and in the time of the Reforma- 
tion,” and refers to such of the various practices and 
ceremonies connected with it as are likely to prove in- 
teresting points of contrast between the past and present; 
and then discusses the nature of its authority, and the 
degree of its obligation. Articles. “When a gas as- 
sumes a form so far differing from its normal form as 
to be practically a distinct gas, it is called by chemists 
allotropic. Thus ozone is allotropic oxygen. Now, as 
ozone differs from oxygen, so does Jlr. Haweis’ Chris- 
tianity differ from the Christianity of the New Testa- 
ment. Hence we have ventured to give to the religious 
system set forth by Mr. Haweis the name of Allotropic 
Christianity.” Article 4 relates to the slave trade now 
practiced among the natives of the South Sea Islands. 
Article C. The Guiewar, an Indian potentate, having 
fallen into lawless practices in regard to his own sub- 
jects, and been remonstrated with by the Briti.sh govern- 
ment, is supposed to have instigated an attempt to 
poison Colonel Phayre, the British resident at his 
court. The Anglo-Indian administration is severely 
criticised- Article 8. This daring article reviews the 
evidences of design in nature, dwelling more particularly 
on the late Stuart Mill’s proposition that everything is 
imperfect and insufficient. The reviews under Con- 
temporary Literature are as full as usual. 
Oliver Optic’s for August, comes late, but better late 
than not at all. This juvenile veteran is as attractive as 
ever. O. O. opens with a continuation of “ Going West; 
or. The Perils of a Poor Boy.” “ Nature’s Scholar,” an 
artistic story for girls; illustrated by Miss Humphrey. 
“Brought to the Front; illustrated by Frank ^lerrill. 
Conclusion of “The Great Bonanza.” Edward Dussea- 
ult, who has spent nineteen years in Africa, begins 
“ Reminiscences of West African Life.” “What I know 
about the Tower of Babel,” by Mrs. Edward Ashley 
Walker. “ La Belleza, the Spanish Pirate,” by the late 
N S. Dodge. “ Something about oysters.” “The Mad 
Mare of Mt. Carmel,” and other matters all keep up the 
tone of the magazine and make it profitable to the young 
and pleasant for the old. 
Chicago. — There was a prodigious exodus of men, 
dogs and guns on the ICth, after prairie hens 
Shooting oil the Wing. 
New York, August 9. 
Editor Rod and Gun: 
“ Recapper” has added another to his many interest- 
ing letters in the columns of the Rod and Gun, and 
everyone, especially every young lover of the manly 
art of shooting on the wing, can profit by it. He has 
given every! liing plain and correct, and it is only about 
the velocity of shot, respecting the distance to be 
aimed in front of a bird when flying crossways, where 
Hike to make a few remarks: In a recent number of 
the Rod and Gun, is an article about the velocity of 
shot, and here it says, what “Recapper” also confirms, 
that from ten to fifteen feet is the correct distance to be 
aimed in front of a duck making sixty miles per hour, 
when flying across at about forty yards distance. This, 
I think, is wrong, and I will try to give my reasons 
why. 
Although it is a fact that the shot uses so much time 
in reaching an object at forty yards that it will hit from 
ten to fifteen feet behind the spot where aimed at, when 
the object is moving at about sixty miles per hour, it is 
this only when the gun is stopped the instant, when dis- 
charged, or when the gun is resting, while discharged, 
and the object at which it is aimed is moving at such a 
velocity, that this statement may be called correct. Tliis 
I had myself proved once on the Hackensack River, 
while shooting for ducks. Sitting behind my blinds, I 
noticed two shelldrakes coming directly towards me, 
about sixty yards high. I waited till they were nearly 
horizontally over me, then aimed at the first duck, but 
before I could pull was bent over so far baekwards 
that the gun was checked the moment of discharge. I 
was sure I had covered the first bird well when I pulled, 
but see I killed the last one, which was about, I should 
judge, eight to ten of its own length — say fifteen feet 
behind the first. They were going very fast , probably 
more than sixty miles per hour, and I used a wire car- 
tridge to the best of my knowledge. But this sititation 
does not happen often, and when a man shouts without 
his movements being hindered, I think about the bird’s 
own length, at game birds, is the best distance to hold 
in front. In strong, contrary winds, the utmost I aim 
ahead is from one and one-half to two feet, at long 
shots. At .quail, snipes or cock.s, I mostly kill my birds, 
when having a dead aim, or say about one-half foot in 
front of them when flying sideways, but I always follow 
the bird while I jmll. IVhen the gun is moving, while it 
is discharged, the shot is moving in the direction the 
gun is while on the way to its destination. When a 
man, standing on a moving train, throw’s a rifle ball or 
another heavy object which is not effected by the pres- 
sure of the air, horizontally up, it will move not only 
directly up or down, but also in the direction the train 
mores, and will drop about on the man again that threw 
it up. In thick places, as by summer cock shooting, I 
often do not see my bird fall, as I always aim in front 
of them, not being able to follow them with eye nor 
gun, and as you sometimes only get a glimpse at a bird, 
experience can only teach the shooter how to aim. All 
is according to whether you can follow the direction the 
bird is going, by moving your gun, or whether you must 
shoot probably ten or fifteen feet ahead in the direction 
the bird has gone, as you cannot follow it with your 
gun. I shall liowevcr, aim three times the di.stance in 
front of the moving object, when the gun cannot be 
moved in the same direction, as when I can follow it 
with the gun while I fire. 
There is of course a difference in velocity between 
coarse and fine .shot, and in case fine shot is fired at a 
duck, etc., flying fast at about thirty or forty yards, a 
little larger space should be allowed than when shoot- 
ing with coarse shot and a heavy charge of powder 
Justus. 
The Rocky Mountain resort.s are being well patron- 
ized this season, and parties returning from the Parks 
report game as very plentiful, and fishing excellent. 
Parties going out there for fall hunting can start by the 
last of this month or the first of next, and get some good 
chicken shooting at way stations in Missouri and Kansas. 
A party from Worcester, Mass., is going to Iowa 
for chicken shooting the first of September, on the line 
of the Chicago and North Western Railroad. 
A PARTY from New Haven, Conn., is talked of to start 
late in September for the Plains and Rocky ilountains 
to try their hands at buffalo, coyotes, bear and deer. 
The Chicago and Northwestern Railroad reaches the 
best chicken shooting in Iowa, and sportsmen going 
that way will not be charged anything for their dogs. 
