1875 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
107 
apples. I’ve got a barrel full of bad habits that I have 
been carrying around all this time. I’ve wanted to get 
them out of the garret of my head, and put them in the 
cellar, under my feet, and I've looked at it, but the job 
was too big. Now I am going to try carrying a peck at a 
time. To-morrow I’m going to take that bad temper of 
mine and pitch it into the cellar where it belongs. When¬ 
ever the anger comes 111 pitch it down quick. If I do 
this every day, I guess in this new year I can put the 
barrelful of bad temper, bad thoughts, and angry feeling 
all down. Mamma, don’t you think if 1 pray every time 
these bad feelings come, that God will help me and give 
me strength to get rid of them ? “ Yes, my dear child, 
He never turns away any who ask him, and Jesus said 
‘ Ask and it shall be given.’ After a while you can take 
a little basket in each hand, that is two or three faults, 
found out and taken down, but begin with a peck at a time 
and you will soon grow stronger and more able to con¬ 
tend against bad habits and bad manners.” Jamie went 
to sleep feeling quite happy, and in the morning when 
he got up he prayed earnestly. He had not been up an 
hour before his brother George did something that dis¬ 
pleased him, and he began to get angry. Instead of 
speaking cross to his brother, he said to himself, “here 
is this barrel already open, but God will help me to con¬ 
quer this fault; here goes down one peck from my bar¬ 
rel,” and he turned around and spoke so kindly to his 
brother that he, expecting an angry reply, wondered 
what it all meant. But we cannot follow Jamie’s at¬ 
tempts to get rid of his barrel of faults—one peck at a 
time. It need only to be said that he kept trying, and “as 
a soft answer turneth away wrath,” he so treated George 
that his temper was softened and his selfishness abf ’ ed, 
and he too began to put down his faults one peck at a 
time, and the two brothers from quarreling became lov¬ 
ing. It may be that some boy or girl who reads this can 
see that the effect of Jamie's example need not be lim¬ 
ited to his brother George, and may 1 e encouraged to 
try to empty that barrelful of bad habits, a peck at a time. 
Should Boys go 4o College? 
Farmers’ Boys and Other Boys, Editor of the 
Agriculturist — Bear Sir : — My friend Sammy and 
myself have had a great deal of talk about going to 
College. Father says, that as I am to be a farmer, 
going to College will do me no good. Sammy’s father 
is a mechanic, and says the same about his son. 
Knowing that you have been to college, and know all 
about college matters, it was agreed between ns that I 
should write to you for your opinion, as that would go a 
great ways with both our fathers. 
Very truly, Martin. 
We’ll try. For short, we would say, every boy might 
to go to College, and we came pretty near adding, every 
girl too, but we will only say that the girls ought to have 
for themselves what would be equivalent to College for 
the boys. But what is a College ? Why, it is only a high 
School, where the students go beyond what is usually 
studied in the High Schools, Academies, and Seminaries. 
The Colleges have a regular thorough course of study. 
They require a certain amount of previous advancement 
to be able to enter them, and the students go through a 
Freshman year, a Sophomore year, a Junior year, and a 
Senior year, and if they pass all the examinations, they 
receive a Diploma conferring the degree of “ Bachelor 
of Arts,” (A. B.) Usually, if they study or follow liter¬ 
ary pursuits for three years after leaving college, they 
get another degree of “ Master of Arts,” (A. M.) The 
college study is very thorough, (or ought to be,) and the 
young men are trained not only in the higher studies, 
but in writing and speaking, while the association with 
the professors (teachers) and others, all of whom are well 
educated, tends to refine and cultivate their minds. 
Most of the colleges require (and all ought to) much 
time to be spent in studying Latin, Greek, and the high¬ 
er mathematics, such as Algebra, Geometry, Trigometry, 
Calculus, etc., also Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, As¬ 
tronomy, Botany, Moral Philosophy, Moral and Political 
Economy, Logic, etc. 
But “ stop, stop,” we hear our young friends Martin 
and Sammy say. “What’s the use of all this to farmer 
boys and mechanics?”—Well, a great deal more than we 
can tell you in this short article. While these various 
branches of knowledge will do a great deal to make one 
happy in any station of life, the studying of them is of 
vastly more importance. By this we mean the training , 
the discipline of the mind one gets while digging at the 
hard studies, will be of incalculable value. The natural 
mind is like a young colt, when first put in harness. It 
jumps here and there, frets, fumes, and does little work. 
Drive it awhile in the harness with a broken horse, and 
in it time settles down to steady effective work. Boys, 
(and most men too), know how hard it is to concentrate 
their thoughts upon a subject, to take it up and careful¬ 
ly look upon all sides of it, and come to a right decision. 
The severe training of a college course gives just the 
discipline of mind that is very useful, whether one is a 
farmer, a mechanic, a merchant, or anything else. If the 
boy of 16 has 34 years to live and work in any pursuit, 
he will accomplish more in the end, if he devote 7 or 
even 10 years' to disciplining his mind and getting ready 
to w'ork effectively during the remaining 24 or 27 
years, than if he did half work during the whole 34 
years. Some folks send their “ smart boys ” to College, 
and keep their dull ones at work. This is cruel injus¬ 
tice. If Nature has done less fora boy, it is not his fault, 
and he should have all the more chance to make up nat¬ 
ural deficiencies by more severe training and develop¬ 
ment of what he has. Many years of observation lead 
us to believe that the naturally dull boys are most bene- 
fitted by college study, and on the average they make the 
most successful men. The bright boys get their lessons 
easily, and thus lose the habits of patient application to 
hard work which are developed in those of more obtuse 
natural faculties, and as a consequence the latter become 
best prepared for life’s struggles ; they are less appaled 
by difficulties, and very often come out ahead in the long 
run. We may say more on this subject another time. 
The Doctor’s Talks—Blowing 
Soap-Bubbles. 
It is time that we finished the soap-bubble talk, be¬ 
cause there are other things that some of you have asked 
about and these wait for an answer. I was to say some¬ 
thing about the beautiful colors seen upon a soap-bubble, 
and there are few things more difficult than this to ex¬ 
plain. To tell you what is known about it would make a 
very long story, and it would be so difficult to under¬ 
stand that few would read it. Still there are some things 
about it that will interest you. Did you ever see the 
image formed when sunlight passes through a three- 
sided piece of glass, such as the drops to some lamps and 
chandeliers?—This image is a beautiful sight, just a lit¬ 
tle bit of rainbow, with all its colors. By the use of a 
three-sided glass made for the purpose, called a prism. 
a large and fine spectrum , as thisbit of rainbow is named 
may be shown. The use of the prism has very plainly 
shown that the light of the sun is made up of seven differ' 
ent kinds of light. There are red, orange, yellow, green 
blue, indigo, and violet lights or rays, in common sun 
light, as can be proved by separating them by a prism, 
and by bringing all these colored lights together to form 
white light again. This breaking up of light into differ¬ 
ent colors is called decomposing it, and it can be de 
composed in many other ways than by a prism. Every 
one of you must have seen the dew-drops on the grass 
doing it in the early morning sun. You have seen a 
piece of ice in which was a minute crack, show rainbow 
colors, and there are other ways in which white light is 
split up or decomposed into its colored rays. A piece of 
window glass allows the light to pass through it without 
change, but if fine lines 
are ruled upon it with a 
diamond point, the light 
will pass through, but it 
will not be white, but 
broken up into colors. 
These lines are ruled very 
close, over 12,000 having 
been ruled to an inch. 
Various surfaces that are 
not transparent like glass, 
if they have fine lines 
ruled upon them will 
reflect rainbow colors. 
Pearl you know shows 
COLORS IN SOAP-FILM. 
these colors, and this is 
because tbe pearl is built up in minute layers, and its 
surface has exceedingly fine lines upon it; brass and 
other metal surfaces ruled with lines will reflect rainbow 
colors. Very thin films of glass give the same effect, the 
upper surface and the under surface of the thin bit of 
glass both reflect light in such a manner as to produce 
these colors. The learned men say that the colors are 
produced by “ interference,” but as that is one of the 
things that cannot be explained for reasons already men¬ 
tioned, you will be obliged to take it as a fact, until some 
time yon can learn more about it. Now, when the film 
of soap and water gets very thin, as you blow the bubble, 
it acts just like the thin glass ; its two surfaces reflect 
the light in such a way as to split it into the colored rays, 
and as yon make the film thinner and thinner, the colors 
change. A very pretty way to see the colors is with the 
f lycerine and soap mixture I told you about last month, 
’our some of this into a saucer, and then dip into it the 
edge of a small tumbler, just as you would take up a 
film of suds with your pipe-bowl when you begin a bub¬ 
ble. The mouth of the tumbler will then have a film of 
the glycerine and soap stretched across it. Hold the 
tumbler on its side and watch the film. Such beautiful 
colors as appear! and in bands as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing. The film being held upright, it is growing thinner 
at its upper part and thicker below, and as its thickness 
is constantly changing, so the colors change, and the 
charming hands, with all their glowing tints, chase one 
another down the film. At last the upper part of the 
film gets so thin that it is unable to reflect the light in. 
such a manner as to produce the colors; at the top, the 
thinnest part, grayish patches appear, and soon after 
that the whole disappears, the film has broken ! ... I 
must tell you one more thing about this curious and dif¬ 
ficult subject. By experiments with other films, scien¬ 
tific men have found out how thick a film must be to 
form the different colors, and how thick the film is when 
it stops producing them. When the bright colors cease 
and the film is gray, it is known that the soap film is less 
than Visbiooo of an inch thick! Perhaps you will think 
that in such a case we should talk about thinness rather 
than thickness. So common a thing as a soap-bubble 
can give rise to questions, which even the most learned- 
men find difficult to answer. The Doctor. 
Aunt Sue’s Piiz*le-ltox. 
ANAGRAMS. 
1. I haul time. 6. I get all: sure. 
2. Angel Ziva. 7. Mind one part. 
3. Notes ran. 8. Sort canes. 
4. Pieced love. 9. Pain out. 
5. Agile rust. 10. No crude gum. 
CONCEALED NAMES. 
(Find 10 boys’ and girls’ names in the following sentence.) 
We are all going over the bridge to-day, nutting. Lulu, 
Cyrus, Emma, and I. Emma, you can’t tell a chestnut 
from a birch, can you ? Is tiiat a sumac or a walnut tree 
by the side of that crooked, winding path ? Is that book 
a grammar, you have ? No, it is “The Coming Race,”' 
a most extraordinary affair, I dare say you have heard 
of it. Pussy Willow. 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
1. A great desert. 2. A vehicle. 3. A river in one of 
the Western States. 4. A European Cape. 5. A country 
in Europe. 6. A bay of the Gulf of Mexico. 7. A river 
in the South. 8. A European river.—The initials forma 
country, and the finals a city in the same. Halsey M. T. 
cities. 
1. Novel, a piece of furniture, and a crossing. 
2. An adverb, to make fast, and to surround. 
3. A small lake, a pronoun, and a fruit. 
4. A man’s name, the residence of many. L. W. Shipley. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMAS. 
1. I am composed of eight letters : 
My 6, 2, 4, 8, is an arti le of hardware. 
My 5, 7, 3, is sold by the million. 
My 1, 7, 3, is a man’s nickname. 
My whole is a favorite title for banks, insurance com¬ 
panies, etc. Jimmy E. 
2. I am composed of 14 letters: 
My 1, 3, 2, was a poet. 
My 11, 8, 5, 6, is used in building. 
My 4, 8,10, 9, is a kind of medicine. 
My 7, 12, 1, 13, is to lament. 
My 14, 8,1, is a kind of leather. 
My whole is a comment on scandal-mongers. Jes.. 
SQUARE WORDS. 
1. —1. A piece of earth. 2. A body of water. 3. A plant. 
4. What it sometimes costs. Ellen M. 
2. —1. Something to ride in. 2. An imaginary monster. 
3. Science. 4. An examination. Cyrus G. 
cross word. 
My first and second are both in starch, 
My third and fourth are both in March, 
My fifth and sixth are both in regale, 
My seventh and eighth are both in assail, 
My ninth and tenth are both in lumber, 
My eleventh and twelfth are both in number, 
My thirteenth you may always find in brown, 
And my whole is a statesman of great renown. 
Italian Boy. 
DECAPITATIONS. 
1. Behead a covering and leave a river. 2. Behead “ to 
wear off,” and leave value. 3. Behead a collision and 
leave to whip. 4. Behead to break and leave to be hasty. 
5. Behead darkness and leave a machine. 6. Behead a 
fish and leave an exclamation. Nip. 
pi. 
Item si het toms lebust. tey etli storn beansiltia fo 
toperdestar, dan ybgapreapin ot kate hotgin si tempertid 
ot keat lal. George H. F. 
PARAPHRASED PROVERB. 
Herb also fastened ton twice two negative superior 
animal. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE JANUARY NUMBER. 
Changed Heads.— Bear, fear, dear, gear, Lear, near, rear, 
sear, tear, year, wear, pear. 
Double Aceostic. 
A- llepp 
It- usse 
S- yracus 
A- ra 
Numerical Enigma.— Hunts¬ 
man’s Bugle. 
INDUE 
EDICT 
LUCRE 
DETER 
-o 
SQUARE 
-L 
1. s 
M 
A C 
K 
-E 
M 
E 
L O 
N 
-I) 
A 
L 
O N 
E 
-O 
C 
O 
N G 
E 
K 
N 
E E 
L 
Anagrams.— 1. Intertwine. 2. Misogymist. 3. Auditorial. 
4. Cruiser. 5. Obituaries. 6. Marshalled. 7. Schismatic. 8- 
Incongruous. 9. Forbearance. 10. Forebodingly. 
Query.— Rapidan (rapid Ann). 
Kiddle— Tbe teeth. 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to Denver C. I .. Clio Al¬ 
bert and Augusta, Eana M. L.. R. " T . M.. Italian Boy. T. 
D., Addie, J. M. Y., and Capt. John W. IV. 
Mrs. M.— You are too modest. 
Send communications for the Puzzle Box to Aunt Sue, 
Box ill, P. O., Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
