1874.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
267 
<t maw mmwm* 
The Key ol" the Bastile. 
It is likely that every boy and girl old enough to read 
knows that Mount Vernon is the name of the estate 
where Washington formerly lived; it was here that he 
died and was buried. This place, which is upon the 
Potomac River, a few miles below Washington, is visited 
by many persons who wish to see the place where the 
great general and our first President lived, and the spot 
where he is buried. The house is kept in very much the 
same condition that it was in Washington’s lifetime, and 
KEY OF THE BASTILE. 
the rooms he occupied and the furniture he used are shown 
to visitors. Among the objects shown is a large key in 
a glass case, which was sent by Lafayette to Washington 
—the key of the Bastile. How many of you know what 
the Bastile is, or rather was ? In French it is spelled 
with two l’s, and is the general name for a fortress, but 
was especially applied to a large fortress in Paris, which 
was begun as long ago as 1639, and afterwards much en¬ 
larged. It was an immense stone building, with towers 
and a great ditch running all around it, and had numer¬ 
ous cells in the towers, as well as horrible dungeons 
below ground. This place was for a long time used for 
the keeping of state prisoners. Princes and others who 
were snpposed to be dangerous to the government were 
put away here where they could do no mischief. After a 
while it became a common jail, and great numbers of 
persons suspected of being opposed to the rulers were 
confined here. When you read the history of France you 
will find that the Bastile plays an important part, and that 
many distinguished persons were imprisoned here, and 
went from it to be executed for their political belief. 
There is no sadder page in all history than that of which 
the Bastile is the center, and perhaps you will sometime 
read all about it, and learn how the passions and preju¬ 
dices of people led them to do wicked deeds. For a 
long time the very name of the Bastile was a terror. 
During one of the French revolutions, in July, 1789, the 
people destroyed the famous prison; the guards made 
but a feeble defence, and the people rushed in, liberated 
the prisoners, some of whom had been there many years, 
and one had been confined there since he was eleven 
years old. The people toppled the towers down into the 
ditch and underground dungeons, and the whole fortress 
was completely destroyed. Upon the place where this 
famous prison formerly stood there is now a monument 
erected to the memory of the patriots who fell at that 
time, which is called the Column of July. Lafayette, 
who was as you know a great friend of Washington, and 
who was always a patriot, sent to him the key of the 
terrible prison, as a memento of the triumph of the peo¬ 
ple over their wicked rulers, and the key can be seen by 
ah who visit Mount Vernon. 
Mr. Crandall’s Acrobats. 
Mr. Crandall has probably done more to amuse young 
people than any other living man. Some of you who are 
old enough to read, and doubt whether you are to be still 
classed among the boys and girls, but think you are 
almost young men and women, can remember when his 
building-blocks first came. What a treasure those build¬ 
ing-blocks were, for the things that can be made of them 
are numberless, and then, unlike all other blocks, the 
houses and other structures made of them hold together. 
These blocks have gone all over the country and to far-off 
countries; for children in Australia and South America 
are just like other children in wanting to be amused, 
and fathers and mothers everywhere wish to amuse the 
children, and it would surprise you to know how many 
far-off places have sent for the blocks. The loads upon 
loads that have been sent to different parts of this coun¬ 
try, if you could see them altogether, would make a tre¬ 
mendous pile. But Mr. Crandall was not satisfied with 
his success with the blocks, and away up in his home in 
the mountains he has been contriving other things to 
amuse children ; he has sent out blocks of various kinds, 
but at last he has hit upon something new—his Acrobats. 
Hurrah for the Acrobats 1 for they are just the funniest 
things ever made. But stop. What is an acrobat ? That 
question would puzzle more than one old person, and 
the children might as well know that it comes from a long 
Greek word meaning to walk on tiptoe ; it was first ap¬ 
plied by the French to rope-dancers, and has since been 
used for persons who perform gymnastic feats of any 
kind. As Mr. Crandall’s toys can be made to do almost 
any ridiculous thing, he has called them “Acrobats,” 
and it is just as good a name as any other. There are 
four acrobats in a box, and each one consists of a body, 
a head, two arms, and two legs. All these parts are so 
grooved and notched that they can be put together to 
suit the child’s fancy. They go together much as the 
blocks do, and, like them when put together, they hold. 
Then there are long and short grooved strips in each 
box, which allow the acrobats to be set up in all sorts of 
ways. When Mr. Crandall sent his first sample box, you 
ought to have seen how a lot of old “boys’’amused 
themselves with it. Men who are grandfathers took the 
greatest delight in putting these figures together in 
strange siiapes, and then laughing at them just as chil¬ 
dren would. Well, that is right; a man should never 
forget that he was a child once, and probably each one 
was laughing to think how his children would be pleased. 
Did not the figures illustrating these Acrobats take up so 
much room we would show them here, but the publish¬ 
ers, who have the sale of this, the best toy of the century, 
give the whole thing in the advertising pages, and we 
advise you to turn to them and learn more about these 
funny acrobats from the engravings than a long descrip¬ 
tion could tell. We think the boys and girls should hold 
Mr. Crandall in their esteem as only next to St. Nicholas. 
SttEii'ise.—Bas-relief. 
In our mention of the picture called “ Sunrise,” given 
last month, we just had room at the bottom of the page 
to say that it was from a “ beautiful bas-relief,” and 
promise to tell more about it. Probably some were puz¬ 
zled to know what a bas-relief was, and others must have 
wondered why the little girl had such strange eyes. Yet 
perhaps the eyes, if nothing else, led them to think that 
the picture was copied from a piece of sculpture in marble. 
This was really the case. One of our artists saw this 
marble work, and being pleased with it he made a copy 
of it. Besides the figures which stand by themselves, 
such as the statues and busts, sculptors make works in 
which the figures are attached to a background of marble 
or other material. These are called works in relief, or 
relievo, as the Italians call it. In high relief the fig¬ 
ures are only attached to the background here and there, 
and are in places quite free from it; in half relief, the 
figures project half-way from the background; and in low 
relief the figures stand out but a little way—Toss than 
half. The word for this in French is bas-relief (pro¬ 
nounced ba-relief), and is perhaps more generally used 
than the English bass-relief. 
- - .- HB -- 
Bad Writers. 
A great many stories are told about the mistakes of 
printers, and there are some ridiculous ones that may 
happen by the use of a wrong letter, but the printers 
would not make so many blunders if those who wrote 
for them wrote more plainly. Many noted -writers have 
been celebrated for their horrid hand. The bad writing 
of the eminent lawyer, Rufus Choate, has often been 
mentioned as the worst possible ; some one said that the 
word “what” as he wrote it, “looked like a small grid¬ 
iron struck by lightning.” One of the widely read Eng¬ 
lish journals not long ago had an article on “ Wretched 
Writers,” which was mainly devoted to showing the 
mistakes made by Horace Greeley, as if there were not 
abundant examples of bad writing in England. It is 
true that Mr. Greeley would never have succeeded as a 
writing-master. We have several pieces of his writing 
which are not so difficult to make out when one gets the 
hang of it and knows that he made s , a and r all alike, 
| as he did 6, p and h. This English journal gives an 
j instance of his bad writing that we had not seen be¬ 
fore. Mr. Greeley was invited to attend a press meeting 
in a Western state, and sent a letter declining to come. 
Those who invited him studied over his answer, and this 
is what they made out of it: “I have hominy, carrots 
and railroad ties more than I could move with eight 
steers. If eels are blighted, dig them early. Any in¬ 
sinuation that brick ovens are dangerous to hams gives 
me the horrors.” What he did write was: “I find so 
many cares and duties pressing on me, that, with the 
weight of years, I feel obliged to decline any invitation 
that takes me over a day’s journey from home.” 
It does not seem possible for every one to learn to 
write an elegant hand, but it is possible for every boy 
and girl to write a plain hand that can be read without 
difficulty. The most troublesome letters that come to 
this office are those of persons who use flourishes, and 
though the written page as a whole presents a fine ap¬ 
pearance, yet it is more difficult to read than the poorest 
cramped school-boy hand. It very often happens that 
we can read every part of a letter but the most impor¬ 
tant—the signature. While you are young, get in the 
way of writing your name so plainly that there can be 
no doubt of a single letter in it. It may save yourself 
and others much trouble in after life. 
Aunt Sue’s Fuzzle-Box. 
ANAGRAMS. 
1. I undid vial. 
2. Let M. audit. 
3. O hem her rag. 
4. She pops the corn. 
5. Train my mole. 
6. Pet cider. 
7. Adored love. 
8. Is Peter a Piet f 
9. Crimp feet. 
10. Clide Inn. 
CONCEALED SQUARE-WORD. 
I saw him stab and kill a buffiilo, entirely for sport, 
and did “ not enter his name on my list of friends; ” 
indeed, I never wish to see him again. Elkcim. 
pi. 
Noe tenleg drow hatt I amy kapes, 
Neo dink dan volgin edde, 
Amy—ought a riflet ropo adn kewa— 
Overp ikle a nity edes ; 
Dan how nac letl thaw dogo yam gnirps 
Morf chus a revy tillet night? J. C. C. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of eleven letters. 
My 1, 4, 2, 5 is a planet. 
My 6, 11, 10, 9 is pretty poor when it blows nobody 
any good ! 
My 8, 7,1 is an article of food. 
My 10,11, 3, 9 is a sort of avenue. 
My whole is an American river. H. S. B. 
CROSS-WORD. 
My first is in father but not in son. 
My next is in bread but not in bun. 
My third is in purchase but not in buy. 
My fourth is in pudding but not in pie. 
My fifth is in strike but not in pound. 
My sixth is in oval but not in round. 
My seventh is in vigor but not in health. 
My eighth is in money but not in wealth. 
Select the right letter from every word, 
And you’ll find a name you have often heard. 
H. L. Morton. 
DIAMOND PUZZLE. 
1. Part of a day. 
2. A vehicle. 
3. To mark. 
4. A geometrical figure. 
5. A disease. 
6. A girl’s name. 
7. Part of the hand. 
PATCHWORK. 
Take y 2 of a hand, 1 / i of a fragment, '/ 5 of a third, 
V 2 of a lamb, and make an amusing puzzle of the whole. 
CHARADE. 
My first, a kind of seed 
That in my whole’s contained; 
My next is sharp indeed, 
Its wound with blood’s soon stained. 
My whole is ripe in fall, 
Its taste delicious quite, 
In shape 'tis like a ball, 
With pulp both soft and white. Henrt. 
— --• -—>3 o o--- —- 
ANSWERS TO TUZZLES IN THE MAY NUMBER. 
Anagrams.— 1. Furtherance. 2. Kalsomine. 3. Miso- 
gamist. 4. Conventional. 5. Centuries. 6. Vocabulary. 
7. Implication. 8. Beleaguers. 9. Elucidation. 10. 
Throughout. 
Pi.—The snow-drifts, which have lain so long 
Haunting the hidden rocks, 
Like guilty ghosts have slipped away, 
Unseen, into the brooks. 
