18 THE ACORN Miscellaneous A Russian, J. de Schokalski, has found ice formations at the bottoms of rivers and lakes in European, Russia, Siberia and Turkestan. In Lake Ladoga, about 25 miles from St. Petersburg-, he observed an ice formation which at times was three feet thick. This bottom ice, he reported, is a very different formation from the surface ice. It is made up of fiat crystals which are connected in such a way as to make the mass very porous. Layers of this ice become detached and rise to the surface. These floating-pieces are like flat plates, about one half inch thick and one square yard surface; and are formed of flat crystals of about two inches width, loosely joined together at different angles. Some harps have been found in Egyptian tombs the strings of which are intact, and give forth distinct sounds after an estimated silence of 3000 years. A New Wireless Telephone The Paris Journals report that M. Malche, a well known inventor, has made a sensational discovery in the field of wireless telephony. His new apparatus consists of two posts which are placed in his premises. Each post consists of a telephone, battery, a special form of induction coil and a frame which is formed by a series of insulated wires. One post is placed in a garden and the other in a room in the building some distance off, about 100 feet, and several walls, doors and windows came between the posts. Conversation can be carried on easily, and the sound is clear. The inventor started five years ago to solve this question. At the Chateau of Marchais, belonging to the Prince of Monaco, he made experiments using the earth as a conductor, and these were successful at a distance of two miles. One year later he was able to communicate between Toulon and Ajaccio in Corsica, over the sea at 180 miles distance, using the sea as a conductor for the waves. These experiments were kept secret, however. As the new apparatus works without the use of ground, the results are more important. He expects to increase the distance indefinitely by giving more power to the apparatus which is only in its first stages. Submarine boats could use the system to good advantage. In one of his newspaper letters Bill Nye used a verse written by Edmund Vance Cook, without giving the author the credit for it. Mr. Cook, holding his indignation in check, wrote the following: Dear Mr. Nye: As an admirer of American literature, I have been interested in your young and promising career, and pleased at the richly deserved recognition it has been accorded. I note that THE ACORN 19 you drop accasionally into verse, also that a few days ago you dropped into some of mine. I felt flattered yet troubled. For, as I said, I am interested in your youthful efforts and do not want to see your literary life blighted in its bud. Are you not, in using my verses without blaming me for them, laying yourself open to the awful danger of being accused of writing them yourself?" When a dog snaps at a fly that has been fooling around him four or five hours and missed it, he feels just like a girl who pours the full tide of her affections over a young man and suddenly discovers that it won't soak in. Andrews Bazar. Innocence finds not near so much protection as guilt. Roche Foucault. Blessed Christmas Day Oh blessed day which giv'st the eternal lie To self, and sense, and all the brute within; O come to us amid this war of life; To hall and hovel come! to all who toil In senate, shop, or study! and to those Ill-warned and sorely tempted Come to them, blest and blessing, Christmas Day! Tell them once more the tale of Bethlehem, The kneeling shepherds, and the Babe Divine, And keep them men indeed fair Christmas Day! Charles Kingsley. Sleep Holy Babe Sleep, Holy Babe, Upon Thy mothers breast; Great Lord of earth and sea and sky, How sweet it is to see Thee lie In such a place of rest. Sleep, Holy Babe, O take thy brief repose Too quickly will Thy slumbers break And Thou to lengthened pains awake That death alone can close. Caswell.