of axes, and the price is the same as that of an axe.

I have found no better bed than is made by having a wide hem
turned along the edges of very wide canvas. Through these hems run
slender poles, that may be used during the day in pushing a canoe
over shallow waters. The ends of the poles may rest in notches in
two logs, to hold them apart, or in crotched stakes driven into
the ground, and stayed apart by sticks lashed to them. When not in
service as a bed this cot may be used as a tarpaulin to cover the
baggage in the canoe.

E. W. PERRY.
SOUTHBRIDGE, MASS.

The Music Rack.

SOME ANECDOTES OF PAGANINI.

Nicolo Paganini was a typical violinist. He obtained a permanent
position at the court of Luca in his twenty-first year, after
remarkable success as a boy, and there composed such powerful
concertos fortnightly that Napoleon's sister, Eliza Bacciocchi,
was each time overcome when Paganini reached the harmonic sounds.
One day Paganini announced to the court that he would shortly play
a novel love-song. He accordingly played a wonderful sonata on two
strings--G and E. G represented the lady, E the man. The court was
carried away with the beauty of the piece. At the end the Princess
Eliza remarked to Paganini, "Since you have done so finely a thing
on two chords, can you make us hear something marvellous on one?"
Paganini smilingly agreed; and after some weeks, on the day of St.
Napoleon, executed a brilliant piece on the chord C, which he
entitled "Napoleone."

Paganini, the elder, was an avaricious and unnatural father. When
Nicolo's gains had amounted to twenty thousand francs the father
threatened to kill him if the whole was not given over. But the
mother was faithful, and after the father had passed away Paganini
said, "I took care of my mother--a sweet duty."

Though loaded with honors given by the Pope, the Emperor of
Austria, the King of Prussia, and others, yet the latter part of
Paganini's life was a constant struggle. He was of a delicate
make-up, and his whole being was wrapped, as it were, in his
violin. He met much opposition in his last years. A favorite
saying of his was, "One must suffer to make others feel." Schottky
affirmed that Paganini possessed a musical secret by means of
which a pupil could obtain a co