nothing but a
handful of waste paper.

No coin had been deposited in the Treasury for the bills that were
issued, and so they had no value whatever.

You can see how very necessary it is that we should have vaults bulging
with money if our business is to go on satisfactorily.

* * * * *

The school-ship _St. Mary's_ has just started off for her summer cruise.

This school-ship is kept by the City of New York for the purpose of
teaching boys how to become sailors.

The vessel is under the control of the Board of Education, and only boys
of the best character are received on board.

If by chance a bad boy finds his way on to the _St. Mary's_, he is
dismissed the moment his evil ways show themselves.

The youths who are admitted to the school must be between the ages of
sixteen and twenty, and they must show a very decided taste for a
sailor's life.

The course of instruction takes two years, and during that time each boy
must pay $30 for the cost of his uniform and bedding.

In the winter the ship lies alongside the pier at the foot of
Twenty-eighth Street and East River, and there the boys are taught the
art of navigation and all the seamanship they can learn before they go
to sea.

As soon as the spring sets in, the _St. Mary's_ is towed over to a
suitable harbor in Long Island, and there the boys are thoroughly
drilled in the furling and unfurling of sails, and in all the practical
knowledge that will enable them to handle the ship when she puts to
sea.

When all is ready, she starts off on a cruise which lasts till Fall, and
returns to her pier in October.

Arrived in dock, the graduation exercises are held; and the graduates
are assigned to such ships of the merchant navy as are in need of them.

This year there are eighty-nine scholars on board the _St. Mary's_. It
is the intention of Lieutenant-Commander Reeder, who is in command of
the vessel, to sail across the Atlantic to Fayal, Lisbon, Gibraltar, and
Madeira, before he brings his ship back to winter quarters.

It is said that the young sailors who are turned out of this nautical
school are in great demand, and have no difficulty in finding good
berths as soon as they have graduated.

* * * * *

A new torpedo-boat, the _Holland_, has just been launched at
Elizabethport, N.J.

There has been a good deal of mystery all winter about the building of
this boat.

Some said she was