rection for one's
ambition just now, we think, for electricity is to be the motive power
of the future far more than it is now. Knights of to-day who reach their
threescore and ten in due time will see steam supplanted by it on our
railways. Sir Ralph will find Callaud cells, duplicated for strength,
the battery most used for sustained power. The arc light is the result
of frictional not chemical electricity.

W. D. S.: What is the simplest and cheapest form of electric battery
depends upon the use for which the battery is needed. Electricians use
the blue-stone for telegraph or closed-circuit work; sal-ammoniac or
Leclanche and other open-circuit batteries for electric bells and
burglar-alarms; acid batteries, such as Grenet, Bunsen, and others, for
electro-plating, and dry batteries for medical use. The cost is from
$1.50 to $5 per cell. Books on electricity are divided into subjects.
For instance, Ayrton's _Practical Electricity_ is a series of lectures
for students, $2.50, while Mayer's work, at $3.50, treats wholly of
telegraphy. Ask J. H. Bunnell & Co., 76 Cortlandt Street, N. Y., for
their catalogue, which they send free if you mention the Round Table.
Mary Newell Eaton, 197 South Lafayette Street, Grand Rapids. Mich.,
wants in-door games for persons of sixteen to twenty. She also wants to
hear from any member who has visited or who now lives in Italy or China.
She may send us the morsel she mentions.

* * * * *

Joseph H. Durant hopes we will publish a story every other week that
young artists may illustrate. We could hardly find space for one so
often, but we intend to offer some prizes for illustrations. Conditions
will be announced soon. Sir Joseph must learn to use India ink or
water-colors (black only). Pencil cannot be reproduced at all, and
crayon but poorly. John H. Campbell, Jun., 413 School Lane, Germantown,
Philadelphia, Pa., wants to receive sample copies of amateur papers, to
join corresponding clubs, and to hear from members in Germantown with a
view of forming a local Chapter.

Smith Phillips sends us some odd epitaphs from tombstones in a cemetery
at Brownsville, Pa. Such oddities are in many similar yards. It is in
this cemetery, by-the-way, that the parents of James G. Blaine are
interred. Speaking of cemeteries, can any one tell us why we use single
slabs set up at the head of the grave, while in England and France,
countries from which we borrowed most of ou