WEST NYACK.

You cannot make an induction coil save at considerable expense, and even
then it is not as good as the one you may buy for less money. Apply to
any dealer in electrical supplies.

A blow-pipe is simply a small pipe or tube a few inches long and bent at
a right angle very near one end. Insert one end in your mouth, the bent
end in a gas or even lamp flame, and blow gently. The effect is a flame
many times hotter than the still flame.

You can make a telegraph key. Make a walnut or oak base four by eight
inches. Erect two uprights in the centre, one inch apart and two inches
high. Put between them a wood lever six inches long. In one end of the
lever insert a common screw, and from the base raise a metal contact--a
common nail will do--about two inches back of the uprights. Any metal
surface, as two brass buttons, will do for the screw and nail to "click"
against, a hand-pin may be made from the end of a common spool. This
key, of a good pattern, may be bought for $2, in brass. You can get
along without a "sounder." Get some practical operator to show you about
the alphabet. Do not try to learn it from instruction books. If you do
you will be sure to learn at the same time many faults. We want good
riddles--new, not old ones.

* * * * *

Costa Rican Country Life.

Costa Rica, or, translated into English, "rich coast," is the most
progressive of the Central American republics. The people are very
home-staying, that is, they do not like to travel, as do the
English and Americans. They all seem to like their country, and
rightly too, for there are few prettier lands or more delightful
climates. It is very mountainous, but not many very high peaks.
All the way from the port at Limon to San Jose, the capital, there
is grand scenery. Passing along on the train up a steep grade one
looks back and wonders how the road-builders ever got up. In some
places along on the mountain-sides, as the train passes, you can
pick ferns out of one window and out of the other can see the
valley far below, with little houses that look as if built for
dolls. In some of these places it is very dangerous, and the train
has to go very slowly.

Arriving in San Jose and just leaving the station you can see the
city lying below you. A little to the left, and at about the
middle, you can see the large round dome of