OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2671, 24 May 1905, Page 78

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS COLUMN.

FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. [Conducted by Magistee, to whom all communications must be addressed.] THE SILHOUETTE CLUB. The evenings are now getting long, and perhaps some of you are at times hard up for some amusement. Ping-pong scorns dead, and I am told that already there is a "slump" in "Pit," lively, rowdy game though it is. Suppose you try an American idea. It is quieter, cannot be played as a game, but is full of interest. After you have made a collection of silhouette pictures you might reduce them in size, if you can, to say the area of a post card or less, not necessarily exact in d-etail 5 but retaining characteristics. Pcrj haps the Witness editor will find room for a page of them. At anyrate, try the suggestion on a large scale. It wouldn't be I a bad idea to organise a club to give a public exhibition for some charitable I object. j Her© is the description as taken from the Youth's Companion : — The Silhouette Club. By John Swain. " How many boys have formed reading clubs or other societies,'' seciured ' dens,' and then been at a loss for decorations suitable for the walls? Here is a suggestion, based on the experience of a reading club in Evaheton, Illinois, which came to be called the ' Silhouette Club ' from this novel feature. "When the club-rooms were rented, and the bookcases, orokinole-board, and magazine table had been moved in' it was found that there was a large space of white wall urgently requiring some sort of covering. Framed pictures which ' meant anything ' to the boys were not to be obtained, and prints cut from illustrated weeklies did not seem worth while. In the emergency one of the members hit upon the suggestion of making silhouettes of the others, and went at it in an experimental way. It proved an entire success. This is how it was done. "The necessary tools and outfit were a lamp or adjustable gas jet (preferably a kerosene lamp), a supply of large sheets of plain white paper, a lead pencil, and a pound can of printer's ink. A small brush is also useful. The paper used by the Silhouette Club was bought for a small Bum from a wholesale paper house, in sheets about 20in by 16in. The ink cost only a few cents. "A member of the club took his seat in a chair so that his head was about two feet from the wall. He faced in a direction parallel with the wall. The lamp was then mounted on a box on the table on the same level as the middle of the head, and in such a position that a direct ray from it passing through the head would have been perpendicular to the wall's surface. The distance of the lamp from the wall was measured, so that it could always be restored to the same place, as on that and the position of the sitter depends the size of the silhouette. " All this being arranged, the other lights in the club-room were extinguished. A sheet of paper •was pinned on the wall so that the shadow of the head of the «itter fell exactly upon it, the sitter held himself perfectly still, and another member of the club, selected with regard to his ability to draw, although little or no skill was required, ran a soft lead pencil point swiftly round the shadow and outlined it. It took scarcely longer than a sitting for a photograph. Another member took a turn in the chair, another sheet of paper was pinned up, and another profile outlined. Of course the outline took in both front and back of the head. "These outline profiles were all turned over to tihe member who had suggested the silhouettes. He took them home, opened the can of ink, and began the task of fillinpr in the shadow. This was done in solid black. An artist's brush was found handy for putting this on, and when the ink became too thick it was thinned with a little gasoline, which readily dissolves it and makes it dry quickly. "In filling in, the ' artist ' first followed slowly and cautiously the penciled outline, being careful never to run in the slightest degree outside it. Establishing a fairly wide strip about the shadow, he then quickly sprea-d the ink over the rest of the head. When this was done he had in solid black a fine profile likeness of his fellow clubman — so strikingly lifelike that he laughed as he worked at- it. " While he was filling the portraits in, the artist evolved the idea of setting up a guessing contest on them, eacli member having one guess at the identity of each portrait. So when they were all done he took them, to the club rooms, and pinned them up in a row about the walls above the picturemoulding; forming a border of portraits clear round the room. But when the regular hour for opening the rooms arrived that night there was no contest, for there was no profile that could not be easily recognised. "But there were enough ludicrous incidents connected with tho first display to make up for any lack of interest through that failure. One of the boys, possessed of an extremely prominent nose and a receding chin and forehead, had insisted on wearing a hat, and had pushed it far back on his head. As a result, the longest axis of the picture was from the crown of the hat through the tip of the nose, instead of from top to bottom of the head, and this threw the nose into such unusual prominence that it seemed twice its natural size. The indignant owner of the original insisted that he had been carioatured, and begged another trial ; but as he had been warned beforehand not to wear the hat, his elubmates voted that as a punishment his picture should remain as it was. '" Another member learned for the first time what everyone else had known for years — that his chin was the most prominent feature of his face. In fact, each of the boys learned more about his own features and those of his mates than he had ever known before. So popular did the display become that the name of the club was changed to correspond with it. Thereafter, when a new applicant for membership was proposed, his silhouetto was made and posted on the bulletin board. If any member desired to vote against him ho made a small black mark in one corner. If at the end of the meeting the picture remained without the marks necessary to blackball, it was I placed in line on the wall and the applij cant notified of his success. 1 "For several years the silhouettes re-

mained on the walls of the club. At last, l>owever, so many of the members drifted away to college that the club broke up. Then, as a last souvenir, the profiles* were all collected, pinned up on a sheet as closely together as possible, and photographed. And each member had in a copy of the photograph a lasting likeness of himself and his companions in boyhood.

CHILDREN AS HERO WORSHIPPERS. The following are extracts from a Home paper. The letters are amusing— are they not instructive, too? If we want peace, we must prepare for war ; but at the same time we ought not to glorify war. While advocating the highest efficiency in our fighting machines we should point out the horrors of war, and that being prepared for war moans less war than unpreparediic&s: — , Those of us who took note of the enthusiasm with which the children of England received the news of the big British victories in the late Boer war need not be reminded that children are the real heroworshippers. It seems to be their very nature to set up their high altar on the gory battlefield— the gorier the better. A war correspondent with the Japanese army, in an interesting letter to the Standard, tells us that if you want to fathom the depth of "original sin" in the hearts of little cherubs who adorn the hearths of peaceloving citizens you must become a general and win a great victory. Then your mailbag will come with seams burst, and the bulk of your letters will be in large, sprawling characters that bespeak much travail of soul and inking of rosy fingers. You will have little worshippers and sweethearts in every land. You will have to employ a special staff of corresponding clerks, to keep a stock of signed photographs on hand, anri to beg your friends to save all their old postage stamps, for the worshippers have albums and no scruples. Lord Roberts, when in Bloemfontein, he tells us, showed him some of the children's correspondence. He says : — " It would have driven Dr Watts to a new verse, for it embodied all the terrors of the Slpanish Inqxiisition. This is how it ran : ' Dear Lord Roberts,— l am glad you have caught Cronje. Mind you keep him fast, and don't let him escape. Give him to eat e\erything he does not like, and then he will die.— Yours affectionately, . P.S. — Plea&e send me your photograph and some stamps.' lam reminded of this epistle from a Christian child — who doubtless goes to Sunday school, and could recite the Ten Commandments — by a letter addressed to General Kuroki's army from Harada Ishi, a, 12-year-old girl, who attends school at Yoteuya, in Japan. ' One day I was taking a walk with my sister. Before the gate of a certain house stood a v«ry little girl — very nice looking. She had with her a little dog — very pretty — and said to it : * ' Tama, when the war is over my father will bring back a Russian's head and give it to you. So you must be a good dog." ' " Genbeal Ktjhoki and the Chudben.

The child, it would seem, is the same the whole world over. We are told that General Kuroki has received many letters from juvenile admirers in all parts of the world. Most of them seem to think that he understands English and keeps an unlimited supply of photographs and foreign postage stamps. .Like Lord Roberts, he insists on an answer to all these communications. But just now he has his hands too full to reply promptly to his young correspondents. The war correspondent tells us: — '"The teachers in Japan have hit upon an ingenious plan for diverting the stream of missives into a wider channel. They have invited their scholars to send letters and drawings to the soldiers at the front. With the aid of an interpreter I have been looking over a batch of this juvenile correspondence-. Some of the drawings are excellent, and show originality as well as artistic ability. They might astonish a drill-sergeant and make an artilleryman forget to load his gun; but even then the Russians would have the worst of it, for in the- pictures — as in the field — one Japanese is a matter for three ' Huskies,' and a broom serves to empty Liao-yang and Port Arthur of the enemies of Nippon. The girls are better letter-writers than the boys, and a Japanese letter looks infinitely more artistic than the most finished Italian hand. Some of these epistles might be framed and hung upon the walls of our drawing rooms at home, in order to show how the characters which Japan has inherited from China live, and breathe, and have form. Their contents are as varied as children's faces. Here is a letter from a boy in the Higher Grade School at Aoyama. Sato Shoiehiro evidently knows something of the origin of the war, for he writes : ' Russia is one of the greatest Powers in Europe. Her dominion extends over one-sixth of the globe. She has an army of 900,000 men and a navy of 50 warships. Ten years ago, when we won the Liao-tung Peninsula from China after great loss of brave men, Russia, backed by Germany and France, told us that the Japanese occupation of the Peninsula was harmful to the peace of the East. Therefore we gave back the Peninsula to China. Then Russia got a lease of Liao-tung for 99 years, entered Korea through Manchuria, and tried to proas upon Japan. After many negotiations war broke out. Since hostilities began Russia — one of the greatest Powers in Europe — has been beaten repeatedly by Japan — a small country of the East. Not a single victory have the Russians won on land or sea. Now Liao-yang has fallen, and Port Arthur is expected to fall soon.' "

Dr M 'Arthur, S.M. at Wellington, has decided that in future cases in which juveniles are brought before the court will be heard in his private room. A scare has been occasioned among the residents of the Bullarto district, near Ballarat, Victoria, consequent upon the report that a tiger is nrowling about in the adjacent bush. Two residents report having seen it. Superintendent Young has instructed the mounted police to keep a lookout for the tiger and shoot it in the event of its being encountered. Advice to Mothers. — Are you b/oken in your rest by a sick cliilfl suffering with the pain of cutting teeth? Go at once to a chemist and get a bottle of Mrs "Winslow's Soothing- Stbtjp. It will relieve the poor sufferer immediately. It is perfectly harmless and pleasant to taste, it produces natural, quiet sleep, by relieving the child from pain, and the little cherub awakes " as bright as a button." It soothes the child, it softens the gums, allays all pain, relieves wind, regulates She bowels, and is the best-known remedy for dysentery and diarrhoea, whether arising from teething or other causes. Mrs Winslow'a Soothing Syrup Is sold, by Msdicuae dealen everywhere.