Year: 1871

Did you ever hear of the man who har-
messed pair of kites to light carriage,
arranged a set of strings SO that ne could
manage them, and took a ride one hun
dred and fifty miles longf His kites were
like the common paper kites all boys
make, only they were twelve feet high,
and made of linen. And it really happen
ed in England fifty years ago.


Putting kites to useful work seems
something like trying to lead butterflies
into industrious ways; and yet, when you
think about it they have been useful a
good many times.


More important to the world than the
Englishman's carrisge-drswing kite was
our own Ben Franklin's kite. 1t was
not famous for its beauty, for it was only a
silk handkerchief stretched across two
sticks, but it is immortal as the means of
great discovery.
You must know that Ben's kite flour
ished more than hundred years ago, be-
fore the days of lightning rods and tele-
graphs, when the wisest man did not
know as much about electricity as the
merest schoolboy knows now, thanks to
Ben and his kite. Been was much inter-
ested in electricity and had shrewd sus-
picion that lightning was the same thing.
He determined to find out about it So
one day when thunder cloud was coming





getting on feather-bed, as I've seen peo-
pie do, he went out into the field and put
up his kite. When it was near the cloud,
he tied key to the end of the hempen
| string-and waited. Pretty soon he saw
the loose fibres of the kite string stand up;
| instantly he touched his knuckles to the
key, and received an electric shock. That
settled the matter. As soon as lie found
out the nature of lightning, to protect
houses from its pranks he invented the
lightning rod.


When the lightning leaves the clouds it
rushes at once the nearest way to the
earth. If house is in its track, so much
the worse for the house; the lightning
hasn't time to turn out. But when men
put up nicely pointed rod over the house,
expressly for path for the lightning it
very amiably accepts the kindness and
| travels down the rod instead of through
the house; which is more satisfactory all
around.


Perhaps you never heard of another
useful kite, owned by man called Steeple
Jack. He lived in Edinburg nearly
twenty years ago, and his business, as you
may guess from his name. was repairing
| high steeples, upon which no one else
could go. No steeple was so tottering
| that Jack would not mount it; and this is
how he did it: He just put up his kite
and managed to catch the cord on the top
of the steeple, then Jack-who was 1.-THE
snd thin-would climb this tiny rope, seat
himself on the top, and do his work. His
tory does not state how he got down from
his airy perch.


It's not necessary to tell our city boys
snything sbout Chinese kites, since the
Pacific Railroad brings US so many of
them that every other boy has one; but
the country boy may like to know that
they are as unlike the American kite as
possible. In the first place they have no
tails. In the second place they are of the
most fantastic shapes and gorgeous colors.
They are made and painted TO represent
| fishes, owls, dogs, dragons, cats, roosters,
and funny little men, and, though they
| are not artistic, they can be recognized.
They are made of thick paper laid over
split bamboo sticks, and it looks funny
enough to see these grotesque Oriental
toys sailing over our sober American
towns.


The fyine of kites is as much nation
al game in China as baseball is in Ameri-
ca. 1t is not mere fun either, for the kite
string is prepared with pounded glass and
other things, SO that it will cut. Then
there are match games between the kite
flyers, in which the object is to cut each
others string and let the kite down. Tray-
elers tell us that the little boys run after
the fallea kite in China exactly as they DO
in America, so conclude that boys Will
be boys" the world over.


In America, kites come. down and go
home at dark, like good children; but In
China they have lighted lanterns hung on
them, and fly them as late as they please.


kite time" comes, believe, In the
spring-and would like to have some
one tell me who regulates the time for the
various games. They succeed each other
as regularly as day follows night. First
there are kites, and by the time every Doy
has one, down to the baby, they suddenly
90 out" and every boy has his pockets
full of tops, lockwood and other wood,
ivory, iron, and tin Balls drive out the
tops, and themselves disappear before mar
bles. And while write, every boy In tne
city, I'm sure, is stalking over the grouno
on stilts.-Our Young Folks.