to droplets of water or minute icecrystals floating in the air.

Q. Why does the full moon sail high in the winter and low in the summer? C. H. L.

A. The full moon is always nearly opposite to the sun. It is high in winter, when the sun is low, and low in summer when the sun is high.

Q. How often does the Aurora Borealis appear and to what distance south can it be seen? L. B.

A. The frequency of the Aurora Borealis varies with the latitude of the place. It is comparatively rare within 45 degrees of the equator, but more frequent towards the north, up to the latitude of about 60 degrees where it sometimes becomes almost a nightly occurrence. The Aurora is less frequent near the poles.

Q. When do the northern lights appear? J. F. C.

A. There is no specified time for the northern lights to appear. The cause of the Aurora Borealis is incompletely understood. There seems to be some connection between sunspots and the appearance of the auroras. Probably they are merely an electric luminosity of very rare gases. It is certain that the auroras are connected with the magnetism of the earth and that a strong influence upon the magnetic needle is exerted in some

manner.

Q. How large is Halley's Comet? A. F. P.

A. The head of Halley's Comet is much larger than the earth. On May 5, 1910, the length of the comet's tail was 37,000,000 miles.

Q. What has become of Biela's Comet? J. L. K.

A. This comet was visible at intervals of slightly over six and a half years. At its appearance

in 1846 it had divided into two parts. In 1852, the parts were

1,550,000 miles asunder. It has not been seen since, and the presumption is that it has disintegrated, forming material for shooting stars.

Q. Has Halley's Comet come closer to the earth than Mars did last month? F. J. M.

A. Halley's Comet was at its least distance from the earth on May 20, 1910; namely, 14,000,000 miles. Mars at its closest, was more than 34,000,000 miles away.

Q. Why is Halley's Comet so famous? M. Q. J.

A. Halley's Comet is famous because it was the first whose periodicity was predicted. This was in 1704, but the verification did not take place until 1759.

Q. Has a large comet ever reached a point near the sun before its presence was suspected? E. W. B.

A. Large comets have sometimes reached a point near the sun before being discovered. This was the case with the great comet of 1843. A comet might approach its perihelian point from a direction nearly in line with the sun, as seen from the earth, which would make it difficult to observe.

Q. Is any comet due to return about 1963? P. E.

A. Halley's Comet will return about 1985. It is the only conspicuous comet whose return can be predicted. A previously unknown comet may appear at any time.

Q. When was Donati's Comet last visible? M. E. E.

A. Donati's Comet was visible in September and October, 1858, and was the finest of the century. It is due to return after 2,000 years. The head was 250,000 miles across and the tail extended more than half-way from the zenith to the horizon.

Q. Please give the locations of

Q. Which nation has produced the greatest short story writers? N. W.

A. No one is in a position to say which nation has produced the greatest short story writers. Russia, France, England and the United States are noted for literature of this class. The French regard Edgar Allen Poe with special esteem and some of the French critics credit him with being the father of the short story.

Q. Did Shakespeare gather his world-wide experiences from actual travel? C. K. A.

A. It is estimated that William Shakespeare never made a continuous journey so far as a round trip from New York to Boston.

Q. Kindly give me figures on the subject of the length of sentences of great English writers prior to 1850. J. L. J.

A. Edmund Spencer averages about 50 words to each of his prose sentences. Richard Hooker averages about 41. Milton sometimes has more than 300 words in a sentence.

ington Irving use? W. G. G.

A. During the early period of Irving's writing career, he used the pseudonyms Jonathan Oldstyle, Launcelot Langstaff, Diedrich Knickerbocker and Geoffrey Crayon.

Q. Was there a real person named Cyrano de Bergerac? A. W.

A. Savinier Cyrano de Bergerac was a French author who was born in 1619 and who died in 1655. Edmund Rostand wrote a drama in which de Bergerac was the hero, and the play was in many ways true to facts. The real de Bergerac was distinguished for his courage in the field, and for the duels he fought. These numbered more than a thousand, most of them fought on account of his monstrously large nose.

Q. What is a good biography of Charles Dickens? J. S. H. A.

Perhaps the best biography of Charles Dickens is that written by his friend, John Forster, published in London in 1872.

average 22 words.

Q. Where was Marco Polo when he wrote the account of his voyage to Cathay? M. P. L.

A. Marco Polo lay in a prison in Genoa, Italy when he wrote the account of his travels. His firsthand knowledge was gained by a residence of 17 years in Cathay where he was on official duty.

Q. What pseudonym did Wash

Who was the author of the New England Primer? K. N.

A. Benjamin Harris, an English versifier and printer, compiled the New England Primer, which was an abridgement of an earlier work known as the Protestant Tutor and was published prior to 1690, in Boston.

Wonderland was written by Charles Ludwidge Dodgson who used the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll.

Q. What author used the pen name Fiona McLeod? A. M. W.

A. William Sharp, a Scottish poet, novelist and essayist, used this nom de plume.

Q. I saw a reference to John Heywood who said "A byrde in the hand is worth ten in the wood". Who was this John Heywood? B. E. B.

A. John Heywood was an English author probably born in 1497 and probably died in 1580. He was a favorite at the Courts of Henry VII, Mary, and Edward VI. He excelled in writing epigrams.

Q. Did the story of Atalanta's Race by Byron originate with him? E. L. Č.

A. The story of Atalanta's Race was not conceived by Byron. It is contained in Greek mythology and mentioned by Ovid in his Metamorphoses.

Q. What nationality was Hans Christian Andersen? N. W. H.

A. This writer, who is best known for his fairy tales, was a Dane. He was known as The Children's Poet, but his "best poetry is his prose."

Q. Please give the full name of the writer whose nom de plume was Gyp. A. C. S.

A. Gyp was the pseudonym of Gabrielle Sybille Marie Antoinette Riquetti de Mirabeau, Comtesse de Martel de Janville.

Q. Is it known where Vergil was when he wrote the Georgics? T. R. J.

A. Vergil wrote the Georgics while living at Naples.

Q. Which character in Little Women was supposed to be the author? G. B. J.

A. The character of Jo is the author, Louisa M. Alcott.

Q. Does Octavus Roy Cohen write both detective and negro stories or does he employ an assistant to do one kind for him? I. M.

A. Mr. Cohen says that he writes both kinds of stories himself, finding great pleasure in changing from one to the other. He finds it refreshing to turn from one type of story to the other, thus keeping an enthusiasm for both.

Q. In Tennyson's writings, how high is the percentage of words of foreign derivation? In Shakespeare's? P. C.

A. One authority says that 12 per cent of the words used by Tennyson, and 10 per cent of those used by Shakespeare, are of foreign derivation.

Q. Who were called the Cockney Poets? P. W. E.

A. This nickname was applied by certain English critics to a literary coterie which included Leigh Hunt, Shelley, and Keats.

Q. Where did Edward Everett Hale get his idea for the story of the Man Without a Country? T. L.

A. The germ of the plot is said to have been suggested to Dr. Hale by his reading Scott's Life of Napoleon. It occurred to him that if Napoleon had been confined on one British warship after another instead of being sent to Saint Helena, England would have been spared much criticism and the French would not have been able to turn Saint Helena into a shrine. The local color which adds so much to the story was gained from the records of the Navy and the proceedings in the trial of Aaron Burr.

Can you tell me the name of the French epigramatist whose witticisms rank with those of La Rochefoucould? A. W. A.

A. Sebastian Roch Nicholas Chamfort, whose aphorisms are

said to be "the keenest, the most incisive, and the most pregnantly cynical in modern literature.'

Q. What is the name of the man who writes under the name of "Achmed Abdullah"? F. S. R.

A. Captain Syyed Shaykh Achmed Abdullah Nodir Khan elIddrissyieh el Duran. The captain was born in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Q. Is the author of The House by the Side of the Road still living? G. W. M.

A. Sam Walter Foss, the author of the poem Let Me Live in a House by the Side of the Road, died in 1911.

Q. What English_authors were born in London? J. H.

A. Among them are: Bacon, Blake, Brown, Browning, Byron, Chaucer, Crashaw, Defoe, DeMorgan, Donne, Gaskell, Gibbon, Gray, Herrick, Hunt, Huxley, Huxley, Johnson, Keats, Lamb, Milton, More, Morris, Newman, Pater, Pinero, Pope, Mrs. Radcliffe, Rossetti, Ruskin, Shirley, Spencer, Swinburne, Walpole, Zangwill.

Q. What are regarded as the best of Macaulay's Essays? G. E.

A. Probably the most famous of the essays of Macaulay are those on Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, and William Pitt, but others that deal with men of letters, Addison, for instance, or Samuel Johnson, are equally brilliant.

Q. Is there any American author of renown whose works were not published until after his death? T. D. E.

A. Perhaps Henry D. Thoreau of Concord, Massachusetts who died in 1862 comes nearest to answering this description. He published but two books while alive both at his own expense. One of them had a moderate circulation, the other almost none. All his life he kept a journal and all

been

of this has subsequently published so that his works now total about 30 volumes all of which are in print and in demand.

Q. Was Dr. Frank Vizetelly born in the United States? W. M. H.

A. Dr. Vizetelly was born in London and came to the United States in 1891 when he joined the editorial staff of the Funk and Wagnalls Company.

Q. What are the best of Scott's novels? D. L.

A. Scott's works of this character are more accurately described as historical romances. Ivanhoe, the Talisman, and Quentin Durward are often ranked as the best of these.

Q. Who wrote the Indian Love Lyrics? S. O. N.

A. They were the work of Amy Woodforde Finden, one of the most gifted of modern English song writers. A memorial to her was unveiled recently in an English church.

Q. Did James Whitcomb Riley ever write under a pseudonym? D. J. W.

A. Riley at one time used the pen name of Benjamin F. Johnson.

Q. On what book or work did Anatole France win the 1921 Nobel Prize? D. A. B.

A. The publication which gained Anatole France the Nobel Prize in 1921 is entitled La Vie en Fleur.

Q. Where was Sir Walter Scott born? O. H.

A. Sir Walter Scott was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, August 15, 1771, and died at Abbotsford, Scotland, the 21st of September 1832.

Q. Who wrote under the name of Peter Pindar? C. G. B.

A. Dr. John Wolcott of Devonshire who lived from 1738 to 1819