figures give the appearance of an indefinite
number of dancers or skaters performing their
gyrations in the most natural manner possible.
Both are very pretty, and both yield a fair
harvest of ten cent notes.
I'OI.OXEL I'llll.lP P. SI'IIOIt’s FORT.
In the following letter to Our Daily Fare
the reader will find an interesting description
of Colonel l’iiii.ir Sciioff’s fort:
“Among the vast variety of objects of inte
rest contributed to the Fair, may be noticed
one which, in these war times, cannot fail to
attract the attention of visitors. It is a model
of a lmstinned fort, contributed by Mr. I'iiiLir
SiuioPF, of Heading, Pennsylvania, late a
member of the staff of General Henry Hoii
i.kn, deceased, a civil and military engineer.
“The scale upon which it is constructed is
fifteen feet to the inch, and it represents a work
of the character named, witli an exterior line
of one hundred and twenty yards, calculated
for the accommodation of a garrison of 500
men, and to be provided with twelve guns,
four to lie placed en burbcHr at the pancoupe of
each bastion, and the others field artillery, to
be fired through embrasures.
“ In the central part of the work will be no
ticed a block-house which a determined garri
son may use as a redoubt in case of the storm
ing of the work, and which may also be used
as barracks for the troops, as well as for the
purpose of a magazine. In the construction
it is to be covered with earth to render it
bomb-proof.
“ On the escarpo and counterscarpe differ
ent arrangements are shown, to render the
work of scaling by an enemy more difficult,
while on the glacis, the manner in which abat
tis should be arranged is shown. Where the
color of the model is green, it represents that
portion of the work which is to be covered
with sod.
“ This beautiful and accurately constructed
model will convey to the mind of the general
observer a better idea of the appearance of a
fort of this description than could be obtained
by a volume of description, while to the stu
dent of military science it would prove of
great value in enabling him more readily to
comprehend the descriptions of the text-books
than he would be able to do from the drawings
with which they are usually furnished. In a
military or polytechnic school it would be of
great value to the teacher and pupil in ena
bling the one to explain and the other to un
derstand the planning and construction of field
works of this character, and it is hoped that
some such institution may become its posses
sor at the moderate price fixed upon it.
THE SWORD CONTEST.
At ten o’clock, last evening, the vote for the
sword stood as follows
Hancock
Meade
Gkant
McClellan,
Sherman....
Warren
Wright
8ue11...
Neil
Burnside ..
Gibbon
A. J. Smith
Hooker
Oue ID .a. i Xj-y Paee.
Mr. Nathan Leeds, of Cinnamunson, won
the prize fruit-knife for the best two quarts of
strawberries furnished the first day.
But the Committee at the Horticultural De
partment remind those entering prizes, that
there cannot be too much of a good thing in
this line. Every quart will be acceptable.
In consequence of the immense crowd at
the Fair yesterday, many children were lost.
Parents who become separated from their
children should at once call at the “Police
Oiiice ” at the eastern end of Union Avenue,
(on Eighteenth street,) where the estray will
be found.
EXPERIENCES OF A CHAIRMAN.
I am Chairman of the Ladies’ Committee for
the Department of Singing Birds and Pet Ani
mals. How we have managed the matter I leave
to the public to determine. I think the collec
tions displayed will be acknowledged to be both
choice and curious, and I trust it will be pro
ductive of good financial results. The liberal
ity of many dealers in those objects will be
attested by the tickets which may be seen ap
pended to our presents the generosity of
amateurs is published in the list of donations.
I now wish to give a few sketches of the oddi
ties and difficulties that are not ticketed.
At the outset, I put advertisements in the
Inquirer, the Letbjer, and the Bulletin , asking
for appropriate gifts from friends of the cause.
I subjoin a few letters received, omitting the
names :
Mrs. :—I am a very great lover of
my country. 1 have been wanting to do some
thing for the soldiers, all along, but I could’nt.
I don’t keep store, and 1 have no goods to give,
and my husband—he won’t let me have much
money; but when I read your notice in the
papers, I thought, in a minute, there is some
thing for me to give. We have six dear little
kittens born yesterday, and you may have them
all. Just send, if you please, to No. 1538 North
Twenty-third street, any time you please, and
I will give them. Send a basket. I always,
to use Byron’s words,
“ Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame,”
so please don’t give my name to anybody.
Then, from the country, came many epistles,
of which I shall choose two:
.703
,019
. 50
. 50
Mrs. 1 have got a very valuable
and curious animal, which I am willing to give
to the Fair; it is an old donkey. My father
bought him of a scissor-grinder, whose ma
chine he dragged about the streets on the day
General Jackson gained the battle of New Or
leans. This gives him an historic interest.
If any of the veterans of 1812 remain, they may
remember him in his palmy days, as he was
much in the streets. I believe he was used in
his country’s service before the scissors-grinder
got him. In the war of 1812, asses were not
so common as they are now, and I dare say
there are people who remember this one. I
THE PRIZE KNIFE
LOST CHILDREN,
County
propose you shall raffle him. Send for him to
my house near Station, Pennsylvania R.
It. I leave the price of the tickets to you, but
if he brings over 820, I think I ought to be
considered as to have the rest. lam as liberal
as any man, and a true lover of my country,
as may be seen by giving up a creature that I
have been brought up with, and that seems
like one of the family.
County .
Mrs. :—I am going to send you a
very handsome present for the Fair ; for the
Fair, mark you. I have two white mice which
my son brought from China. Now I’ll give
them willingly to the soldiers, but, ma'am I
don’t know you ; 1 only know your name. It
is a very delicate point. I mean not to offend,
and I hope you won't be hurt. I’d like to get
some man—man, I say —to endorse your re
ceipt of my donation. A woman is a woman,
and I don’t know, 1 don’t mean to be disre
spectful, but wfflen it comes to parting with
property, ma’am, Ido want to be secure. If
Caleb Cope, for instance, will give his name,
you may have the mice.
" These were the gifts sent me. Fancy alarge
grey cat, brought in a bag, that growled, hissed,
tore every thing he came near! Six Shanghai
fowls that woke the neighborhood with their
hoarse matutinal cries. Thirty-six parrots,
all accustomed to low company, who were con
stantly using words not tit for “ears polite.”
Twenty mongrel puppies generally of a dull
yellow color. These were the first day’s
recolte. How I abated the arrivals of such
creatures it is unnecessary to detail.
In looking about for “aids’’ the objections
raised had often their droll side. A maiden
lady objected to the beautiful Maltese cat.
“ I cannot take cats, madam; they are next
to man the most treacherous of animals.” One
lady was afraid of being noticed, another of
not being noticed enough.
In my quest among dealers, a man‘who sold
dogs, and who had quite the physiognomy of
one of his own pugs, asked me how much the
committee took for themselves, and wanted to
go snacks.
A w oman who dealt in birds, who somewhat
resembled a cockatoo —pointed nose, red face,
green gown—when she learned my errand be
gan a torrent of abuse. “No ;I am not going
to give anything to your Abolition army ; a
set of nigger thieves. My mother’s grand
mother had Virginia blood, and I despise your
Yankee trash. Give them, indeed! I’d rather
my birds would pick their eyes out.”
A bright boy about ten years old came one
day with a little black terrier. There seemed
so much love between the two that I could not
help investigating the case. Bobby was the
dearest treasure little Frank possessed, but he
was willing to give that for the defenders of
the Union. I need not say that Bobby was
bought for the benefit of the Fair, and re
stored to his generous master.
■pRINTED by Rixowalt & Brown, 111 & 113 South 4th
Street, Philadelphia, for the Great Central Fair in
aid of the United States Sanitary Commission.