: St. Nicholas Vol. XIII September 1886 No. 11 An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks by Various Dodge Mary Mapes Editor - Children's literature Periodicals; Children's periodicals American St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls

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The difficulty of having changes made in existing alphabets is very great, yet this is not necessarily a disadvantage. Much insight into the origin and gradual improvements of sets of letters has been gained by studying the order in which the several letters stand. The order varies greatly in different nations, and varies slightly at different epochs in the same nation. In taking the Phnician letters, the Greeks dropped some, used others for slightly different sounds, and added a few to express sounds that were important to them or that did not exist in the Phnician. But this was done very gradually. It never has been easy to induce people to change and improve their alphabets.

But there is another reason why men have refused to change the order of letters by inserting a new and useful letter in the place where it naturally belonged. The Greeks and many other peoples used the letters of the alphabet for numerals. We use our own numbers without stopping to think whence they came. The cumbersome system used by the Romans, and called after them, consisted of strokes to indicate the four fingers, and two strokes joined to represent the hand, or five fingers. Ten was a picture of two hands, or two V's . Among the Etruscans the half of one, or, as we put it, 1/2 was >, which we think stood for a forefinger crooked in order to denote the half of one finger. But when the Etruscans and Greeks worked at the higher mathematics or attempted hard sums in arithmetic, they are much more likely to have used letters, in order to avoid the clumsiness of these numerals; in other words, they used what looked like a kind of algebra. We know that they tried to simplify the Roman numerals at Rome by making four and nine with three strokes instead of four, by placing an I before the V and an I before the X .

Our own numerals are extremely convenient for ordinary arithmetic. Algebra, in which letters stand for numbers, is useful for abstract reasoning in mathematics; it treats of the properties of numbers in general. Whether the Indian numerals were originally part of some ancient alphabet, or a series of shortened signs originally somewhat like the Roman numerals that we still use, is not really decided.

But to return to the numbers that we call Arabic and the Arabs call Indian. The numbers used by the peoples of India who wrote in Sanskrit were very like the figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0, that we use to-day. Even closer resemblances will be found if one goes back to the earliest forms of our numerals; for, during the last thousand years, our numbers have undergone some slight changes. We took them, as you have heard, from the Arabs, who did not employ them much before 800 A. D.; and the use of them did not penetrate into Europe by way of Italy and Spain until four centuries later. Together with these numerals, the Arabs learned from India how to do sums by algebra. For algebra, though an Arabic word, is a science of which the Arabs were ignorant before they reached India. How long the Indians of Hindostan had used this system of notation along with their alphabet, we can not yet determine; but it is quite possible that the old grammarians who improved the Sanskrit were enabled to fashion its alphabet into so scientific an order of groups because this separate system of numerals existed at even a more remote period, and had been found handier than the signs of the alphabet. Not using their letters as numerals, they could marshal them on the best system they were able to devise, as we, too, have been able to do with our alphabet ever since we got the Indian numerals from the Arabs.

It may be said that the invention of these numerals and of algebra for the higher mathematics stamps the old Hindoos as one of the most wonderful races of the world.

THE BROWNIES AT LAWN-TENNIS.

One evening as the woods grew dark, The Brownies wandered through a park, And soon a building, quaint and small, Appeared to draw the gaze of all. Said one: "This place contains, no doubt, The tools of workmen hereabout, Who trim the vine, and shape the tree, Or smooth the walks, as chance may be." Another said: "You're quite astray, The workmen's tools are miles away; Within this building may be found The fixtures for the tennis ground. A meadow near, both long and wide, For half the year is set aside, And marked with many a square and court, For those who love the royal sport. On afternoons assembled there, The active men and maidens fair Keep up the game until the day Has faded into evening gray. And then the racket, net, and ball Are stowed away for future call."

"In other lands than those we tread, I played the game," another said, "And proved my skill and muscle stout, As 'server' and as 'striker-out.' And all the rules can quote as well As those who print them out to sell; The lock that hangs before us there Bears witness to the keeper's care, And tramps or burglars might go by, If such a sign should meet the eye. But we, who laugh at locks or law Designed to keep mankind in awe, May praise the keeper's cautious mind, But all the same an entrance find, And for the present evening claim Whate'er is needed for the game."

Ere long, the path that lay between The building and the meadow green, Was crowded with the bustling throng, All bearing implements along; Some lugging stakes or racket sets, And others buried up in nets Until their feet alone they showed Beneath their loose and trailing load. To set the posts and mark the ground The proper size and shape around, With service-line and line of base, And courts, both left and right, in place, Was work that caused but slight delay; And soon the sport was under way. And then a strange and stirring scene Was pictured out upon the green.

Some watched the game and noted well Where this or that one would excel. And shouts and calls that filled the air Proved even-handed playing there. With anxious looks some kept the score, And shouted "'vantage!" "game all!" or To some "love, forty!" "deuce!" to more; But when "deuce set!" the scorer cried, Applause would ring on every side.

At times so hot the contest grew, Established laws aside they threw, And in the game where four should stand, At least a dozen took a hand. Some tangled in the netting lay And some from base-lines strayed away. Some hit the ball when out of place Or scrambled through unlawful space. But still no game was forced to halt Because of this or greater fault. And there they sported on the lawn Until the ruddy streaks of dawn Gave warning that the day was near, And Brownies all must disappear.

A MATTER-OF-FACT CINDERELLA.

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