, and find many
things that seem almost new to me. One of these was "John Spooner's
Human Menagerie," in the number for April, 1875, and I have been trying
to get up a "menagerie" like John's. I can make most of the wonderful
living curiosities, but I do not know how to make a curtain that will
"go up with a flourish." I have made one to draw sideways, but I want
one to go up. Please inform me how to construct it.--Yours truly,

FRED R. MARTIN.

Here is a tolerably easy way to make a stage-curtain that will "go up
with a flourish," and come down either quickly or slowly, as may be
wished. It is easily kept in order, and readily repaired when damaged.

Above the stage, at the front, set up a stout cross-beam. Let the
curtain be of some opaque stuff that will fold well. Fasten its upper
edge firmly to the front of the cross-beam. Weight the lower edge of the
curtain with a long roller some inches wider than the curtain. Sew to
the curtain, on its wrong side, perpendicular rows of rings set at
suitable distances apart, and in level lines across. The more rows, the
more evenly will the curtain fold. Tie a strong thin cord about the
roller in a line with each perpendicular row of rings, and pass each
cord through its proper rings. On the bottom of the cross-beam above the
several rows of rings, fasten large smooth rings to be used instead of
pullies. Pass the cords up through the large rings, and gather them at
one end of the beam. Then fasten the ends of the cords to a rope, taking
care while doing this that the curtain is down, and hanging properly,
and that all the cords are drawn equally tense. There should be a stout
pin or hook at the side of the curtain, to which the rope is to be
fastened when the curtain is drawn up. Take notice that the cords are of
different lengths and must be free from knots. The curtain should not
touch the stage, and may be kept in place by fixing the ends of the
roller in iron rings or between pegs.

* * * * *

TWO WAYS OF CARRYING THE MAIL.

The frontispiece to this number of ST. NICHOLAS shows how the mails were
carried in winter over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada before
the Union Pacific Railroad was finished (1869), and how they are carried
now. In 1867, to the perils of the snow and wind and of mountain travel,
were added dangers from desperadoes, white as well as red, so that mail
deliveries were few and far between, and very irregular, w