the rows and two at the left. The whole pack is distributed in this order. The player's object is to build up families by suits, downward from the Kings and upward from the Aces, and whenever a card can be placed in its proper order it is so placed; but those that fall in the upper row can be used only on the Kings, and those in the lower row on the Aces. The side cards can be used on either row. After the pack has been distributed, the top card of any pile can be placed on any other top card just above or below it in rank; and when a card is thus uncovered that can be used in building, it is so used, bearing in mind the restriction noticed above. If it is necessary to pick up the outer rows, reshuffle them and relay them. It may be done once, and then any cards may be used in building, no matter on what row they fall. This game is said to have been played much by Napoleon in exile on the island of St. Helena, and this gives it its name. STILL POND. See BLIND MAN'S BUFF. STILTS, poles or crutches to raise the feet above the ground in walking. The stilts are held as shown in the picture. As usually made, each stilt has a step of wood, on which a foot is placed; but some stilts have instead a loop or stirrup of leather, into which the foot is thrust. The latter kind is dangerous, for if the wearer trip or lose his balance and fall, the feet are apt to become entangled, whereas in the other case he can easily jump from the stilts to the ground. Skilful walkers have their stilts strapped tightly to their legs, so that they may use their hands freely. The art of walking on stilts depends on the principles of BALANCING, and is best learned by practice. The learner should mount at first from a stump or fence, high enough to step at once onto his stilts. It is impossible to stand still on stilts without the aid of a staff, for the ends of the poles do not offer so broad a support as the feet; but by taking little steps in one direction and another, the walker may remain near one spot as long as he pleases. It is easier to balance the body on long stilts than on short ones, for the same reason that it is easier to balance a long pole than a short one. In the Landes, a marshy tract of country near Bordeaux, France, the shepherds make great use of stilts (C. T. T.). In this and other regions where necessity has compelled the use of stilts, various stilt-games are played. The illustration below, from an old manuscript, shows the use of stilts in ancient times. Ancient Stilts. STOCK EXCHANGE, THE, a game played by any number of persons. with a pack of cards. The players sit in a circle, and one of them, taking the cards in his hand, gives them one by one to his left-hand neighbor, calling out the name of each card as he does so, three times in quick succession. His neighbor, as he receives them, hands them to the next player, calling out their names in like manner. The noise and confusion increases with each card handed out, and is supposed to resemble the sounds heard in the Stock Exchange, where the brokers are calling out the names of the stocks they wish to sell or buy. If the circle is not large enough for the whole pack to go around, the player at the right of the dealer holds the cards, as they reach him, instead of passing them. Thus the noise grows gradually less, and finally subsides when all the cards have gone around. Sometimes, when a Knave appears, instead of naming it the holder says H'm, H'm, H'm, thus imitating the undertone of conversation; and when an Ace is passed, the one who passes it cries Oh! Oh! Oh! STOP. See NEWMARKET. STRING-BALL, a game played by any number of persons with a hard rubber ball, suspended by a string from the limb of a tree or from a stick projecting from a window. The string should be from 10 to 15 feet long, and the ball should hang about three or four feet above the ground. One of the players strikes the ball with his hand, so that it swings, and those toward whom it moves try to catch it before it swings back past its lowest position. Should any one succeed, the striker is out and another takes his place; if not, he scores one point and strikes again, keeping on till he is put out. The order in which the players are to strike, and the number of turns each is to have, is decided at the beginning of the game. Another method is for the striker to try to hit the ball so hard that the cord will be wound one or more times around the branch or stick to which it is fastened. Each has but A fine precipitate of chloride of over it some colored flowers in an lead will be formed. Boil the solu- inverted glass. The flowers will be tion and this will be dissolved, but turned white, either entirely or in on cooling it is deposited in beauti-spots. Dip the flowers in very ful crystals, sometimes called "The weak sulphuric acid or ammonia, Silver Shower." and the color will be partially restored. The bleaching is done by the gas called sulphur dioxide, which is made when sulphur is burned. More experiments with this gas are described in the article on it. 2. Repeat the above experiment, adding iodide of potassium to the solution of sugar of lead instead of hydrochloric acid. The crystals of iodide of lead formed on cooling are bright yellow, and the experiment is hence often called "The Golden Shower." SULPHUR, Experiments with. Sulphur is described in C. C. T. 4. Mix seven grains of powdered sulphur with four grains of fine iron filings, and heat the mixture in an ignition tube. They will combine to form sulphide of iron. 1. Place in a test-tube enough bits SULPHUR DIOXIDE, Experiments of stick sulphur, or flowers of sul- with. Sulphur dioxide gas may be phur, to half fill it. Heat the sul- made by burning sulphur, as shown phur in an alcohol lamp flame and in Experiment 3 in the preceding it will melt. At first it forms a article. It is hard to collect it when light yellow liquid; but if it be made thus, and it is also impure. heated more it turns dark, and be- A better way is to put two or three comes so thick that it will not run teaspoonfuls of small scraps of copout even if the tube be held upside per into a flask, cover them with down. If it be heated still more, strong sulphuric acid, and heat the it becomes fluid again and finally mixture. The delivery-tube from boils, giving off a light yellow va- the flask must lead to the bottom por. While it boils, pour half of it of a bottle where the gas will colinto a glass of cold water and set lect, as it is heavier than air. It the rest away to cool. That which will be perceived by the smell that was poured into the water forms a the gas is the same as that produced dark mass like India-rubber, which by burning sulphur. The liquid redoes not resemble sulphur at all, maining in the flask is colored blue and that which cools in the test with BLUE VITRIOL. By passing tube forms long yellow crystals. the delivery-tube into a bottle of The first is called amorphous sul-water, the gas will dissolve, forming phur, from two Greek words mean- sulphurous acid, which may be used ing "without form." in bleaching, like the gas. 2. To dissolve sulphur. Sulphur will not dissolve in water or alcohol, but it will in carbon disulphide. If the solution be poured on a plate and dried, the sulphur will be deposited in crystals; but, as can be seen with a magnifying glass, these are not the same kind of crystals as those obtained by cooling in the first experiment, being shorter and blunter. The amorphous sulphur will not dissolve even in carbon disulphide. 3. To bleach with sulphur. Light a small piece of sulphur, and hold EXPERIMENTS. 1. To turn sulphur dioxide gas to a liquid. This can be done by applying cold or pressure, but the latter method is not safe without special apparatus. The first method is easy if care be taken. The delivery-tube first leads the gas into a bottle packed in ice, and it next passes through a drying bottle, and then through a U-tube packed in pounded ice and salt. The gas will condense into a heavy oily liquid at the bottom of the U-tube. If the tube be one with a stop-cock at both ends, they may be turned, and the liquid can thus be kept any length of time. Otherwise it will evaporate again into the gas. The evaporation of the liquid produces great cold, as will be seen in the following experiments. 2 Put a little mercury in a watchglass or butter plate, pour liquid sulphur dioxide over it, and blow a current of air across it with a bellows. The mercury will be frozen. 3. Pour some liquid sulphur dioxide on the bulb of an alcohol thermometer wrapped in cotton. It will sink very low. A mercury thermometer will not do so, because the mercury would be frozen. 4. Pour a quantity of the liquid sulphur dioxide into ice-cold water. Some of it will sink to the bottom. Stir this with a glass rod and it will boil at once, while some of the water will freeze. HYDROGEN, water and sulphuretted hydrogen water be mixed. 3. Hold a wet silver or copper coin in a stream of the gas or dip it in sulphuretted hydrogen water. The coin will be blackened. 4. Make a drawing or write a sentence on a piece of paper with sugar of lead dissolved in water. It will be invisible when dry. Dip it in sulphuretted hydrogen water, and the writing or drawing will show plainly in black. The reason is, that while sugar of lead is white, sulphide of lead (which is formed when it touches sulphuretted hydrogen) is black. SULPHURIC ACID, Experiments with. Sulphuric acid is described in C. C. T. (Read also the article CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS.) 1. Put a few teaspoonfuls of water into a glass, and on it slowly pour about twice as much sulphuric acid in a fine stream. Stir the liquid with a SULPHURETTED test-tube containing a little alcohol Experiments with. (Read the article or ether. Enough heat will be deCHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS.) Sul-veloped to boil the liquid in the phuretted hydrogen, also called tube. Even water will boil in the hydrogen sulphide, is a gas com- tube, but not so readily. posed of hydrogen and sulphur. It should be made out of doors or in an out-building, for it has a very bad odor, like that of rotten eggs. It can be made like HYDROGEN, using, instead of zinc, lumps of iron sulphide as large as the tip of the little finger. The gas can be collected over hot water, or led into a bottle of cold water, in which it will dissolve. 2. Make a thick syrup by dissolving sugar in hot water. Put a few teaspoonfuls into a glass and pour sulphuric acid in it slowly, at the same time stirring it with a glass rod. The acid will turn the syrup into a mass of black spongy charcoal, as shown in the figure. If the EXPERIMENTS. 1. All the experiments given under HYDROGEN can be repeated with sulphuretted hydrogen. When burned in a jar it will deposit a thin crust of sulphur on the inside. 2. Fill a bottle with chlorine and another with sulphuretted hydrogen and bring them mouth to mouth. Sulphur will be deposited. The same result will follow if chlorine Experiment 2. syrup is not thick enough, the mass will be half liquid. 3. Dip bits of wood into strong sulphuric acid. They will be charred as if by heat. 4. Dilute some sulphuric acid with about half its volume of water, and when it has become cold, dip into a piece of unglazed paper, let ute. ting it stay about a quarter of a minRinse the paper in water, then in very weak ammonia, and then in water again. The paper will be much tougher than before, being changed to a substance called vegetable parchment, The time it should remain in the acid varies with the kind of paper used, but by trying several times very tough parchment can be made. kinds, all of which can be constructed with a little care. One of the simplest consists of a circle or disk of metal, having its circumference divided into twenty-four equal parts, numbered from one to twelve twice over, as in Fig. 1. Zinc is Fig. 1. 456 SULTAN, a SOLITAIRE game of CARDS, played with two full packs. One Ace of Hearts and the eight Kings are removed from the pack and arranged on the table as follows: One King of Hearts (called the Sultan) is placed in the centre, with the Ace of Hearts just above him, and below him the other King of Hearts. On each side of the Ace are laid the Kings of Clubs, just below them the Kings of Diamonds, and below these the Kings of Spades, representing respectively War, the Treasury, and Industry. The back is now shuffled, held back the best material for all the dials, upward, and playing begins. The as it does not rust and is easily first four cards are laid in order on marked and cut. In the centre is one side of the figure already formed, with their ends toward the figure, and the next four on the other side in like manner. These eight cards are called the Sultan's Divan. The piles of suits are now to be completed in order, by placing on the Kings the Aces, Twos, Threes, and so on up to Queens, using cards from the pack, any card from the Divan, or the top card of the Stock, which consists of the cards that cannot be used, piled on one side. The Ace of Hearts is also built upon in like manner. When a place in the Divan is empty it must be filled at once, either by the next card played, or the top card of the Stock, as the player chooses. When the game is ended, it shows the Sultan surrounded by his eight Queens. fixed a straight pin called a style, which must be exactly perpendicular to the disk. The accuracy of the dial depends on this, and on its being placed so that the style points in the same direction as the earth's axis. This may be brought about in two ways. In one, a little hole is made through the metal disk, close to the style, and then, on a clear night, the dial is so placed that by looking through this hole, the north star is brought into line with the style. In the other method a triangle is cut out of pasteboard (see Fig. 2) having the SUN-DIALS. The use of sundials and the form of one kind are described in the article CLOCK in C Fig. 2. A angle C just equal to the latitude of the place. This can be done by finding the latitude on a B map, and then C. C. T. There are many other making the angle with the aid of a |