is kept by the City of New York for the purpose of teaching boys how to become sailors.

The vessel is under the control of the Board of Education, and only boys of the best character are received on board.

If by chance a bad boy finds his way on to the St. Mary's, he is dismissed the moment his evil ways show themselves.

The youths who are admitted to the school must be between the ages of sixteen and twenty, and they must show a very decided taste for a sailor's life.

The course of instruction takes two years, and during that time each boy must pay $30 for the cost of his uniform and bedding.

In the winter the ship lies alongside the pier at the foot of Twenty-eighth Street and East River, and there the boys are taught the art of navigation and all the seamanship they can learn before they go to sea.

As soon as the spring sets in, the St. Mary's is towed over to a suitable harbor in Long Island, and there the boys are thoroughly drilled in the furling and unfurling of sails, and in all the practical knowledge that will enable them to handle the ship when she puts to sea.

When all is ready, she starts off on a cruise which lasts till Fall, and returns to her pier in October.

Arrived in dock, the graduation exercises are held; and the graduates are assigned to such ships of the merchant navy as are in need of them.

This year there are eighty-nine scholars on board the St. Mary's. It is the intention of Lieutenant-Commander Reeder, who is in command of the vessel, to sail across the Atlantic to Fayal, Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Madeira, before he brings his ship back to winter quarters.

It is said that the young sailors who are turned out of this nautical school are in great demand, and have no difficulty in finding good berths as soon as they have graduated.

A new torpedo-boat, the Holland, has just been launched at Elizabethport, N.J.

There has been a good deal of mystery all winter about the building of this boat.

Some said she was being built for Cuba; others that Spain had bought her.

No one was allowed to enter the yard where she was building, and the strictest secrecy was kept as to her make and shape.

At last she has been completed and launched, but the inventor, Mr. Holland, refuses to allow any one to look at his boat until he is quite satisfied that she is perfect.

He claims for her that she can be navigated as well under water as above it, and that she will ride on the surface of the waters, or plunge beneath them, at the will of her master.

The Holland is a gunboat, and will be armed with three kinds of guns: one to fire on the surface of the water, a submarine gun to use under the water, and torpedo tubes.

In attacking a vessel, the Holland is intended to fire her surface-guns, and as soon as she has done such damage as she can with them, to sink down under the water. She is then to make for the enemy's vessel with her best speed, and when within a short distance of the foe, is to rise to the surface to take aim; and then, sinking again, to discharge her torpedoes.

As soon as this is done, she is to steam under the vessel, and fire her submarine gun into the unfortunate ship, which it is expected she will blow to pieces.

The Holland is to be tried in New York Harbor; then, as soon as her inventor is satisfied, a public exhibition will be given of her powers.

If she can accomplish what is claimed for her, she is at once the most wonderful and the deadliest invention of modern times.

Two or three of the foreign governments are watching the Holland with much interest. Mr. Holland is not known to have made any arrangements about selling her, or the patent under which she is built.

It is to be hoped that when he is finally ready to dispose of her, the United States may be fortunate enough to become her purchaser.

If we have two or three such