Humpty was made of barrel hoops, and covered with stiff paper and muslin.  His eyes were round balls of rags, covered with muslin, drawn smoothly, and with the pupil and iris marked on the front.  These eyes were pivoted to a board, fastened just behind the eye-openings in the face.  To the eyeballs were sewed strong pieces of tape, which passed through screw-eyes on the edges of the board, and so down to a row of levers which were hinged in the lower part of the figure.  One lever raised both eyes upward, another moved them both to the left, and so on.  The eyebrows were of worsted and indiarubber knitted together.  They were fastened at the ends, and raised and lowered by fine white threads passing through small holes in the face, and also operated by levers.  The arms projected into the interior of the machine, and the gestures were made by moving the short ends inside.  The right hand contained a spring clothes-pin, by which he was enabled to hold the note-book in which Alice set down the celebrated problem—­

        365
          1
        ___
        364

The movement of the mouth, in talking, was produced by a long tape, running down to a pedal, which was controlled by the foot of the performer.  And the smile consisted of long strips of red tape, which were drawn out through slits at the corners of the mouth by means of threads which passed through holes in the sides of the head.  The performer—­who was always your humble servant—­stood on a box behind the wall, his head just reaching the top of the egg, which was open all the way up the back.  At the lower end of the figure, convenient to the hands of the performer, was the row of levers, like a little keyboard; and by striking different chords on the keys, any desired expression could be produced on the face.

Of course, a performance of this kind without a good Alice would be unutterably flat; but the little girl who played opposite to Humpty, Miss Nellie K—–­, was so exactly the counterpart of Alice, both in appearance and disposition, that most children thought she was the original, right out of the book.

Humpty still exists, but he has not seen active life for some years.  His own popularity was the cause of his retirement; for having given a number of performances (for Charity, of course), and delighted many thousands of children of all ages, the demands upon his time, from Sunday-schools and other institutions, became so numerous that the performers were obliged to withdraw him in self-defence.  He was a great deal of trouble to build, but the success he met with and the pleasure he gave more than repaid me for the bother; and I am sure that any one else who tries it will reach the same conclusion.

    Yours sincerely,

    Walter Lindsay.

At the beginning of 1893 a fierce logical battle was being waged between Lewis Carroll and Mr. Cook Wilson, Professor of Logic at Oxford.  The Professor, in spite of the countless arguments that Mr. Dodgson hurled at his head, would not confess that he had committed a fallacy.