New York has decided to make some important changes in her mail service.

These changes have not been suggested by the Postal Congress; but if they were only in working order, they would give some of the delegates much to talk about when they return to their own countries.

The changes to be made are in the line of hastening the despatch and delivery of letters.

This is to be accomplished by means of a network of pneumatic tubes, which will be laid under the streets.

When a letter is posted at any of the sub-stations, instead of lying in the box until, the postman comes round to collect it, it will be instantly sent through the tube and deposited on the cancelling desk at the nearest station.

By this means a great deal of time will be saved; it is even said, by the persons interested in the scheme, that a letter which now takes two hours to go from Wall Street to the Grand Central Depot, can be sent by the pneumatic tubes in less than ten minutes.

The Government has given out the contract for laying the tubes, and one circuit is to be in working order by October.

It is said that the big dry-goods stores mean to make arrangements whereby they can send their small parcels by tube instead of messenger, and save a good deal of money now spent for horses and drivers.

The Pneumatic Postal system is in use in London, Berlin, and Philadelphia, and has proved a great success wherever tried.

GENIE H. ROSENFELD.

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BOOK REVIEWS.

We have received a new history of Victoria, written for children; this has been sent to one of our readers, and an account will appear soon.  The book is published by Frederick Warne & Co.

We have also received from Ginn & Co., Boston, a copy of the “Finch Primer.”  This is another one of those bright little books for our small brothers and sisters; it has colored illustrations, and is very attractive.

“Every reader of this page knows Mrs. Julia Truitt Bishop, of New Orleans, whose stories have given them rare pleasure for the past seven or eight years.  But they do not know that Mrs. Bishop is the ‘Dallas,’ whose delightful sketches of animal life have attracted so much attention.  Newspaper articles are necessarily somewhat ephemeral, except to those that are wise enough to cut them out and give them long life in a scrap-book; but Mrs. Bishop’s animal stories are so true to nature, so real, so full of the kindly feeling that dwells deep down in an animal lover’s heart, that we are glad to see them in the more durable form of a little hook.

“She has collected most of those that have been published here, and William Beverley Harison, of New York, has brought them out in a series of neat pamphlets, under the title of ’The Great Round World Natural History Stories.’  These sketches need no commendation from us; you know what they are, for you have felt their gentle influence in inculcating a love for the faithful and affectionate dumb creatures that depend upon us for comfort and protection.  A general distribution of these little books among young people would do incalculable good, and it would give their readers great pleasure, at the same time.”—­Philadelphia (Pa.) Times, May 16th, 1897.