[Illustration:  Car-step]

It is done in this way:  The step is made of iron, and is joined to the regular wooden steps by strong rods.  When the train is in motion the extra step folds under the car-step.  When the train stops the porter touches a lever, and down comes the extra step, making the descent from the car as easy as walking downstairs.

It is a fine invention, and we hope soon to see it used on all Pullman cars.

G.H.R.

BOOK REVIEWS.

There has just been published a collection of sketches and essays by Charles Dickens which have hitherto been uncollected and none of which has been reprinted in the United States.  This cannot fail to be an extremely interesting book to the great army of admirers of Dickens.  His books always bear the unmistakable imprint of the master, novelist’s mind—­in his fun, satire, and humor going hand in hand, as well as in his sincerity and interest in the poor.  Everything that Dickens wrote has upon it the mark of genius, and this book will come as a delight to many.

("Old Lamps for New Ones, and Other Sketches and Essays,” by Charles Dickens.  The New Amsterdam Book Company:  350 pages, cloth, $1.25.)

PRIZE CONTEST

Owing to the improper character of many of the prize contests which have recently been offered by many papers and to the criticisms which have been called forth by them, we have decided that it is best to withdraw the contest begun in No. 55.  We know that these contests are of great interest to our readers, and hope that we shall be able to renew them in the near future without subjecting ourselves to the risk of criticism which so properly attaches to any of the prize contests being published.