ude woodcuts to illustrate Dicks' edition: ditto to Penny edition. There
is also a set of portraits from "Pickwick" in _Bell's Life_, probably by
Kenny Meadows; and coloured figures by "Kyd."

There are many pictures in colours--Pickwick, Weller, &c.--to illustrate
Christmas calendars, chiefly "made in Germany."

The most curious tribute is the issue by the Phonographic Society of
"Pickwick" in shorthand; and, finally, "Pickwick" in raised characters on
the Braille system for the blind.

This odd publication of "Pickwick" for the Blind came about in a quaint
way enough. As we know, the author issued at his own expense one of his
works in raised characters, as a present to these afflicted persons. A
rich old gentleman had noticed a blind beggar seated with the Bible open
on his knees, droning out the passages in the usual fashion. Some of the
impostor sort learn the lines by heart and "make believe" to read, as
they pass their fingers over the characters. The rich old gentleman's
blind reader read in the genuine way, and got through about fifty
chapters a day. No one, however, is much improved by the lecture. They
merely wonder at the phenomenon and go their way. The rich old gentleman
presently spoke to the blind reader: "Why don't you read 'Pickwick' or
some other book that the public will listen to?" "Sir," he replied--he
must have been of the stock of Silas Wegg--"give me 'Pickwick' in raised
characters and I will read it."

The rich old gentleman went his way and inquired at the proper places,
but the work was not known. He gave an order for a hundred copies of
"Pickwick" in "Wait's Improved Braille Type," and in about six months it
was delivered to him--not the whole work, but a selection of the more
effective episodes. The blind reader was pleased; the old gentleman
insisted on a private rehearsal; select passages were chosen which were
calculated to take about twenty minutes each. When he arrived on the
morning fixed for the first attempt, he found his friend at his post with
quite a crowd gathered round him, in convulsions of laughter. The "poor
blind" was reading, or feeling out, old Mr. Weller's ejectment of the red-
nosed man. The hat was overflowing with coppers and even silver. So
things went on prospering for a while. "Pickwick" was a magnificent
success, and the blind man was never without a crowd round him of some
fifteen to fifty persons. But the other blind readers found the demand