The New House - Master. By Charles Edwardes. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Here
we have undoubtedly a new and humorous development in the way of books for boys. It is a combination of crime, detection, and school life. Three thieves sitting in the smoldng.room of the 'Red Dog Inn,' Taunton, conspire, over spirits and tobacco, to pass off one of their number, Joe Seymour, who is "a well-made, middle-sized man with a good forehead and a cheerful expression," as a suitable candidate for the post of house - master in Moor House School, Yorkshire. Seymour obtains the situation, and his two companions establish them- selves in an uninhabited house near him, which they not unnaturally regard as a good centre for " predatory operations., Seymour does fairly well as house-master, although he shows a rather suspicious command of slang. From the meeting in the Bed Dog,' however, he has been under the surveillance of a detective. It is a puzzle to the reader—and one which is never thoroughly cleared up—why this detective, who has Seymour in
the hollow of his hand, does not run him to earth. As things stand, Seymour is a good character; and so is his clerical Principal, although he is perhaps too much of an old fool. Mactavish, the boy of the sort that in all boys' books gets into trouble, is also represented in too farcical a light. Great vigour, however, is shown in his portraiture, and indeed in all Mr. Edwardes's work.
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