Slaves of the Sawdust. By Amye Reade. (F. V. White
and Co.)—The "sawdust," which signifies the circus, cannot be held in fairness responsible for all the dreadful things that happen in this story. It did not make Leila's mother false to her husband, or that husband an obstinate, hard-headed brute, or Leila herself a fool. If the first of these three persons had had conduct, the second kindness, and the third sense, things might have gone rightly enough. As it is, Leila is left unprotected, persists against warning in marrying an unprincipled "master of the ring," and is cast off by an unrelenting father. However, Miss Reade proposes to herself an excellent object, and we have no wish to hinder its fulfilment. Silly creatures like Leila are diffi- cult to help ; but something more might be done for the unhappy children whom brutes such as Horrox, the trainer, torture. We wish Miss Reade well in her enterprise, though we cannot pre- tend to hold the literary value of her story very high.
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