19 NOVEMBER 1887, Page 45

The Old Violin. By Edith C. Kenyon. (Nisbet and Co.)

—A pretty little story, this, of how a young girl takes pity on a poor lad who has the love of music in his soul, but cannot find expression for

it, brings him into her father's house (the father being a skilful musician), and puts him in the way to fortune and happiness. We wish it bad not been told in the first person, and that the heroine had not been presented to us on the cover with a fringe. It is necessary to say the plain truth about such illustrations as this,—that they are neither useful nor ornament-El.