The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-12 00:00:00

nese.

The master of the ceremonies, carrying a fiddle or kit
under his arm—occasionally bag-pipes are substituted for
the violin—calls out the dance. In all cases a Scotch
dance of the simplest character is chosen ; the dancers are
arranged, music is struck up, and the festivity begins
with a hideous clatter of thick soles and heels from the
masculine portion, and a soft pattering of naked feet from
the majority of the feminine. There is much setting to
partners, and an infinitude of solo performances, winding
up with the usual twirling and twisting common to Scotch
dances in general ; and in the midst of all this heat and
dust and bustle, the man sits perched above his scholars,
fiddling rapidly, and glaring at them like tho evil genius of
the place.
They are all known to him—every face is familiar.
To the elder girls, who may have encouraged strangers
there, he is friendly and fatherly and watchful; he
knows that before the evening is oat the strangers
will probably be robbed, and there will be an uproar,
and it may be necessary for some kind friend to turn
the gas out or knock the candles over, and leave
the entire company to grope their way down the com-
mon stair into the close—or the man at the door, who
is a prize-fighter by profession, will be called in to keep
order, silence the remonstrants or turn them out of the room.
As a rule, the proprietor objects to robbery in the " skeel"
itself, and has a room on the other side of the landing where
such things may be conducted with greater ease and save
the " skeel" from falling into disrepute. Night after night,
in these Scotch cities, still goes on this hideous revelry;
still are attracted girls and boys from their homes, still are
engttlphed the heedless youth of both sexes. Many innocent
children of poor, even respectable, parents are lured hither
to imbibe a love for dancieg and bad company. The ap
prentice robs to get here, the girl begs in the street, or
thieves her way to admittance ; step by step to ruin surely
and swiftly proceed these untaught, uncared-for children,
and they are past hope, and have left all childhood behind
•
them, at an age that is horrible to dwell upon.

Deprived of her infant child by death (a death for
the uhild it"lf P"har' "*Y merciful) Jane Cameron
becomes a confirmed and hardened criminal of the
very worst class. Her adventures are numerous and
most affecting. She suffers frequent imprisonment,
at the last for a series of years, during which she
passes through the system of a reformatory charac-
ter in vogue at Millbank and at Brixton.
Fortunately the eventual result of this
probationary period, proves to be most bene-
ficial. When released she relapses. But
her reclamation is at length completely efficacious.
It is beyond the Atlantic, while still in service as
a good and honest domestic, that she breathes her
last, this poor repentant creature of whom we have
read here at times, no doubt, with loathing, but at
length Ivith an overmastering pity. Several of the
minor characters flitting before us as we read this
work—individuals with whom Jane Camerou comesher
into contact during the chequered period
most woful history—are very cleverly depicted •
amongst them Mary Loggie " the frzeiad --m3envneiti
Jock, Jane's boy-"Cush"—pccr growlingt terrible
the kind-hearted matmaker—and
even that
she has
Black Barney, Jane's older " Cush,
Wvointan , Black
fairly gone out into the world
Barney, who is so fierco and forlFdable to others,
though to her over all gentleness .in The work as a
been written,
whole is eminently g
well worth baying
and—now that it is written—eminently well worth
also being read.
Foul and dark though the path it
;ends us through, there relight and punt; shining
brightly upon us at the close.
The Children's Friend. Illustrated. One Vol. pp.

192. Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday.
This is a charming gift-book for the young. It
abounds with short, pleasing, and instructive tales,
well adapted to point a moral for the juvenile ap-
'
precttitian. Teaching by example is at once the
most easy and the most practicable mode of impart-
ing instruction. The story of naughty "Kitty,'
who objected to say " please"—that of the generous
Meta, who gave away her " New-year's gitL"—and