A rare value attaches to this book from the fact that it is not only a succinct account of the actors who have made a name on the American stage and transmitted to their children their talent, but also reproduces a number of interesting old portraits, which are of the greatest value to the student of the beginnings of the American stage. The histories of such well-known families as the Jeffersons, the Drews and Barrymores, the Booths and other favorites will find readers everywhere. The whole matter is well treated and beautifully illustrated. BLIND ALLEYS. By George Cary Eggleston. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. Price, $1.50. The titles of Mr. Eggleston’s previous books, “A Carolina Cavalier,” “Evelyn Byrd,” “A Daughter of the South,” etc., show the chosen field of his work to be the painting of Southern romances. In “Blind Alleys,” however, he has selected an entirely different field and has given us a significant and typical study of social conditions in New York. There is a sweet and wholesome love story, of course. Indeed, there are two of them, and altogether the novel is one of exceptional interest. WITH OUR READERS This department is open to our readers for the expression of their opinions on questions of public interest. The editors, while inviting contributions bearing on measures and events of general interest, reserve the right to exclude such matter as is not deemed suitable, and are not responsible for opinions expressed. FRANCE AND THE CHURCH A great epoch is transpiring in the republic of France—greater, in fact, than the triumphant continuance of the French democracy. The passing of the power of the Roman Catholic Church in that country presents a more marvelous condition or situation than the continued perpetuation of the republican form of government. The Church of Rome, saving a few years of Huguenot power, and the short-lived revolution preceding the advent of Napoleon, has, for more than ten centuries, linked its history with that of France. In fact, the latter has, since the days of Charles Martel, been known as the “eldest daughter of the church.” And what a history! A Roman pope crowned King Pepin in the eighth century and Napoleon in the nineteenth. Not a line of history, of romance, of tradition, of public or private right, or public or private wrong, but through the ages has been mingled with her name. From Flanders, on the English channel, to Provence on the Mediterranean, from Lorraine, on the east, to Gascoigne in the west, it was all Catholic, and Roman Catholic. The counts of Paris, Flanders, and of Anjou; the dukes of Burgundy, Normandy, of Guise; and the Bourbon Princes, were all originally Roman Catholics.