The dusty book today, 1924, is Hugh Lofting's Doctor Doolittle's Circus.

The dusty book today, 1924, is Hugh Lofting's Doctor Doolittle's Circus. He joined the circus in order to earn enough money to pay back a friend for a boat he had borrowed and then wrecked. As an animal lover, he found the treatment of circus animals to be very disturbing, and thus engages in a variety of plots to free and/or save them from circus practices. Here he is helping Sophie, the seal. I love the black and white images and I never much cared for circus acts involving animals either.