LITTLE HOUSEHOLD BOOK.S.*
Itr what tidy houses we should pass our well-ordered lives if we were all willing to buy experience in a shilling handbook. The teachers are there with attractive little volumes in which the household arts are expounded with so tactful a touch that, while the ignorant need feel no shame at learning things which a rougher instructor would expect ordinary common- sense to tell them, the indolent will find themselves gently guided into the way of industry by a painless process of steady application. Meanwhile there remain the people to whom mental effort is far more disagreeable than bodily toil, and to whom the golden rule of "thinking out your work," even with the help of a book of clear directions, seems as beset with horrid obstacles as are the printed roles of a new "table game." "The duties of a housewife," says the writer of Home-Making, "are to be intelligent, kindly, and an all-round good manager . . always ready to learn." Much of the book seems intended for an artisan's wife living on an income of thirty shillings a week, but there ecc also directions for doing work which are more applicable to a larger budget, each, for instance, as the washing of silver-backed brushes and the care of a piano. The reader can, of course, use his own discrimination, but the advice offered is useful in either case. The pages on the management of a baby are likely to be of real help to a young mother, but we would point out that the baby's mouth must be cleaned with boiled boracic water, and not with the bath water (however clean), as the writer seems to imply. It is a pity that the interesting budgets were not brought actually up to date, as they would then have been of even greater nee. We should very mach like to know whether the food in the daily menus which we are given was actually eaten by a working man and his family. It seems to us unlikely that the butcher's meat, on which 4s. 7d. was spent, would have included one and a half pounds of breast of mutton and a sheep's head, for they both need time and skill in the cooking, and the soup which is their by-product would not be willingly eaten by healthy people of this class;
it " slop " which even invalids only eat under protest. Bacon would probably be a welcome substitute for these items. The ordinary work of cleaning and washing, common to all houses, is here described with practical good sense.
The Little Girl's Sewing Book gives pleasant instruction in needlework within the reach of a child. The things to be made are small, and can be lquiekly finished before the young workwoman wearies of her task. The doll's clothes will form an introduction to the cutting out of the larger garments which our children are all eager to make for the war victims. The directions are given in a lively, " chatty " style, and this little book will no doubt be popular as well as useful. It is full of black-and-white pictures and diagrams.
We will here take the opportunity of calling our readers' attention to a new edition of The Gardener and the Cook, by Mrs. Yates, published by Messrs. Constable and Co. at is. net. In it we can find both pleasure and profit as we learn to what good amount their mistress turned both these important functionaries and the products of their respective domains.
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