SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column sloes not ttecessarilg precluis subsequent review.]
The Home of To-day. By a Woman who Keeps One. (Chatto and Windus. 5s. net.)—The writer of this book relates the incident of a certain woman of much charm but little domestic science who when asked to expound the making of a particular dish replied " Fill the basin with flour up to the crack." Such vagueness of direction in cooking or any other branch of household work, is not to the taste of our author. She feels, no doubt quite correctly, that where one woman can be safely left to " fill the basin up to the crack," ninety-nine require more definite guidance. It is for the ninety-nine she has com- piled this able and very detailed manual of housekeeping. Every department, from the management of servants to answering the tele- phone, is minutely expounded. Sho leaves nothing to the imagination. Perhaps this was the wisest course, but it inclines her at times to labour the obvious. For instance, when showing in a caller the maid is to say the visitor's name before turning away. If, however, the lady of the house is not in the room the maid is to show in the caller but without saying the name. The caution is possibly necessary, though we can hardly conceive the most literal of " generals " announcing " Mrs. Smith-Tomkinson " to the furniture! The process known as "turning out" a room is described down to the smallest detail, and any household run on such lines should be secure from periods of domestic chaos. But in this connexion our author unconsciously does more than give useful hints on " turning out." By supplying an inventory of each room she affords guidance to those about to furnish, and further she as it were standardizes the home of the middle-class Englishman. That there was such a standard we had always suspected from a survey of the furniture-shops, but here wo have it in black and white. Though rather over-elaborated, the book gives a quantity of practical advice, and it should certainly fulfil its author's aim of helping fellow-workers to " conjugate in its various moods and tenses that somewhat irregular verb to housekeep ' in the Home of To-Day."
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