THE SUBURB WIFE
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, With all respect to Mr. Francis Gower, I would like to point out that he has written without his book. He has
written upon adult education without an adequate knowledge of what has been done to provide it in this City of London. At Goldsmith Street, off Drury Lane (and within a few minutes' walk of Holborn Tube Station) there eXists the London County Council City Literary Institute, which has over six thousand students (more women than men) whose ages range. from eighteen to more titan seventy ; which has upwards of two hundred and fifty classes for the study of such subjects as literature, English, foreign languages, drama, elocution, art, architecture, history, music, philosophy, mythology, . psychology ; which holds classes in physical culture and eurhythmics ; and which is also the home of scores of students' clubs for the fostering, in a sociable way, of interests too numerous .to list here.
At the City Literary Institute (of which I am a student) we do not, of course, make any distinction of class, race or creed ; but it does happen that most of us are of what Mr. Gower would doubtless call the salaried class, and therefore we are people with whom, he should agree, his " suburb wives " would have no difficulty in mixing.
We have afternoon classes (as well as morning and evening ones) attended by, among others, suburban wives ; and the authorities are always ready to consider the formation of new classes as soon as sufficient demand for them is expressed.
FRANCIS J. WEAVER.
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