We have received Vol. XI. of Work : the Illustrated
Weekly Journal for Mechanics, January-July, 1896 (Cassell and Co.) A very curious supplement to No. 357 contains a number of letters from subscribers to the journal who have benefited by reading it. A " clergyman "—we cannot find his name in "Crockford "- describes himself as not having possessed a single mechanic's tool or had the slightest knowledge of any handicraft five years ago, and now making money by manufacturing electrical appliances. A boy spends his last penny in buying a number of Work, and has never been out of employment since ; a painter's labourer has increased his wages from 24s. to 36s. per week; a miner adds from 5s. to 104. per week by what he does in his leisure time. We have always felt a certain incredulity as to learning practical work from a book, and feel it right to give some prominence to this evidence. Nor, indeed, could any criticism be more to the point. It is scarcely needful to say more of Little Folks : a Magazine for the Young (Cassell and Co.) than that it is as good as usual, both as regards letterpress and illustrations. It must be remembered that two classes of readers are provided for,—" little folks " and " very little folks." Among other interesting things is Miss Dorothy Lowndes's account of her two " meer-kats" from South Africa. " Kat " with a " k " is not unlike " cat " with a " c," but has something of the racoon about it. One of these two is to be seen in the small cat-house at the Zoo.
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