ECONOMICS FOR BABES.
Lessons on Practical Subjects. By Sarah Forbes Hughes and Catherine W. Faucon. (Hinds and Noble, New York.)—The idea of teaching the elements of political economy to children has been more than once exploited by female writers in this country, but never to better advantage than by the two American ladies who have written these admirable " Lessons on Practical Subjects." They rightly say in their preface that a great body of American voters—the same might be said in most countries- " are lamentably ignorant of even the simpler laws underlying the social and financial questions of our age." It has accordingly occurred to them that it would be a useful task to give school children "right ideas at the outset" on these matters. Children are all for the concrete : they cannot readily grasp an abstract idea, but they are singularly quick to understand a story that deals with individuals, and a clever teacher can graft thereon the simple principles that will guide them in later life. So the authors of this very interesting and suggestive little book write chiefly of individuals. They illustrate the disadvantages of debt with an apologise beginning : " A fireman named Briggs would not pay his butcher." The share of labour and capital in profits is explained by the case of "a boy named Joe," who went shares with Henry in buying a jack-knife with which Joe was to carve toys for sale and pay part of the proceeds to Henry, the joint- owner of the "plant" The chapters on the silver question will be of use to many adult readers who do not see their way through the windings of "that blessed word" bimetallism. In the hands of a competent teacher, this little book ought to give children clear, though rudimentary, ideas on the subject of money, capital, rent, and the other leading concepts of modern economics.
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