SWIM BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Undo? this heading Ir4 notice Etch Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in othir forms.] An English Student's Wand,er-Year in America, By A. G. Bowden-Smith. (Edward Arnold. 6s. net.)—There are not a few things in this book which it is not pleasing to read ; to be reminded, for instance, that one of the most eminent of Americans is alleged to have publicly thanked God that he had not one drop of English blood in his veins, and that another found all the English race "hard, narrow, and ignorant." On the other hand, there are some things that leave a more cheerful impression. One is glad, for example, to know that Mr. Cecil Rhodes's great scheme is working well in this direction, that the Rhodes Scholars take Oxford seriously, and are teaching their countrymen to do the same. Commonly the American student, when he looks beyond his own borders, looks to Germany rather than England. And it is at least profitable to be told of our faults, to be told of our gaucherie, our self-satisfaction, our immobility. Miss Bowden-Smith spent a year in taking stock of American Colleges, and gives us here the results of her observations. The book is not exactly technical; but it is one of which it is impossible to make an appreciation that would be generally intelligible. We may say that, on the whole, a student only will enjoy it. To him or her every page will be full of significance and interest, and to this limited public we heartily recommend it. One subject of great importance, which is now coming to the front in this country, may be briefly mentioned. This is co-education. Miss Bowden-Smith, it is clear, does not greatly admire the system, though she does not condemn it. We gather that such an institution as Bryn-Mawr is more to her liking than the mixed Colleges and Universities. One objection seems to be that the best things among the staff appointments go to the men teachers. There is something also to be said against it from the student's standpoint. "A girl who has much valued the breadth of view and inspiration that her course in one of the great Mid-West mixed Universities has given her, will not unfrequently declare that nothing would induce her to send a daughter of her own to a Co-educational College." Who can wonder when we find that "a certain kind of girl boasts that by cramming' in the afternoon she can keep every evening free for fan with the boys"? ? It is only what we might expect when we are told that " a certain kind of young man seems to omit the cramming." There are competent observers to whom the English system of affiliated women's Colleges approves itself as better than the co-educational.
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