Letters from a Working Man. By an American Mechanic. (Fleming
II. Revell Company. 3s. Od.)—The "American Mechanic" has much to say that is instructive, and not a little that will be unfamiliar to English readers, Here is one fact. There are regions of New York in which the population is sixteen hundred and seventy-two persons per acre, or more than a million to the square mile. As he says, "China and London are not in it" with East Side, N.Y. Those crowds for the most part hate the Jews. But "the Jews are making good. Their children almost universally stand at the head of their classes in the public schools." Here is something about Socialism. "Any movement, to really succeed, must take into account all the sin and meanness that lie deep in the hearts of men." Some one wanted to establish a community from -which all "ignorant and vulgar" people were to be excluded. It might be easily housed. "There are some advantages in being rich—it is so much cheaper to live." Certainly, when a man has to buy coal by the pailful because in his flat there is no place to keep it. Was it really a credit to a man that he served one firm for sixty-five years with- out ever going out on strike ? "I wonder," writes the "Mechanic," "what sort of a crowd we should be if we all had the same kind of record!" How about Moses and his two million briokmakers he asks. We have taken some things at random ; single bricks, but they show good stuff and good making.
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