CURRENT LITERAT LIRE.
Household Economics. By Helen Campbell. (G. P. Putnam's Sons.)—This book, besides being a serious effort to face the many problems presented by the modern household, gives the reader a curious sidelight on the feelings and thoughts of the "cultured" American woman. Through its pages, like the string threaded through a necklace, runs the idea that the home is the place for rest, and should be wholly differentiated from the " shop " where the work of life is to be carried on. This is to deman& an impossibility. The "shop" of the married woman is neces- sarily her home. Miss Campbell's criticism of the methods by which the household work is carried on is, however, excellent though she makes a mistake in speaking of the waste in woman's energy involved in having to superintend the countless details of home management and at the same time to perform household tasks herself. In the households where the woman performs the tasks herself there is no superintendence required, and in these households perhaps some system of co-operative labour might be tried. But in the larger households the house-mistress merely superintends. The practical hints which Miss Campbell gives on the proper methods of cleaning are excellent, and the present writer cordially agrees with her both in wishing that domestic service was universally carried on under more definite conditions as to hours, S:c., and in her opinion that a course of household economics should form a part of every woman's educa- tion. It is done already in the Board-schools here, and is even more important the higher one goes in the social scale. The real waste of household labour comes from women not being taught their business as a matter of course, and as a part of their regular education.
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