This is the prime idea that lies at the foundation of the popular system of education—to make children uniform. This very thing that God and Nature have set themselves against—no two faces, or forms, or statures; no two minds, or hearts, or souls being alike, as designed by the Creator, and as fashioned by Nature's hand—to make all these alike was the aim of the system under which Dodd began to be evolved, and with which he began to clash at once.
But it is not the system only which is at fault. Hot with the indignation bred from a discussion of its shortcomings, the author turns suddenly upon the parents of the innumerable Dodds in the schools of the country:
And for you, who send your six-year-olds to school with a single hook, and grumble because you have to buy even so much of an outfit, what are you going to do about it when your boy drains all the life out of the little volume in a couple of weeks or a month? He knows the stories by heart, and after that he says them over, day by day, because he must, and not in the least because he cares to.
What are you going to do about this? It is largely your business. You cannot shirk it and say that you send the boy to school, and it is the teacher's business to take care of him.
The remedy for the wrongs and faults of the system is, in his opinion, to recognize the individuality of children in the schoolroom to study the mental peculiarities and needs of each, and to do away with the system so far as it interferes with the liberty of the teacher to adapt his means to the proper ends to be attained. It is demanded that teachers be selected on the sole ground of fitness and adaptability, and not because of favoritism or the mere fact that their book education is sufficient, and it is further insisted that parents interest themselves to see and demand that the best that can be done is done for their children. These are the means suggested in the way of reform, and they seem adequate in a large degree to accomplish what is desired. We commend the book to teachers and parents.
Money in Politics. By J.K. Upton. With an introduction by Edward Atkinson. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.00. The author of this comprehensive and valuable work was for several years Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury, and in that responsible position had admirable facilities for studying the question of money as affected by congressional acts from the earliest history of the republic down to the present, and he has made good use of his opportunities in this book which is a succinct narration of the numerous changes made in American money beginning with the continental issues, in fact, earlier, the colonial money. The work is, therefore, a history of American coin and the numerous issues of paper that served as money. To the student there is in this book a fund of information extremely interesting, particularly at this time when the popular will is likely to compel farther legislation. A topic of present interest, is the silver dollar, to which the author devotes a chapter historical in its character, and another chapter concerning circulation of this coin. In the former chapter he begins with the Spanish milled dollar, "the Mexican pillar piece," which was the first silver dollar known in American commerce, and had, in colonial times, 386.7-8 grains of pure silver. In 1785 the American standard was fixed at 375.64 grains of pure silver which became the unit of account, the standard dollar. In 1792, after a Congress of the States was organized, the standard dollar was required to contain 371.25 grains of pure silver, or, with the admixture of baser metal, the standard of silver coin 416 grains, the pure silver rated by itself as before. These facts are of interest as showing the origin of the American dollar recognized as the standard down to 1873.
The chapters on "Circulation of the Silver Dollar" and "The Trade Dollar" are interesting and timely, inasmuch as the questions considered are now before Congress, or at least with the committees, and legislation of some kind will be demanded within the next year. There is, even now, a proposition embodied in a bill to suspend coinage of the silver dollar, because it has been found impossible to put the great sum coined directly in circulation. A great part of it has been made the basis of silver certificates, a kind of currency that, by and by, will bring distress to commercial interests if the issues are maintained, or if they are materially increased. Mr. Upton treats all these matters with very clear understanding of every question, and with certain facility of expression that appeals directly to the reader who has only common understanding of money affairs. From beginning to end the book is a rich mine of facts, of historical matter, and of statements that have undergone the scrutiny of the wisest financier during the critical period between the appreciation of values, with the disturbing influences of war, and the return of true values with resumption of specie payment which was effected with gold. While the work must have absorbing interest for that extended school of economists that has made finance a special study in the past dozen years, it will prove very useful to representatives in Congress, who may find here in compact form facts of history with which they should have familiar acquaintance before they attempt legislation intended to correct the errors incorporated in our money system.
The Old Stone House. By Anne March (Constance Fenimore Woolson). Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.50. This capital story, by one of the brightest American writers of fiction, has been placed by the publishers in their Young Folks' Library Series, where it ought to find a new lease of popularity. The Old Stone House is the home of five young people, representing three families. They are all orphans, and are living with a widowed aunt, whose single and constant aim is to educate them into real men and women. The young cousins, who dearly love each other, differ in tastes and temperament, but not in such ways as to interfere with each other's enjoyments. The younger ones are jolly and fun-loving, and no occasion for having a good time is left unimproved. The main interest of the story, however, lies with the eldest of the cousins, Sybil Warrington, a girl of strong feelings but quiet exterior, whose ambition to shine in society is held in check by a feeling that something higher and better is required of her. The story of her struggles is quietly but effectively told, and will have a peculiar interest for young girls. Miss Woolson has written much, and her work has given her a very enviable reputation both in this country and in Europe, but in all her writings there is nothing more earnest.
How Success is Won. By Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton. With Portraits. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co. Price $1.00. This handsome volume is made up of biographies of twelve men who have achieved distinguished successes in the various directions in which they turned their respective energies. Mrs. Bolton not only rehearses the main incidents of their lives, but shows that in every case the success and honors attained were the result of industry, economy and high moral principle. Among those selected to illustrate how success may be won under different circumstances are Peter Cooper, John B. Gough, John G. Whittier, Henry M. Stanley and Alexander H. Stephens. The several sketches are bright and pointed, and the portraits which illustrate them add to their value.