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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the helpless illiterates who have 

 never crossed the threshold of a school- 

 house. We pick up an admirable pam- 

 phlet by an experienced teacher of this 

 city, Mr. John McMullen, on '"The 

 Education of the Rich." Now, the edu- 

 cation of the rich is generally fashion- 

 able, traditional, and classical, but for 

 the vital purposes of well-being it gives 

 them but little advantage over the 

 wholly untaught. Mr. McMullen pleads 

 that the rich need to study vulgar and 

 common things as well as the indus- 

 trial classes. His words are well calcu- 

 lated to enforce the view taken in this 

 article. He says : 



" Is it not time that some humane 

 person should make a movement in fa- 

 vor of the industrial education of the 

 rich? Since they must live in houses, 

 why should they not be taught some- 

 thing about them ? Defective masonry 

 means cracked walls and obstructed 

 doors ; defective carpentry means gen- 

 eral discomfort and an occasional crash ; 

 defective flues mean midnight fires ; 

 while defective plumbing and ventila- 

 tion mean diphtheria and death. 



" Let us at least teach them enough 

 to prevent them from being poisoned 

 by the plumber, dying ' as the fool 

 dieth,' like rats in a corner, in the lux- 

 urious homes which they themselves, 

 perhaps, have reared. Tims we have 

 read recently in the papers, of one man 

 who built an expensive and luxurious 

 house, and lost four children in one 

 month from diphtheria. Some three 

 years ago, I had in my school two bright 

 boys, the sons of intelligent and edu- 

 cated parents. A little brother at home 

 sickened and died ; then a little sister; 

 and then one of my scholars became 

 sick. A thorough examination of the 

 house was made, and a faint, musty 

 smell was traced to the bath-room. The 

 mother found, to her horror, that these 

 deaths were due to defective plumbing, 

 and that they might have been prevent- 

 ed. She fled in terror from the city, and 

 has never since returned." 



DR. DIX ON THE WOMAN QUESTION. 



From the amount of screaming and 

 denunciation in the newspapers, both 

 by editors and by correspondents, re- 

 garding Dr. Dix's lectures on woman, 

 we infer that somebody has been badly 

 hit, and that the doctor is to be paid 

 off in abuse. A lady, for example, 

 writes to the " World " : "I have ob- 

 served that Dr. Dix has made haste to 

 publish his Lenten lectures without 

 waiting for the close of Lent. This 

 alertness is creditable to the practical 

 and mercantile instincts of Dr. Dix. 

 His lectures will sell now if they are 

 ever to sell." Probably in anticipation 

 of such insinuations, the author has pre- 

 fixed a note to his volume from which 

 we quote a few words: "I ask the 

 reader of the following lectures to bear 

 in mind 1. That they were written 

 for my own people, and in the line of 

 my usual pastoral work. 2. That they 

 were not intended for publication. 3. 

 That I now give them to the public in 

 my own defense, because of the mis- 

 representation of my views by critics 

 who had not the means of knowing 

 exactly what I said, or all that I said. 

 They are printed just as they were de- 

 livered, with scarcely the change of a 

 word; and, in order to comply with 

 the request of the publishers that they 

 should appear at the earliest possible 

 day, I am obliged to omit adding a 

 large number of notes and quotations 

 by which, if more time were allowed 

 me, I should have endeavored to fortify 

 by strong authorities the position which 

 I have taken." Whether it was wise 

 in Dr. Dix to yield to the hurry of his 

 publishers, and send out his volume un- 

 fortified by the evidence at his com- 

 mand, may be a question ; but that it 

 was done in compliance with their 

 wishes shows that his own preference 

 was otherwise, and sufficiently relieves 

 him from the mercenary imputation of 

 the " World's " correspondent. 



Dr. Dix is entitled to have his read- 



