Workhouse Characters, and other sketches of the life of the poor.

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PREFACE

CONTENTS

EUNICE SMITH DRUNK

DETAINED BY MARITAL AUTHORITY

A WELSH SAILOR

THE VOW

BLIND AND DEAF

"AND, BEHOLD, THE BABE WEPT"

"MARY, MARY, PITY WOMEN!"

THE SUICIDE

PUBLICANS AND HARLOTS

OLD INKY

A DAUGHTER OF THE STATE

IN THE PHTHISIS WARD

AN IRISH CATHOLIC

AN OBSCURE CONVERSATIONIST

MOTHERS

"YOUR SON'S YOUR SON"

"TOO OLD AT FORTY"

IN THE LUNATIC ASYLUM

THE SWEEP'S LEGACY

AN ALIEN [1]

"WIDOWS INDEED"

THE RUNAWAY

"A GIRL! GOD HELP HER!"

ON THE PERMANENT LIST

THE PAUPER AND THE OLD-AGE PENSION [2]

THE EVACUATION OF THE WORKHOUSE

WORKHOUSE
CHARACTERS

 

logo

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

IN THE WORKHOUSE

A PLAY IN ONE ACT

The International Suffrage Shop, John St., Strand, W.C.2 (6d.)

Press Notices

"Dull talk none the less offensive because it may have been life-like."—Daily Mail.

"The piece though mere talk is strong talk."—Morning Advertiser.

"The play is clean and cold and humorous. The main value of the piece is that it is a superb genre picture. One or two of the flashes from this strange, generally unknown world are positive sparks of life."—Sheffield Daily Telegraph.

"I found it interesting and convincing; but then I am prepared to believe that our laws always will be rotten till lawyers are disqualified from sitting in Parliament."—Reynolds'.

"The masculine portion of the audience walked with heads abashed in the entr'acte; such things had been said upon the stage that they were suffused with blushes."—Standard.

"Delicate matters were discussed with much knowledge and some tact."—Morning Post.

"'In the Workhouse' reminds us forcibly of certain works of M. Brieux, which plead for reform by painting a terrible, and perhaps overcharged, picture of things as they are.... The presence of the idiot girl helps to point another moral in Mrs. Nevinson's arraignment, and is therefore artistically justifiable; and the more terrible it appears the better have the author and the actress done their work.... Such is the power of the dramatic pamphlet, sincerely written and sincerely acted. There is nothing to approach it in directness and force. It sweeps all mere prettiness into oblivion."—Pall Mall Gazette.

"It is one of the strongest indictments of our antiquated laws relating to married women. A man seated behind the present writer called the play immoral! and as Mrs. Nevinson says in her preface to the published edition, the only apology she makes for its realism is that it is true."—Christian Commonwealth.

"The whole thing left an unpleasant taste."—Academy.


Note.—Two years after this piece was given by the Pioneer Players the law was altered.


WORKHOUSE
CHARACTERS
AND OTHER SKETCHES OF
THE LIFE OF THE POOR

BY MARGARET WYNNE NEVINSON

L.L.A.

 

The depth and dream of my desire,
The bitter paths wherein I stray.
Thou knowest Who hast made the Fire,
Thou knowest Who hast made the Clay.
One stone the more swings to her place
In that dread Temple of Thy Worth—
It is enough that through Thy grace
I saw naught common on Thy earth.
Rudyard Kipling.

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1


Almost the whole of these sketches have appeared in the Westminster Gazette; the last two were published in the Daily News, and "Widows Indeed" and "The Runaway" in the Herald. It is by the courtesy of the Editors of the above papers that they are reproduced in book form.

 

First published in 1918

(All rights reserved.)


TO MY SON

C. R. W. NEVINSON


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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