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Margaret Wynne Nevinson - Workhouse Characters: And Other Sketches of the Life of the Poor (Classic Reprint)

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    Workhouse Characters: And Other Sketches of the Life of the Poor (Classic Reprint)
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Workhouse Characters: And Other Sketches of the Life of the Poor (Classic Reprint): summary, description and annotation

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Excerpt from Workhouse Characters: And Other Sketches of the Life of the PoorMany humane reforms and regulations for the classification of inmates were made in 1913, and the obnoxious words pauper and workhouse have been abolished; but before the authorities rightly grasped the changes the war was upon us, the workhouses were commandeered as military hospitals, the inmates sent into other institutions, and all reforms lapsed in overcrowded and under staffed buildings.Once again the Poor Law is in the melting-pot, and it seems as if now it will pass into the limbo of the past with other old, unhappy far-off things.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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WORKHOUSE CHARACTERS logo BY THE SAME AUTHOR IN THE WORKHOUSE A PLAY IN ONE - photo 1

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

PREFACE
These sketches have been published in various papers during the last thirteen years. Many of the characters are life portraits, and the wit and wisdom of the common people have been faithfully recorded in a true Boswellian spirit; others are Wahrheit und Dichtung (if one may still quote Goethe), but all have been suggested by actual fact and experience.
During the last ten years great reforms have been taking place in the country. In 1908 the Old Age Pensions Act came into force, and the weekly miracle of 5s. a week (now 7s. 6d.) changed the world for the aged, giving them the liberty and independence, which ought to be the right of every decent citizen in the evening of life.
The order by which a pauper husband had the right to detain his wife in the workhouse by "his marital authority" is now repealed. A case some years ago of this abominable breach of the law of Habeas Corpus startled the country, especially the ratepayers, and even the House of Commons were amazed at their own laws. The order was withdrawn in 1913 on the precedent of the judgment given in the case of the Queen v. Jackson (1891), when it was decided "that the husband has no right, where his wife refuses to live with him, to take her person by force and restrain her of her liberty" (60 L. J. Q. B. 346).
Many humane reforms and regulations for the classification of inmates were made in 1913, and the obnoxious words "pauper" and "workhouse" have been abolished; but before the authorities rightly grasped the changes the war was upon us, the workhouses were commandeered as military hospitals, the inmates sent into other institutions, and all reforms lapsed in overcrowded and understaffed buildings.
Once again the Poor Law is in the melting-pot, and it seems as if now it will pass into the limbo of the past with other old, unhappy far-off things.

CONTENTS
PAGE
EUNICE SMITHDRUNK
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
"WIDOWS INDEED!"
THE RUNAWAY
"A GIRL! GOD HELP HER!"
ON THE PERMANENT LIST
THE PAUPER AND THE OLD-AGE PENSION
THE EVACUATION OF THE WORKHOUSE

WORKHOUSE CHARACTERS
EUNICE SMITHDRUNK
The Ball no question makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Here and There as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd you down into the Field,
He knows about it allHe knowsHe knows.
"Eunice Smith, drunk, brought by the police."
The quaint Scriptural name, not heard for years, woke me up from the dull apathy to which even the most energetic Guardian is reduced at the end of a long Board meeting, and I listened intently as the Master of the workhouse went on to explain that the name Smith had been given by the woman, but her clothes and a small book, which the doctor said was Homer, in Greek, were marked Eunice Romaine.
Eunice Romainethe name took me back down long vistas of years to a convent school at Oxford, to the clanging bells of Tom Tower, to the vibrant note of boys' voices in college chapels, to the scent of flowers and incense at early celebrations, to the high devotions and ideals of youth, to its passionate griefs and joys. Eunice Romaine had been the genius of our schoolone of those gifted students in whom knowledge seems innate; her name headed every examination list, and every prize in the form fell to her; other poor plodders had no chance where she was. From school she had gone with many a scholarship and exhibition to Cambridge, where she had taken a high place in the Classical Tripos; later I heard she had gone as Classical Mistress to one of the London High Schools, then our paths had separated, and I heard no more.
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