ast or Atocate—By, Horace Thororood. With an Epilogue by the Rt Mon: George Lora, hewn san Low). Allen @ Unwin, London lone w cusies This is a delightfully sympathetic suely" of the modern East End' London, and the author by personal sojourn' in that-community of Poot Brave Things has managed to gert picture which is pleasantly tree from unrestrained emotion afd. cynical Riperiorily alike. As one who follows inthe tracks of Charles Dickens, it natural that Me. Thorogood should [recall the great novelists inimitable characterization of cockney life, and the only. difference to. be' dioserned the Bast End of the 20th century 435 compared with its arly Victorian days is, possibly, a less qual mosphere' in the campaign poverty. Yet conditione "still eve Plenty of scope to the activities of Social' reformers:
'My Bethnal Green friend took me into one of these, built sbout seventy: years ago, a substantial stone struc Gare with' some 246 families living in t'"rwo tenements on each floor are often back to back. The washing and sanitary arrangements are on the pen. landings, open to anyone who Chooses tin use them. The dark stais are unswept, unwashed," the plaster scabbing off the ugly walls. Many of the hundreds of windows looking. on should the landlord bother "to. keep them repaired or decent?
Smart young siris issue from these hideous places every morning to Uhelt Mr. Thorogood meets the familiar argument that slum dwellers Uke living in slums by giving an exact copy of an essay written by a woman after removing from a Bethnal Green slum to one of the model flats of the Housing Association:
As regards us living in flats after! boeing demuceled in one oom nearby Poyner Street one could not Immager cre when being under these cond: tions fo-or not Nas vou have no worry" ¢8 Fenards "of the "accomodation should the children be naughty in any shape of form you can put. them to. bed ren you hed to boll Kettls of water but in an ordinary "washing bath Imagine the inconvenece It is. then have gas fires in the bed rooms which another assets for instance It you Rappen to £0 out. to. your relations I You have tu do I to put foming into a Palace and t mitch Pralg the "Astoelation fOr their fine Mr, Thorogood is realistic without being passionate. "His pictures the "widow landlady keeping her little house scrupulously clean, and content in her widowhood to find full satisfaction in playing the xame by her lodgers is absorbingly attractive. Mrs. Hobson. had bad her days enjoyment with her Tate husband in the usual round of humble music-ions fitted. to budert and tastes, but, thrown back on her own resources, she was quite content to forget all Mrs. Hobson was sitting by her' Wutchen stove waiting up for me, in She sat awhile placidly pondering over {he recollection. "But Tain been now for years." she added.
T must take her myself one night. I thought. "And then shook my head 'What Rood should' 1 bess" a. comte panion, now' that the Boller-Maker and Jon' Ship Bullder was dead and Game no more to take down that old pipe from the rack and sit with for the "wellcloved "Move? He. had one. and the days of her Life lay "like Yeaves at her feet. With a ttle tremble of the lins. I left her and went to bed.
Mr. Thorogood enjoyed his stay in Poplar and. the depression which the economic situation created in his mind was replaced eventually by a sense of the courage of the men and. women of Poplar in adversity:
How stupid it is of us whose uci ig'so"much better" than Poplar's fo plume ourselves on being honest, of kind, or industrious when those 'Qualities ere common form among' the rear majority of these. people whom they bring so litre advantage Which we should consider. material!
Why do they "stand for" it. T often wondered. T'think It is because the life has compensations of "which we fare unaware, It is, for instance, absorbingly Interesting, ving in a crowded community in which nearly everyone Iifets'am exerting serial story in which fete excling seal sory 1 tne ist always teaing Dew pleader rsa play, In which ce constantly failed upon to improvise a sare Impose for them to he bored. They Brewery, wise shout Suman nature, tery good juggle of character and since they ten "monty "ough tie afew, they, tenor. ever ming "sume. There ie plcbty of lotghie® ant.
This Is.the philosophy of poorer London, and comfortable. people Should pay heed to Mr. Thorogood's "The slums are not much credit to asi Ginipotence"by "whom everpihing that in te ordained, Wei tel rave Humanity in the slum native there sojourning thereto help thave live fe-tnem_ which shows fo mer at Took Back' on Poplar. the only Inrable thing' could find in tem one of those who stayed on in-Rusgia atter the Revolution, and though as-approving of Communist politic! theories, et dia her best to work for the new" Tusia, Hesse "of hor father she was allowed to organize his "estate, Yasnala."Pollana, into a communal estate and establish schools Where religious and mlltarstic ques. tions were not discused in detevonce {o "Tolstoy's passionate. Christianity Sha pecltam, But her work was heart-breaking. Oficious Kamsomolsemembars of the Communist Youth Orgenization cons tinually interfered with the schoo! and
Teligious meetings; again and. again without "hee persian held" ant She had ficulty in getting sume tent food for the people onthe estate, although it produced rich crops And then in the midst of ital abe was Imprisoned for having allowed meet: Ings to be held in her dat, not know. Ing' that they Were countersrevoluonery. 'The governor of the prison was corrupt and Kept most of the {ood Supplied for the prisoners hima seit hey were fet on. 201, made om proven potato peslingo and millet cereal. The" prison was' a ancient tonasiery, ud the nights were made hideous by the quarrels and' shrieks of the thieves and' prostitutes" who Shared the prison, digging up elo raves of monks to look for tewels The book is bleed by Mr. George Lansbury, whose own Sealey ments for the Benet of London will "remembered when many of "his Pollial adventures are" forgotten En
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.