li'vn )r uf Reviews, IJH/'JS. 



THE BOOK OF THE MONTH. 



"RING IN THE NEW": A TOPICAL TALE OF THE TIMES.* 



London has had a horror of its own. In the 

 (Queen's Hall there has been held an exhibition of 

 sweated industries organised by the Daily Navs. 

 F,ver)body went to see it, as tourists at the Hague 

 <';o to see the collection of instruments of torture 

 which were used by 

 the Spanianls in their 

 \ain effort to crush 

 the revolt ot the 

 N a t h e rlands. And 

 everybody came away 

 with an even greater 

 ^ use of the mystery 

 (if the cruelty of this 

 torture chamber of a 

 world. At the Hague 

 there is at least the 

 comfort of feeling that 

 these engines of cruel- 

 ty belong to an epoch 

 from which we are 

 separated bv three 

 long centuries. Xot 

 even in the most be- 

 nighted countries in 

 Europe do men ply 

 the rack and use the 

 thumbscrew upon their 

 helpless prisoners. But 

 no such comforting re- 

 flection could be in- 

 \oked to dull the 

 sense of pain that was 

 left upon the sensitive 

 heart after leaving this 

 sample of the miseries 

 inflicted in the Inferno 

 of London poverty. 

 For this torture cham- 

 ber is with us to-day. 

 Its inmates who wear 

 out their eyes and 

 ruin their health in 

 •jweated industries, are 

 always at it. No slave- 

 driver with knotted scourge stands over them to see 

 that they perform their endless task. They are 

 legally free. Slavery has been abolished by statute. 

 Slaves cannot breathe in England. Torture has 

 long since been forbidden. But Hunger is the most 

 ri-morseless of taskmasters, and their labour is en- 

 forced on penalty of death. 



It is a'heart-sickening sight, the long procession of 



* ■ Hill- iTi Uie New." iiy Riclwrrt Wliiteiti},' (llutchinsim & Cc) 



l'hi/t<n,/ri{ph b;/] 



human beings toiling from earlv mom till far past 

 dewv eve to earn the miserable pittance which will 

 enable them to pay the rent and buy the crust without 

 which they and their little ones will perish. What 

 have thev done, these forlorn ones, that they should 



fie condemned to tiiis 

 |ienal servitude of the 

 slum? Why this un- 

 t-nding treadmill of 

 hopeless labour ? It is 

 idle to cry, " Cease, 

 vain questionings I"' 

 Ihe silent horror will 

 not down. 



What the Sweated 

 I ndustries Exhibition 

 IS to the rest of the 

 >hows of London Mr. 

 Richard Whiteing's 

 topical story, " Ring 

 m the New," is to the 

 ruck of the novels of 

 the month — with a 

 lifference. For the 

 Sweated Industries 

 Exhibition affords no 

 [i r o m i s e of better 

 things to come. It is 

 squalid horror unre- 

 lieved by even a 

 gleam of a better fu- 

 ture. Mr. Whiteing's 

 novel expresses the 

 sense of the horror of 

 the hunger - hunted 

 multitude, but it is 

 radiant with hope and 

 lull of promise of the 

 coming of a better fu- 

 ture. 



It is a topical stor\' 

 — more topical, I 

 think, than any story 

 that has appeared 

 since I published 

 fSlastus, ihe Kings Chamberlain," " The Splendid 

 Paupers,'' and "■ The History of the Mystery." It 

 is instinct with the life, the colour, and the move- 

 ment of London life in the year 1906. For the 

 deneral Election is in it, and the Independent 

 Labour Party, the Fabian Societs, and the Women's 

 Clubs. Dr. Emil Reich finds his niche, and Bernard 

 Shaw is well to the front. Dr. Furnivall is painted 

 from the life, the village players are well to the 



Mr Richard Wliitelng. 



E. H. ilittt. 



