WORKHOUSE CHARACTERS [Illustration: 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_