New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-27
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
pIrT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE.
PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE. BY CIA N'

That class of fiction which we may designate as
the Reform Novel is apt TO be bore, insuiieIable IN
exact proportion to the excellence OF It's purpose
The combination of the useful and amusing in tera-
ture is something we hear great deal about IN
newspaper notices and booksellers advertisements.
but practically il is one Of the rarcst things in the
world for though authors attempt II often enough,
II generally turns out that their instruction is not at
all entertaining and people shun II as they would
didactic drama Sometimes the result Is Just the
reverse: the pleasure remains, the prohU us
appears. That is the case III George
Fliots Felix Holt" The author had APP
parently a political lesson to convey IN that
admirable work: but the instinct of the novelist
fortunately triumphed the purpose of the poll
tcion and The lesson was allowed to be lost for the
sake of the story Mr. Disrach had both political
and q religions purpose in Lothian" but a ddac
tie composition the novel is entire failure, partly
because Mr. Dsraoli has not sufficient art to be in
structive and entertaining at the same time, and
partly because he lacks the depth of conviction
which the writer of Novels with Purpose always
should possess. Three prominent nOvelsts however
have succeeded where many have failed. The
least artistic but most earnest Of the three wrote
"Unclc Toms Cabin and how deeply the lesson of
that book sank into the peoples heart no one need
be told. The greatest artist Of the three wrote
"Pickwick" and Nicholas Nicklcby" and Oliver
Twist" and BLEAK House." and England learned
the lessons of suffering and wrong in her debtors
prisons her Yorkshire schools, her wCrk-hOuscS,
and her Court of Chancery. The measuring of forces
is not subtle enough discover the precise weight of
these novels in reforming the abuses which they
posed but all the world thanks Dickens for the
suit The third of the novelists to whom we have re-
ferred has conveyed lessons of reform hardly less
striking than those of "Oliver Twist" When he
wrote Never Too Late to Mend' he laid bare the
hor Ia ol,u of Sb VIII he WI
every Hard Cash" he exhibited the still more horr-
BILE interior of the private mad-house. We were
equally moved by his facts and entertained with his
fiction. UnqUestOnably by those two novels Charles
Reade made himself public beneiactOr, without
ccaSing he Of the most exciting and animated
Of story-tellers. In his latest novel he attacks
another abuse quite as bad as the abuses he has
attacked before. He has done it with
all his accustomed skill, deity interweav-
ing the exposures with a vigorous and
ingenious narrative and an abundance of broad
dramatic effects; that put Yourself in His
Place" will rank believe, nearly as high in popu-
laTy as the best of his previous novels, though its
practical result in the reform of abuses Will be small
This is because the abuses to which II points namely
the tyranny and Outrages of Trades Unionism. are
the manifestations of one of the most difficult of
social problems Neither Mr.. Reade, nor perhaps
any other man in EHgland, has yet reached the sou-
ton of it, and while the mutual relations of capital
and labor. production and population remain on
their present false basis, Trades UnOnism seems TO
be an inevitable evil. The crimes which MIR. Reade
describes among the grinders and flc-cutters of
Hillsborouch would be thought too mOnstrous even
for a work of fiction, did we not know that they
were exactly parallel by the occurrences at
Sheffield disclosed by a Parliamentary Commission
only three years ago The Sheffield Unions did just
what Mr. Reade describes. They exercised terror
ism over both masters and workmen. They de-
stroyed the machinery of obnoxious owners, or IN
extreme cases blew up their works II bricl-makers
took contract against the prohibition of the Unions
the clay was secretly filled with needles to destroy
the mems hands. No man could work except on GER
tain oncrous and unjust conditions. If he persisted
after ole or two anonymous warnings gunpowder
was thrown down his chimney while he sat in the
midst of his family or his house fred OF powder
was mixed with the Goals in his forge Sometimes
an order went forth from the Secret Council OF the
Union and desperate received so or &l5 TO way
Law the obnoxious hand and do for him." There
were various grades Of this operation. The
commonest method to main the
victim. either by a pistol-shot or a cudgel,
40 that he could work no longer The disability was
made permanent or temporary according to order.
Sometimes there was a resort to actual murder and
for this the price was little higher. The Unions
of course always pretended to be shocked at the
crimes and offered small reward for the discovery
of the perpetratOr. 1t is true, Mr. Rcade repre-
sens it in his story that the completely of the Unions
was traced out by the perseverance of courageous
newspaper editor of the town. II Is true that this
brave man denounced them, in the face Of repeated
threats and assaults. until he obtained Parliament
fary Inquiry. Several of the guilty men confessed
on promise Of immunity, and among them was the
moving spirit OF the whole system of crime, the Old
Man of the Mountain. at whose word muTdereTs went
out into the night, with their airgms,
and powder-cans, and other deyish in
struments of doing for" those against
whom the Unions had grudge. In the novel this
person is an inn-keeper, grinder and Secretary
IF the SawGrindeTs Union, and his name Is Grotait.
In reality he also was an inn-keeper an eXgrndcr,
and Secretary Of the Saw-Grinders' Union, and his
name was Broadhead, Of which Grotait, it will be
SEEM is only translation into phonetic French.
Besides the narrative of these transactions which,
except for the admirable style, might almost have
been copied from the Parliamentary report so close
is it to the truth, Mr.. Reade has given some Of his
very best work in the line of sensational description.
Such for instance is the bursting Of the great
yoir and the destruction of several villages by the
food 1t fills several chapters, but only find
room for the following passages:
BY and by Ransome looked up and observed a thin
shee of water beginning stream the center Of
the embankInent and trickle down. the quantity was
nothing but il alarmed him. Having special knOwl-
edge on these matters. he driven TO comparisons
and IL fla ned across him that when he boy and
used make little mud dams IN April they would resist
the tiny stream until II T1cked over tDeI ana from lat
moment their tate was scaled Nature ne Etu observed
operates alike small things and great and that sheet
Of water, though thin a. a wafer, alarmed him. .
He thought 10 was better TO give false warning than
To Withhold one; he ran 10 his horse, jumped on
him. and spuTrcd away.
back TO EIudeis farm. The farmer ldd