The San Francisco call., 1897-03-14
A CHILD OF THE JAGO.

N
12 Tales of Mean Streets" has written a
Az striking study of life as it is lived in the
poVerty-stricken portion of the East End of
London. The Jago, it should be premis is
tnat dis trct bounded on the south by Bethnal
Green road and on the west by the High
street, Shoreditch. These geographical data,
ind eating the scene of the story, are suffi-
cient to guarantee something realistic and
here we have 1t.
Sordid poverty, filth, crime-these form the
component parts OF much of Mr.. Morrison's
study as was to have been expected. Where
the character portrayed by him is not over
poweringly ugly il is unstable as water Our
author is most happy in his Josh Perrott, in
Dickey, his son, IN Aaron Weech, in the Rams
and the Learys. When he comes to describe
the parson. the small tradesman, the swell
thief, he approaches perilously near failure
Clearly Mr.. Morrison's forte is not in describ-
ing the ways of the 'hupper suckles."
The student of social conditions in large
cities viii find much of value in "a Child or
the Jsgo," for what is true of London can be
made to apply with equal force to Paris, New
York, Sydney or San Francisco. In each of
these cities cited at random can be found a
Jago, overerowded, diseas ase-infested, germ
breeding, where vice and poverty are daily
engaged in bitter struggle for supremacy,
where nightly the cry arises
o God that bread should be so dear
And flesh and blcol so cheap.
In London at least the area of these Jago dis
tr!cts is gradually becoming more and more
crcumscribed. The Saffron Hill OF to-day is
not what it was when it numbered among its
chiefest residents the Artful Dodger, Charles
Bates, Bill Sykes and Fagin. So with the
Shoreditch Jago, whose complete annihilation
viii only be matter of few years, thanks to
the capitalists who see sure source of inter
: in the f0nr nor dUa and n
the theorizers and dreamers Of better social
conditions. This brings US to what is the
dominant note of the book under review.
Mr.. Morrison spares no pains to make ii ap-
parent that he has vast contempt for those
persons lay and clerical who seem to think
that a considerable portion OF their mission in
lie is 10 visit the poorer quarters of their
cities in order to 'fameliorate the condition OF
the denizens thereof. 1t Is singular TACT that
the efforts OF these Emlnently Respectables
usually crystalline in q lecture upon some
sbstruse ethical or philosophical subject.
hall is hired, and handbills are issued TO the
effect that "Mr. So and-So will deliver lecture
on The Renaissance. Tea and cake free"
A umber of the Eminently Respectables are
on the platform to lend tone to the proceed.
ings. The submerged tenth are also there in
force, but not for the purpose of hearing
eulogy OF SavonaroIa. They come attracted
by the mercenary clause, "tea and cake free"
and at the close of the lecture the Eminently
Respectables depart, fully convinced that they
have participated in another exhibition of
practical philanthropy, and inwardly thank |
ing GOD that they are not like unto these |
men.
The author of ga Child of the Jago" has no |
compu notion in holding these Semi Divinities |
up to ridicule, and with justice. What the in
habitant OF the Jago wants is bread, not phil |
osophy, ana it were mockery to offer the as
piring East Ender the Higher Life, the Greater
Thought, the Wider Humanity, and other
radiant distractions in the comparative de-
gree. when soup, meat or coal tickets would
sootne his soul IN more satisfactory manner.
1t Is needless for our author to point out that
any improvement in the lot of the Jagoite
which may have been effected in recent years
is not by any means due to the efforts OF mis-
guided dabblers in philanthropy. None who
have studied the prob. EN- can doubt that the
solution is yet far off that m ost OF the schemes
put forward to 'civilize" the poorer classes are
dismal failures.
= And the reason for this is not hard to find. !
Those of the so-ealled lower classes who are
gifted with the most ordinary common-sense,
and whom it is desired to reach, object, and
properly So to the airs of superiority affected
by the aforesaid "Eminently Respectables,"
who condescend to p ace themselves in the
position of mentors. Here is an extract from
one of the earlier chapters OF ga Child of the
Jago" which nicely illustrates these facts
The scene is the opening of a new club, which
Mr. Morrison felicitouslY calls the East End
Elevation Mission and PansophIcal Institute"
The chairman of the committee is speaking:
He (the charman) reioiced to that day |
whereon The helping hand Of The West un- |
mistakably made apparent in the East. He re- |
jdced also to find himself in the midst of ad- |
mirably typical Assem- blage-so req resentative
If he might so, OF that great Last Ind Of Lon
don thirsting and crying out for-ior elevation;
for rthat-ah-elevation W fch the more fortunately
circumstanced den zens of-of oiher places had so
munificentiy-laid The people Of the East
End had been sadly misrepre- -entsd-in popular |
period Gals and in-in other ways. The East End |
he was convinced was not SO black as it was
painted TAppiause] He had but 10 look about |
.him-et cetera. ct cetera. He questioned whether
SO well conducted. morally given and respectable
ga herring could be brought together in any West |
End parish wi b which he acquainted. II was |
his most pleasant duty on this occasion-and so on
and SO forth.
This may appear the exaggeration OF novel. |
fst, but reference to the files of any news |
paper will show that such delightful conceits |
are perpetrated every day in the year. In the |
case cited one is almost gratifed TO note that
the speaker was rewarded for his patronization |
,y Dickey Perrott, who s'clicked" his massive |
hunter.
No: the West does not and never did under |
stand the East, and, given present conditions, |
never will. AS Mr.. Morrison says, the in
stitutions for the manufacture of the Superior |
Person from the Jago raw material are sup |
ported in London "by people who know less of
that part than of Asia Minor" This is liter
ally true, and the college bred philanthropist |
is laughed at for his pains. Who then is the |
benefactor OF the poor in big cities? Let the |
author of "A Child of the Jago" answer 1t is /
the man VINO builds tenement-houses (even as
a means of investmenD rather than he who |
erects '1nsiitutes"; soup kitchens rather. than
mission halls, and Who gives bread and meat |
and coal before lectures on evolution.
In q book like the one before us no writer
could avoid touching upon the sorely yexed
matter of Sweating" Here is q paragraph
that should afford food for thought to the
Eminently Re pectabies:
Then there was a more lucrative employment
Still but one TO b. looked for at intervals only:
one not to be counted at ALL in fact. for 1t
prize and many sought after it This was The
making Of ma ich- boxes For making l44 outside
ases with paper abe and sand-papsr, and The
same mum ber of trays TO slide into tbem-a gross
o. complete boxes, or 23S pieces In sll-on. rot
rwopenc efarthing: indeed. for special size one
even got farthing a gro more: and all lh- WOOD
and labss md the sand-paper we're provided free:
SO that the fortunate operative lost nothi out of
the twopence-farthng but the cost OF the paste
and the string or ty Ing up the boxes into regular
mum bered patches and the time employed In
the work and taking back again and
II Sc en- gross were be got and could be done In
a da--and Was really not very difficult the