The Other Half ; John Worby's Life. (Dent. 8s. 6d.)
Love Among the Lice
IN writing his autobiography Mr. John Worby has employed the technique of the magic lantern. His purpose is to tell library-subscribers how the other half of the world lives ; and so (his half being the submerged tenth of vagrants, larcenists and degenerates) we are shown one ingenuous slide after another : The Orphan, Back to the Orphanage, The Emigrant, The ..Pervert, The Bum, and so on through the whole catalogue of underworld charactery, with a few explana- tory words to string the slides together.
As a social document the book haS little worth, Ifor the author doea not see the community he describes in relation to the rest of the world. But this is no reflection on its worth as a SiMile narrative. There can be no doubt that Mr. Worby knows well the life he describes, knows it so well, indeed, that as an underworldling I experienced many a pang of envy whilst reading his book. Only a lifetime of experience in the cloacae could furnish so unfaltering a knowledge of criminal argot ; and the story of his early years as an American hobo is alive with truth. It is only towards the end of the book that one gets an uncomfortable feeling that the author is dis- torting his native simplicity of statement to the salacious appetites of the tuppenny library-addict. This is a pity, for it is the second half of the book, where Mr. Worby returns to England and begs and steals his ,way from London to John O'Groats and back, that has most interest for English readers.
Strange incidents and strange encounters abound in this book, at least one of them rivalling, in its sheer human poig- nancy, anything the novelists have given us. Telling of a fugitive sex-adventure while on the road in America, Mr. Worby describes how he baked the lice out of his clothes with the help of a girl-hobo ; and how, the morning sun awakening the virility in his naked body, the ponderous burden of humanity was _thrown off and they sported and loved together. with the fine simplicity of. animals.
A fine simplicity is indeed the outstanding virtue of the author. It enabled him to live moderately in a most im- moderate environment. It moved in him that unresting Wanderlust which is ,M essence a flight. froth the complexities of civilisation. And it hasgiVeri him a7direet, vivid narrative style which males this„Odyisey of" an orphan very readable. A glossary of cant-words is provided for the uninitiated.
Deltas
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