THE BIG CITY:

A Human Study of London, by Robert Sinclair. New York:Reynal and Hitchcock.

Those who thought Margaret Halsey's With Malice Toward Some was an indictment of our English friends should read Sinclair's factual analysis of London life. Middletown, U. S. A., becomes some kind of Utopia, and Chicago, to which the English are always referring with pious horror, appears as something between Pasadena and Valhalla, in comparison with the author's analysis of London. Most of us see London romantically, but here displayed is the naked, horrible and sad truth. If, as we hear, England's sun is setting, one of the reasons is laid open in this book. Probably we can point no finger of scorn ourselves, but in sanitation and cleanliness we must be far ahead. I wonder what the English think of this cold and objective analysis. In the light of their history it seems almost like some kind of poetic justice. I should like to see a similar book done on New York, Boston, Chicago, or Detroit.