sims is best-remembered for his dramatic monologue from "the dagonet ballads" that opens "it is christmas day in the workhouse". its zealous social concern aroused public sentiment and made sims a strong voice for reform, dramatising the plight of suffering londoners. he also contributed numerous articles from 1879 to 1883 about the bad condition of the poor in london's slums in the "sunday dispatch", "daily news" and other papers. many of these were later published in book form, such as "the theatre of life" (1881, fuller), "horrible london" (1889, billing and sons), "the social kaleidoscope", and "the three brass balls". in particular, in 1881, sims and frederick barnard wrote a series of illustrated articles entitled "how the poor live" for a new journal, "the pictorial world". this was published in book form in 1883. he also wrote many popular ballads attempting to draw attention to the predicament of the poor. these efforts were important in raising public opinion on the subject and led to reform legislation in the act of 1885.