New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-12-15
LITTLE DORRIT.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
BOOK THE FIRST -. POVERTY.
CHAPTER |.
IN TWO BOOKS.
SUS AND SHADOW.

I SUI. ore cay.
blazing sun upon fierce August day was n,
greater rarity IN Southern France then, than a
any other time. before or siuce. Everything in
Narcotics, and about Mnseilles hal stared Sc the
ieryld sky aid been stared st in return, uotil 8
staring habit hsd become unive sal taere Ssrap.
gers were stared out OF c)untenaIce By staring
white houses, star Dg white walls staring white
sueels staflrg tracts of arid road, staring hills
fr' which Veidure ~as burnt away. The only
things TO re seen not h1edly staring and garinQ
were the wires dropping under their load of frames
These Old occasionally WAX little as the hot air
barely moved their faint leaves.
! There was no wind 10 make ripple on the foul
| wster within the harbOr, CT on the beautiful se,
without. The line Of demarcstop bet Teen the
! two coors, black sDd blue sho red the point which
the pure sea would not pass but il lay as quiet 81
/ the SbOmiDable pool, sith which IL never mixed
! Boats without awnings were too hot to touch
ships bstered st their moorings; the stones of the
qusys bad not cooled, night or day. for months.
HlDdOCs, Russians, Chinese, Spanlsrds, rtu
| guese RI glisbmeD, FreDchm-n, Genoese, NeapOli-
tsrs. VeDetians, Greeks, Turks, descendants from
! all the builders Of Babel come to trace at Mar.
seilles, sought the shade ike-t4kipg refuge in
any hiding psce from a sea too in 'eusely blue t.
be looked at, and sky If purple set with one
great tlsmDE jewel Of fire.
The universal stare made the eyes ache To-
ward the distant line Of Italian coast indeed. Ii
was little relieved BY light clouds of mist slowly
rising, from the evaporation of the sea but i. soft
ened no here else Far away the staring roads,
deep in dust stared from the hills stared from
the hollow, stared from the nterminable plain
Far away the dusty vines overhanglng wsyside
cottages, and the mOnOtOnOus wsyside avenues Of
parched trees without shade dropped beneath the
stare Of earth and sky 80 did the horses with
drowsy bells in loUg files of carts creeping slowly
toward the interior; so did their recunbent
drivers, wben they we're awake, which rarely hap
peIed go did the exhausted lsbOrers il the fields
Every thing that lived or grew, was oppressed BY
the glare; except the lizard passing swiftly over
rough stone walls and the cicsla chipping his dry
hot chlrp, like rattle. The very dust was
scorcbed brown, and something quivered in the
atmosphere as if the air itself were painting.
Blinds, shutters curtains, awnings, were all
slcsed and drawn to keep out the stare Giant it
but cbnk key hole and it shot ia like q white
hot arrow. The churches were the free st from it.
To come out Of the twilight Of pillars and ar hes
dresmily dotted with @lnhiRg lamps, dreamlly
peopled with sgy old shadows piOasly doing,
splitting, and begging was to plunge into fiery
river, and SWIM for life to the nearest strip of
shade. So, with people lOunging and lying where
ever shade was Nth but lit 10 hum of tongues or
barking Of dogs, with occasional angling OF dscord
ant church bells, and ra ting of vicious drums
Marseilles, fact to be strongly smelt and tasted
lay brOlDg In the sua one day.
In Msrst lies that day there wasa yillainOus pris
on. 10 one OF its chambers, 80 repulsive place
that even the obstrusive stare bnked at it, and
left II to such refuse of reflected light as it could
find for itself were two men. Besides the two
DeD, nCiched and dls6gured bench, immOvable
from the wall, with a drsught board rudely hacked
upon il with knife, q set of draughts, made of
old buttons and soup bones, a set of dominoes, two
mats ano two or ee wine bottles That was
all he al hpr
sDSeen yermin, in addition to the seen yerma, the
two men
1t received such light IS 1t got, through graf
ing of iron bars, fashioned like pretty large
" ndow, by means of which it could De always
iDsp cited from the gloomy staircase on which the
grating gave. There was broad strong ledge of
stone TO this grating. wht re the bottom Of it was
let into the Us,Onr, three or four feet above the
ground. Upon it one of the two men lolled, half
sitting and bali ly ing with his knees drawn up
and his feet and shoulders planted against the
opposite sizes of the aperture. The bars we're
WIDE enough apart to admit Of his thrusting his
arm through TO the elbow and 80 he held on neg
LseItly for his greater ease.
A prison tslbt vas on everything there. The
imprisoned air, the imprisoned light, the impris-
oil ed damps, the imprisoned men, were all detero-
rated by confinement. As the captive men were
faded aid hsggird, 30 the iron rusty, the stone
was smy, the wood was rotten, the air was faint,
the light was dim. Like we'll like vault like
8 tomb, the prison had 40 knowledge Of the bright
ness outside and would have kept its polluted
atmosphere intact in of the spice islands of The
Indian Ocean.
/ he msu who lay on the ledge of the grating was
even chilled He jerked his great cloak more
heavily upon him by an inpatient movement ofone
shoulder, and grOwed, To the devil with this
Brigand of sun that never shines in here"
lie was waiting to be fed looking sidewa
through the bars, that he might see the further
down the stairs, with much Of the expression Of a
" lid beast in similar expectation. But his eyes,
too clO,e together, wers not so nObly set in his
he ad those OF the krg OF beasts are in his. aud
they we're sharp rather than bright pointed weap
obs with little surf,ce to betray them. They had
no depth or change they glttered, add they
opened sDd shut SO far, and waving their use
to himself d clOckmaker could have made better
pair He had q hook nose, handsome after it's
kind but toe high between the eyes, by probably
lust as much as bis eyes were TOO near to one
sDotber For the rest, he was large and tall in
frame had thin lips, where his thick mustache
showed them at all, and quantity OF dry hair, Of
10 defrsble color, in its shaggy state, but shot
with red The hand with which ne held the
grating Steamed all over the back with ugly
scratches newly heole3) was unusually small and
plump; would have been unusually white, but for
the prison CRIME
TIE other man was lying on the stone floor,
covered with coarse brown coat.
Get up pig 9" growled the fret. Don't
sleep when / AIN hungry
Its all one, master said the pig, in sub
miss,ye m,Jner, and not without cheerfulness;
81 can woke when 1 will, can sleep when will
It's all The same.
A, be said IT, he rose shook himself, scratched
bim.elf. tied his brown coat loosely round his
mech by tie sleeves, he bad previously used 1t as
a coyeret and sat down upon the pavement
ya~nins with his back against the wall opposite to
the grating
Say ~bat the hour IT, grumbled the hrst man.
TIE mid daY bells will Tpg-in forty min.