Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-07-13
THE SQUEERS SCHOOL.
DOTHEBOYS HALL, WHICH CHARLES
 DICKENS PEN BROKE UP.


 A word of advice here to intending pilgrims: Do not allude to Charles Dick ems or to Squeers' school, except in the presence of those whom you know to be above common prejudices and animosi- ties. These subjects may be said, to use an expression more forcible than ele- gant, to stink in the nostrils of your true Bowes man. He believes that the vil- lage owes its decay entirely to the aboli- tion of Yorkshire schools in general and of Dotheboys Hall in particular. He points to the fact that whereas half century ago Bowes had close upon 2,O00 inhabitants, it has now short of 400. He has never read Nicholas Nickleby," nor would he if copy could be found in the place. If you question him about the school, he will either tell you hatly that ho knows nothing about it, or will evasively refer you to other places in- famous from their schools.
 Of course, all Bowes folk do not share these prejudices, as we shall afterwards see; but the broad fact remains that Bowes, which was ruined in common with many hundreds of country places standing on our great roads elsewhere by the withdrawal of the stage coaches, must be numored if the visitor hopes to reap any profit from his exploration.
 We pass by a grand old inn, once known as the George, now the Unicorn. and, with the little Norman church and the grim keep of the old Norman castle on our left, push on to Dotheboys Hall, which is the last house in the village.
 "A long, cold looking house, one story high, with a few struggling outbuildings behind and barn and stable adjoining" So we read The house itself is unal- tered, save that it is now decidedly the pleasantest and most cheerful looking dwelling in the village, with its creeper embowered windows looking on to a trim and well kept garden. The stable and barn, too, remain; but the outbuild- ings, in which was comprised the school house proper-the scene of the merciless thrashings, the starvation, the breaking of young hearts, the wrecking of young lives, the revolting misery and the blood stirring barbarity-they have long dis appeared.
 A woman's face looks out from lower window, and we are about to turn in at the front gate, but our guide stops us, saying: Mot that way! No admittance there! You would be asked if you wanted to buy the house, and have the door slammed in your face"
 So we follow the path and turn in through the barn door, This leads us into yard, where still stands the iden- tical pump which it may be remembered MT. Squeers discovered to be frozen the morning after the long coach ride from London.
 From here we enter the kitchen-cau- tiously and silently, for the servant tells us that if her master discovered us we should assuredly be turned out with ignominy. There is nothing remarkable in the kitchen-a lat5e, low, heavily raftered apartment-nor in the little room leading from it, which was the schoolmaster' study.
 But we finger long while as we gaze at the marks on the wall by the modern cooking range, where stood the copperc wherein were boiled the potatoes which formed principal part of the young noblemen's' food, and as we peer through the study window, which the boys were set to clean when they had satisfactorily spelled "w-i-n-d-e-r, winder," on to the garden, whither they were dispatched to hoe and rake on the attainment of tho word "bottiney," we ask if a great mum Der of people do not come here bound upon the same errand as ourselves? Int reply is that a great many come; bu that as they go to the front door they dt not get in at all, but have to conten themselves with an exterior view O Dotheboys Hall, so that we may deen ourselves lucky to have seen even tn, little we have.
 WHAT THE RESIDENTS SAY.
 So much for Dotheboys Hall itself Still more interesting is the information we managed to pick up from variou sources concerning Squeers and hi school
 All our informants, country clergy men, intelligent residents, ''oldest inhab | llclIISy dIu ouCll llcOINOS tto 01Q uOI lCc themselves in honor bound to keep thei mouths shut, agreed on one point, tha the system of Yorkshire schools wa monstrous and iniquitous to an incred ible extenti that frightful cruelties wer practiced upon the boys-who wer chiefly the illegitimate offspring of LOT don parents-but that the school typife by Charles Dickens was the only one t which he could gain access, and was tn best of the lot.
 But in other respects the evidence wa so conflicting that we must simply giv it without pronouncing any opinion o its value or the reverse. For instance one woman, a native of Bowes, who's sympathies one would naturally imae inc to be with the maigned Squeers, tol us that she distinctly remembered tl boys coming in summer time to her f; ther's field to help get in the hay, goade to the work of horses by ushers arme with whips.
 On the other hand, a gentleman who father, being a schoolmaster. used to { up to the Saracen's Head with and on u same errand as Squeers. declared tn the one eyed schoolmaster was an est
 mable man, who cared for his pupi
 properly and was generally respects and liked He further stated that | father related to him how he happens to be at the Saracen's Head with Squee
 after the Dotheboys Hall number
 Nicholas Nickleby" had taken the pu
 lie by storm: that the crowd literally [
 sieged the inn, with the intention
 lynching Squeers; that the conmoti'
 had such an effect upon the schoolmast
 as to deprive him of reason, and th
 Mrs. Squeers died of broken heart.
 Temple Bar.
 Moral: Don't Eat Them. One great drawback to life at Pittsbure
 the fact that you can't tell whether you ha
 peppered your egg or not until you hs
 tasted it.-Time.
 An Honest Man.