The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-01-24

the greatest immediate and lasting goot
ever done any nation by a single worl
of fiction was effected by the "NiChola'
Nlckleby" Of Charles Dickens.
During the early part OF the present
century the private schools, and paricu
larly the boys schools Of England, with
a few notable exceptions like that d
Rugby, we're the most infamous in the
world. If there can be superiority in
infamy, Yorkshire stood first and best
Dickens himself said OF its private
schoolmasters: TRADERS in the avarice,
Indifference or fmbecility Of parents
and the helplessnees Of children; ignor.
ant, sordid, brutal men, to whom few
confederate persons would baye en-
trusted the board and lodging Of horse
or dog; they formed the worthy corner
stone OF a structure which, for absurdity
and a magnificent high.minded tdtsSes
dlier neglect, has rarely been exceeded
In the world.
How Dickens grand and humane
genius came to espouse the cause OF the
hosts OF helpless and outraged children
in England Is a pleasing reminiscenCe oil
his magnificent literary career. The
English speaking world was still in rap.
lures over his first success under the
nom de plume OF BOZ" His publish.
ers, Chapman & Hall, Of London, had
Immediately engaged another work from
| his pen to appear In parts. Its plan and
scope were still subjects for discussion,
and, under the burdens and impoeitions
OF the young authors new relation to
men and things, o Rrievous and desper-
ste anxiety TO Dickens himselt. In
this condition Of unrest and per-
tuibation, there aoated into his mind
a misty rehabilitation OF his own
vague childish fancies regarding York.
ehire schools He tells Of these in his
own inimitable way in the last preface
| written by him for Nicholas Nickieby."
He Gays: ~ cannot call TO mind, now,
how I came to hear about Yorkshire
schools when l was not very robust
child sitting in by.places near Rochester
Castle, with bead full Of Partridge,
Strap, Tom Pipe and Sancho PaDza; but
| 1 know that my first Impressions Of
them were picked up at that time, and
that they were somehow or other con.
nected with suppurated ahscess that
some boy had come home With, in con.
sequence of his Yorkshire guide, phil.
osopher and friend having ripped 1t
open with an inky penkniteW !.
Here was opportunity for great and
merCiiul motive in fiction. With boon
companion, Hablot Browne, Dickensleft
London few weeks before Christmas Of
1887. The two made thorough pill.
grlmagt Of Yorkshire on the old post
chaiss routes, gathering, under all man
neroi pretenses, every possible fact bear
ing on the accursed system; consulting
files OF old newspapers in York and
neighboring cities for records OF damage
quits brought against proprietors OF these
schools for cruelty;. wheeling his way
into this obscure den and forcing his
way into that one; and, at last, in the re-
hottest and most dreary portion of north
trn Yorkshire, coming upon q nest
OF the dreadful places at and near
the then thriving village Of
Bowes. Here Dickens remained
for time. He had letters to yeoman
OF the place, soon to shine as one Of the
immortals OF fiction as honest John
Browdie." He represented himself as
agent Of a poor widow DESTROYS OF plae-
ing her only boy in a quiet country
school. In this way he secured admis.
sion to number in the vicinity, though
ahut out of some by the wary masters.
The school" seeming most suitable asa
prototype Of them all, from the personel
Of its savage owner aud his family,
with wild and desolate physical sur
roundinps in keeping with the hopeless
ness OF the school-lhe OF the place itself,
was the Dotheboys Hall, still stand
ing in Bowes, where Nicholas MCKEE
BY" his protege Ia misery the wretchsd
tSmiks," and scores Of other help
less young lives are depicted as uu-
derroiug an almost incorceivahle
life Of servitude, starvation and cru
city. Investigations showed that the
horrible picture drawn was not an exag-
Grafton, and bore out Dickens own state
ment in the original preface that "Mr:
Squeers and his school are faint aud
feeble pictures Of an existing reality,
purposely subdued and kept down lest
they should be deemed impossible"
This, Dickens second, and in some re-
gpeCts his greatest, novel was begun in
April, 1898, and finished in 0etnber, 1880
| Al the appearance Of the first part, he
ran sway from London, as he always
did, to remain in hiding until distinct
measure OF public favor or dislavor was
shown. In the case Of nicholas
Nlcklbyn his forgivable skulking was Of
short duration. The first days sale OF
lthe fret part exceeded $4,000 copies.
Not six months had passed before the
torture and cruelty to helpless scholata
| in these remote prison'Peps were a6ated,
and before the last chapter OF Nicholas
Nickleby" had been read, public feeling,
which in many portions Of the country
barely escaped expression in riot, had
annihilated every child.hell Of the
Dotheboys Hall variety in England.
Famous and infamous as Dickens
made Bowes, few in England had ever
before heard Of the village. To the mill
ions who learned BOwes-every oblecl
in It, its surroundings, every obiecl
lin It, and every room in Dothe'
boys Hall, by heart--it was o pnrs
" tictional town. 1 asked over $40 In
telliSent people in England where Bowet
was. and never found an individual who
knew until I came to KiIkby Stephen
In the moreland, sixteen miles away
Even In that town nobody seemed Il
know, until found rustic antiquarian
who had at one time discovered an ole
Roman coin at Bowes, and who alter
hard struggle, remembered where 1t lay
over beyond wild old Stanemoor noun
lain, 6Dead in It's she'll" IS he put 1t
in ending an a6iuration not to eros
stanemoor that day, unless willinl
to risk being blown from the
road into the rock.beds Of It's passes
or worse, meeting the bowling, feroCioul
waflock hays which, during every wilE
mountain storm, waylay belated travel
era al the lonely site OF Rere Gross. Blu
the pilgrimage was to rescue from, OBJ
iiyion the actual site Of a national in
fanny, and tx in the real geography 0
= literature the location and enytrons Of
/. spot, dim, fleeting and phantom:like y
ths minds Of millions in the old Worl'
and the new. No two stout American
r. .I.4.1- fraVya khtn AVIAN khnnBl