The Indianapolis journal., 1896-12-27
DICkENS'S LONDON.
It's landmarks Fast Giving Way to
COmmercialism.

London Letter in Boston Transcript.
In no modern city is mere antiquity in
than in London. In none other are so
many spots held sacred by reason of an
cient memories and associations. When
stern utility does raj = its Vandal hand
against some such monument the neceS-
Sity must be very great which can COM
pass its destruction.
coUntrymen have paid to Dickens is the
public sentiment which has preserved more
the spots which his pen has vested with a
real and living interest. The march Of
change and Improvement in London is slow,
but just at this moment it threatens and
has. indeed, already invaded the squalid
little district of which 1.-The Old Curiosity
Shop is the center and which the. great
novelist made the scene of his best-known
romances. Several of the old landmarks
have already been pulled down and others
will disappear within few weeks. 1t Is
a matter of some significance that this
work has not excited a word of public pro-
test 1t serves to emphasize the fact which
has more than attracted my. attention
of Dickens in England at all events has
suddenly fallen into allegiance: The rising
English generation certainly does not read
the great novelist with the eager avidity
with which his contemporaries devoured
all his works. 4 merely record the fact.
I leave it to the critics to analyze and ex-
plain il.
The invasion of Dickens's London now in
progress has for its field of operations that
SQudllQ
center of the metropolis. situated between
the Strand and Fleet street on the south
and Holborn on the north. 1t includes
tenements and slums which reasons OF
safety and sanitation would soon render
uninha bita BILE 1T was only .!, the other day
torn down. The ancient style of shop front
belongs to long bygone days The bulk. as
it was called, consisted of a broad board
or bench in front of the shop window
which was partially protected by the over
hanging pent above. These old bulks made
the bed of many a Creub-street penny-a-
unluckiest days often got nights rest
upon one. and Nat Lee passed from "a
waking " on n'e bulk Tx in Clare Market. nv
1t is the Old Curiosity Shop which will be
most lamented among the relics now in
process of destruction There are unro-
mantle sticklers for fact who protest that
the landmark so long known as the Old
Curiosity Shop is not the true one immor-
talized by the great novelist. But it is no
use attacking the tradition connected with
the doomed building. If il is not the orig
inal curiosity shop. il is old enough and d.
lapidated enough to deserve the distinction
and nobody need begrudge ii the honor
during its remaining few days Of existence.
Several years ago IL threaIened TO collapse
great scene painter. and few others ef-
fected it's partial restoration simply on ac-
count of the tradition connecting It with
the scene of one of Dickens's greatest
stories
Lovers of "Pickwick' will sorrow to learn
that the original of the Maggie and
stump in whose parior Mr. Pickwick told
the story of the Queer Client. is also 10
disappear 1t has never been settled wheth-
er Dickens had the George the Fourth Tav-
ern or the Black Jack in mind when he
described the Maggie and Stump as sit
uated in court happy in the double ad-
vantage of being in the vicinity of Clare
Market and closely aDproximating to the
back of New Inn" This description. sup
posing it to have been really founded on
any particular building, more nearly fits
the George the Fourth Tavern at the en-
trance to this somewhat Walhalla of rogues
and yagabonds. Clare Market. than the
Black Jack next door. 1t is corner build
ing projecting over the narrow footway.
and supported by posts that spring from
the curbstones. the very house above all
others in the neiehborhood to have at
tracted the novelist's attention. The Black
Jack to the contrary. is a very ordinary
building. although its grirny frontage and
heavily-sashed windows become interesting
when IL Is known that from one Of its first
floor windows Jack Sheppard. the darling
of penny dreadfuls. escaped by jumping
into the street. with Jonathan Wild and his
Bow street runners in hot pursuit.
IT will no longer matter which building
rightly enjoys the distinction OF Dickens 5
notice. for both are going down before the