Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-04-17
VILLAINS IN NOVELS.
HOW SOME oFTHE FAMOUS AUTHORS
DISPOSE OF THEM.

4 Oh men
| and Women of Crime.
| Dickens is responsible for most en-
| tertaining gallery of rogues- Quilp (the
distorted DWARF and Rogue Riderhood
| (the ruffian) alike terminate their ex
| istence in watery grave Ralph
Nickleby, Gashford and Jonas ChuzZle-
| wit take their own lives, while Uriah
Heep, Squeers and Littimer leave their
| country for their cOuntry's good in
| garbs gratuitously provided by govern
| ment and freely embossed with ''broad
| arrows.
Perhaps the most grewsOme of Dick
| ems death scenes is that provided by
the face of the ever smiling Carker, into
| which the irresistible locomotive is i'm
pressed. probably for the first time in
the history of fiction.
SCOTS villains most frequently meet
with violent deaths at the hands of 9th
ers, often their accomplices, or commit
suicide on the eve of discovery and dis
grace But the sensation lover has
nevertheless been catered for in the
death of Anthony Foster. the accom-
plice of the poisoner Richard Varney.
This miserable wretch is depicted as
hiding from his pursuers in Il secret
cell The entrance to this is fastened
by means of spring lock, Of which,
however, he omits TO retain the key,
with the consequence that he eventually
perishes miserably of mingled fear and
famine.
Lytton's might and Morning gives
us the coiner Gawtrey, who meets his
fate at the hands of the Paris police,
from whom he is attempting to escape
when a pistol shot drops him over the
side of n house to perish miserably.
This idea of falling from height is by
no means confined to Lytton. 1t is util-
lied by Anthony Hope in "Phroso''
and by Stanley Weyman in Under the
Red Robe, " where the villain and his
victim fall from lofty bridge into q
seething torrent below. In this way,
too, Conan Doyle killed the immortal
Sherlock Holmes. who, fast locked in a
struggle with 1.-The greatest villain of
them all, ." falls over an Alpine preci
pice.
Wilkie Collins brings his principal
villain, the double faced. calculating
Count FCsco, to an ignoble end, he dis
appearing for Il time, only to reappear
upon the CHASTITY shelves of the Paris
mOrgue. a still more CHASTITY fate is
that of the she fiend, GaSool. immortal
lied by Rider Haggard in king Solo
mons Mines" Having conducted
Quatermain, Curtis and party into
that celebrated monarch's rock hewn
treasury, which is guarded by n pom
derous rising door of living rock. she
touches a secret spring, by means of
which the door begins once more to de- |
scend with u slow but irresistible mo-
ton.
While the Erglishmen are sizing up |
the jewelry she makes off through the |
rapidly lessening aperture. Her progress |
is temporarily arrested by the unfortu- |
nate girl FOulata, whom she stabs in |
order to free herself. Hurriedly scram-
bling over the threshold, she is caught |
by the memorable force which she has
herself put in motion. and a realistic
ally dramatic ''scrunch" puts an end |
forever to the Vaccinations of this |
truly horrible old woman.
Svengali. like SCOTS Templar in
''Ivanhoe, dies from an excessive
mental strain acting upon the heart,
while to bark back to the days of the
bluff Doctor of Fleet Street. the gentle, |
genial hearted Goldsmith is contented |
to reform the rakish Squire ThornhiIl |
in order that he may at last become the
exemplary spouse of the gentle Olivia,
around whom he wove that enhancing
ly simple narrative. THE Vicar of /
Wakefield. -
Finally, the palm for writing lurid'
may fairly be accorded Harrison Aims
worth for his thrilling disposal of the
two ghoulish wretches who haunt the
pages of his celebrated novel, "Old
Saint Paul's." The creatures who bat
tened upon the spoils of the dead and
dying during the great plague were
wont to stow their i'll gotten gains in
one of the cathedral vaults. The cathe-
dral taking fire. they hasten thither in
order to rescue their precious hoard.
The greed of gain, however, misleads
them into sojourning just a moment
too long.
As they turn to leave the now sitting
vault they see that a thin silvery
stream is making its way down the
stairs, by which alone they can gain
an exit. Even as they look it thickens
perceptibly. and before they can escape
the whole stairway is blocked, and the
vault about them begins to fill with the
silvery liquid When ii is added that
the harmless looking fluid is nothing
more or less than the molten lead from
the roof and windows of the cathedral.
it will become apparent that even Mr..
Gilbert's something with boiling oil
in it" Possesses a dangerous rival in the
pages of '.Old Saint Paul London
Standard.
A Lsc-nan's Way. |!
v Il