The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1899-03-19
VILLAINS IN NOVELS.
,ow SOME oFTHE FAMOUS AUTHORS
" DISPOSE OF THEM.

nickens is responsible for most en- !
.,r,aining gallery of roguese Quilp the |
] .:a.orted dwarf and Rogue Riderhood /
IA9.be rufian) alike terminate their OK
;steuce in a watery grave. Ralph /
N;cklabv, C4ashford and Jonas Chuzzle- |
~ take their own lives. while Uriah |
uoon. Saueers and Littimer leave their |
snnntry for their country's good in
,arhs gratuitously provided by govern
n,ent and freely embossed with broad |
arrows.
PERHAPS the most grewsomc of Dick |
ors' death scenes is that provided by
,be face of the ever smiling Carker, into
which the irresistible locomotive Is i'm
,ressed. probably for the first time in
the history of fiction.
SCOTS villains most frequently meet
with violent deaths at the hands of 9TH
ors often their acccmplices, or commit
suicide on the eve of discovery and dis
grace. But the sensation lover has
nevertheless been catered for in the
doatb of Anthony Foster, the accom-
Mice Of the poisoner Richard Narney ,
This miserable wretch is depicted as
hiding from his pursuers i'll a secret
cell The entrance to this is fastened
bv means Of a spring lock, Of which.
bowever he omits to retain the key.
with the consequence that he eventually
nerishes miscrably of mingled fear and
famine.
Lytton : Might and Morning" gives
MS the coirer Gawtrcy, 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 a house TO perish miserahly.
This idea of falling from a 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
seething torrent below In this way.
too. Conan Doyle killed the immortal
Sherlock Holmes. who, fast locked in
struggle with the greatest villain of
them all falls over an Alpine preci
plce.
! Wilkie Collins brings his principal
| villain, the double faced. calculating
Count Fcsco, TO an ignoble end he dis
appearing for time only to reappear
upon the ghastlv shelves of the Paris
morgue \ still more CHASTITY fate is
that Of the She ticnd, Gagool, immortal
lied by Rider Haggard IN king Solo
mons Mines Having conducted
Quatermain. Curtis and party into
that celebrated monarch 5 rock hewn
treasury, which is guarded by "A l4on-
defous rising door>-0E living rock, She
touches a secret spring, 10y means Of
which the door beSlps once more to de
scend with slow hut irresistible mo-
ton.
While the EEglishmen are sizing up
> the jewelrJ she makes off through the
rapidly lessening aperture Her progress
is temporarily arrested by the unfortu-
nate girl Foulata, whom she stabs III
order to free herself Hurriedly scram-
bling over the threshold She is caught
by the inexorable force which she has
herself put in motion. and realistic
ally dramatic 'scruncL puts an cnd
forever to the Vaccinations Of thi.
4 truly horrible old woman.
a. SvengaH, like SCOTS Templar il
'Ivanhoe, dies from an excessive
Il mental strain acting upon the heart.
while. to harll back to the days of the
bluff Doctor of Fleet Street, the gentle,
genial hearted Goldsmith is cGntented
to reform the rakish Squire Thornhill
in order that he may at last become the
exemplary spouse of the gentle Olivia,
around whom he wuve that entrancing-
ly simple narrative The Vicar OF
Wakefield ~
Finally, the palm for writing lurid'
;, may fairly be accorded Harrison Aims
N1worth for his thrilling disposal of the
II two ghoulish wretches who haunt the
pages of his celebrated novel ''OlC
Saint Paul = 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 il
one of the cathedral vaults. The cathe
dral taking fire. they hasten thither il
order to rescue their precious hoard
The greed of gain, however, mislead'
them into sojourning just a momen
too long.
As they turn to leave the now stifiins
vault they see that Il thin sllvery
stream is making its way down tn,
stairs, by which alone they can gain
an exit. Even as they look it thicken
perceptibly. and before they can escape
the whole stairway is blocked and th'
vault about them begins to fill with tn,
sllyery liquid. When it is added tina
/ the harmless looking fluid is nothins
:. more or less than the molten lead from
the roof and windows of the cathedral
u It will become apparent that even Mr.
Gllbert's something with boiling OF
IN it Possesses a dangerous rival in tn
pages of "OId Saint Paul ) "-LondoI
Standard.
The CricLef's Chirp.