Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1900-05-31
VILLAINS IN NOVELS.
HOW SOME OF THE FAMOUS AUTHORS
DISPOSE OF THEM.

Examples of the Grewsome Fates
That Have Been Devised by the
Writers of Fiction For Their Men
and Women of Crime.
Dickens is responsible for most en-
tertaining gallery of rogues Quilp 1.-THE
distorted dwarf and Rogue Riderhood
1.-THE rufian) alike terminate their ex-
istence in a 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 Yarney.
This miserable wretch is depicted as
hiding from his pursuers in a secret
cell. The entrance to this is fastened
by means of a 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 pistol shot drops him over the
side of a 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 a
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 time, only to reappear
upon the CHASTITY shelves of the Paris
morgue A still more CHASTITY fate is
that of the she fiend Gagool, immortal
lied by Rider Haggard in liking Solo
mons Mines Having conducted
Quatermain, Curtis and party into
that celebrated monarch's rock hewn
treasury, which is guarded by 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 a slow but irresistible mo-
ton
While the Englishmen 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 inexorable 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 Scott's Templar in
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 Thornhill
in order that he may at last become the
exemplary spouse Of the gentle Olivia
around whom he wove that enhancing
ly simple narrative. 1.-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 4" 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 it 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's London
Standard.