Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-12-24
sTAvE ONE.
Marley's Ghost.

Marley's Ghost.
Marley was dead, to begin with.
There is no doubt whatever about that.
The register of his burial was signed oy
q the clergyman, the clerk, the undertak-
er. and the chief mourner. Scrooge
SIGNED It. And Scrooges name was good
mon, Change for anything he chose to
put his hand to.
Old Marley was as dead as a door,
nail.
Mind! don't mean to say that l
know. of my own knowledge, what
there is particularly dead about door,
nail. / might have been inclined, my
self. to regard a coffin-nail as the dead
est piece OF ironmongery In the trade.
But the wisdom OF our ancestors is In
the smile; and my unhallowed hands
shall not disturb it, or the country
done for. You will therefore permit me
to repeat, emphatically. that Marley
was as dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead? Of
course he did. How could 1t be other
wise? Scrooge and he were partners 1or
don't know how many years. Scrooge
was his sole execution, his sole admins
traitor, his sole assign, his sole residuary
legatee, his sole friend. and sole mourn
err. And even Scrooge was not so
ireadfully cut UP by the sad event, but
that he was an excellent man of bust
ness on the very day of the funeral, and
solemnized It with an undoubted bar
gain.
The mention OF Marley's funeral
brings me back to the point / started
from. There is no doubt that Marley
was dead. This must be distinctly un-
lerstood or nothing wonderful can
come of the story I am going to relate.
II we were not perfectly convinced that
HamIet,s father died before the play
rnegar1, there would be nothing more re-
rnarkable In his taking stroll at night,
in an easterly wind, upon his own RAM
zsarts. than there would be in any other
1niddle-aged gentleman rashiy turning
ont after dark In a breezy spot,-say
+ Saint Pauf's churchyard for instance
literally to astonish a sons weak mine.
Scrooge never painted out Old Mar
ley's name. There it stood, years after
wards above the warehouse door:
Scrooge and Marley. The firm was
known as Scrooge and Marley. Some
times people new to the business called
Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Mar
lev hut he answered to both names. 1t
was all the same to him.
oh! but he was tight-fisted hand at
the grindstone, Scrooge! squeezing,
wrenching. grasping, scraping, clutch
ing. coyetous old sinner! Hard and
sharp as flint. from which no steel had
ever struck out generous fire; secret,
and self-contained, and solitary as an
oyster. The cold within him froze his
old features, nipped his pointed nose,
shrfyeled his cheek, stiffened his gait;
made his eyes red, his thin lips blue;
and spoke out shrewdly in his grating
voice. A frosty rhine was on his head.
and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.
He carried his own low temperature al
ways about him; he iced his office In
the dog days, and didn't thaW 1t one
degree ct Christmas.
External heat and cold had little In
iiuence on Scrooge No warmth could
warm. no wintry weather chill him. No
\ wind that blew was bitterer than he,
4 no falling snow was more intent upon
its purpose. no pelting rain less open
to entreaty Foul weather didn't know
: where to have him. The heaviest rain,
and snow, and hail, and sleet. could
Boast of the advantage over him in only
one respect. They often "came down
handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
Nobody ever stopped him in the
street to say, with gladstone looks, MY
dear Scrooge, how are you? When will
you come to see me?" No beggars i'm
plored him to bestow a trifie, no chill
dren asked him what it was o'clock, no
man or woman ever once in all his life
inquired the way to such and such a
place, of Scrooge. Even the blind mems
dogs appeared to know him: and, when
they saw him coming on, would tug
their owners into doorways and up
courts: and then would wag their tails
as tho they said. "No eye at all is bet
ter than an evil eye. dark master!"
But what did Scrooge care? 1t was the
Z very thing he liked. To edge his way
along the crowded paths of life, warn
ing ali human sympathy to keep its dis
tance. was what the knowing ones call
nuts" to Scrooge.
Once upon time,-of all the good
DAYS in the year. on Christmas eve.-old
Scrooge sat busy in his counting house
1t was cold, bleak, biting weather, foggy
withal, and he could hear the people in
down, beating their hands upon their
breasts, and stamping thier feet upon
the pavement stones to warm them. The
city clocks had only just gone three, but
it was quite dark already,-it had no,
tseen light all day,-and candles We're
faring in the windows of the neighbor-
Ing Offices, like ruddy smears upon the
Ialpable brown air. The fog came
Touring in at every chink, and keyhole
end was so dense without. that. althr
the court was of the narrowest, the
houses opposite were mere phantoms
TO see the dingy cloud come droopins
down, obscuring everything, one Nigh
have thought that Nature lived hard by
and was brewing on large scale.
The door of Scrooge's counting house
was open, that he might keep his ey'
upon his clerk, who. in dismal littl,
cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copyint
letters Scrooge had a very small fire
but the clerks fire was so very muci