The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-08-21
A PURE FAKE.
Was the Old Curiosity Shop Of Dick
ems.

ems.
The other day an American lady friend
small party looking at some of the sights
Of London. says London letter.
Among other places they had visited
was the "Old Curiosity Shop in the little
street leading from Glare Market into
Lincoln's Inn Fields, at its southwestern
corner. The party was ciceroned by an
English lady reputed to know her Lon
don well. and to be especially learned
in Dickens Topography, yet she told them
that this was the veritable original of
the masters masterpiece.
The Legend Tracked.
Yesterday. writes correspondent.
happened to be wandering along this very
street. when. coming to the little shop
which has won such an enviable notori-
ETY.. l saw standing in front Of 1t another
group of our transatlantic cousins who
were drinking in the Cup" Of one of
these guides
1t is surely time that our transatlantic
and other cousins were put on their guard
the slightest ground for saying or sup
posing that the shop in question is the
original Of Dickens Curiosity Shop"
can say that with the more emphasis
because in my early days l was acquaint-
ed with the man who painted the legend
on the front Of the house. and he assured
me that the whole thing was his own in
vention. and that the name was put up
because he thought 1t would attract Gus
| tom.
The place was then an old bookshop,
| and the name of the man who kept it,
| If my memory serves me right. which l
think 1t does. was Palmer. He was a
stout, well favored, chatty fellow. who
| Kept penny and a twopenny box out
| side his door to inveigle passersby. It
was thus that l was drawn into his den,
and when in got into conversation with
him.
Old Mrs. Haynes.
had been fascinated by the odd Gu
riosity Shop" inscription, and asked. with
| probably every smack of the country
pumpkin. II it really was, etc. 1 have
always held the man in high esteem for
| that he respected my innocence.
No. said he with a smile, and then
went on to make the declaration as
| above. I like Dickens" he proceeded to
say. and one day, when l was reading
about Little Nell. thought 1 would put
up the name of the book over my shop,
| and l did
This is the whole story
But there used to be, not far away-to
wit. in Fetter Lane-a little shop which
had some pretensions to being the orig
inal odd Curiosity Shop"
1t was little way up from Fleet
| Street. on the right-hand side; but it
must be fifteen, If not twenty. years since
able old curiosity shop. although one of
a peculiar kind. 1t was kept when l
knew it by a Mrs. Haynes.
She was the widow of a printer, who
as | understood, had formerly carried on
business In the upper part of the house.
That, of course. was in the days of hand
presses and the old tradition. and the bus
mess must have been an exceedingly one
horse affair. With it was combined a
circulating library-one of the old-fash-
Toned. greasy and bethumbed three-vol-
ume variety. warranted to give you night
mare and microbes in equal measure and
potency.
Where Dickens Visited.
The library was still in evidence when I
knew the shop, and it's diapidated vol
umes circulated occasionally as of old,
but chiefly. one would suppose, among
the prentice boys and small shopkeepers
of the neighborhood. The income from
1t was precarious. and probably not much
more certain from the revenue derived
from the old books and bric-a- brac dis
played for sale in the window.
The books consisted. for the most part
of original editions of Dickens generally
in paper backs. But it was alas! beyond
my reach. and. to save my face l had
to fall back on an old broadsheet at
modest price.
A treasure in its way, it was the more
treasured by me because it led to a con
versation with Mrs. Haynes, who told
me that, in his early reportorial days.
Dickens used to he regular customer
rarely failing to call once or twice a
week for books to read. He was she
said. a great novel reader las one can
well magine)-that he would read almost
anything he came across in that line
but that he loved best of all something
of the bood-curdling variety