The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-27

lips & Co., New York. MCMII PIP. AS.
This is still another story of rogues.
After a few religious hypocrites. whose
presence gives humor to the opening
chapters, and aside from the little boy
who writes the tale when he is grown,
its character of highest elevation is
buyer and receiver of stolen goods.
But the story has a moral balance.
retribution; evil doors are punished, and
those who are good, or striving to be
over the bad. This does not always hap
pen in the modern tale of evil
The geography of this story is mainly
Wrapping, the Mapping of London which
has long stood in fiction for the home
of notorious thugs and criminals of all
sorts-as one of the worst slums in the
world. The land upon which Wrapping
stands is made by a broad curve out
wards. and pushing of the Thames to
the south Its narrow struggling streets,
and the streets of contiguous hamlets,
are lined by houses. foul. ramshackle.
noisy, ill-smelling, in which are hilari-
Gus, shouting. oft-drunken sailors and
horrible, dragged women. And there
are shops, shops for sailors sea-boots,
SOU westers, it-bags, knives. daggers
and revolvers; pawn shops; tobacco and
other shops. Then there are docks, to
d, the north the great London
Docks. and their freouenters of many
Enthusiastically Spaniards with their
picturesque red shirts, blue trousers,
gold earrings, and a good deal of the
villain in appearance even without the
suggestiveness of a big knife at the
belt; lean, 1.-THE Yankees who are identi-
fled by their bad habits of splitting.
swearing and intense nervous energy;
rolling, soggy, yellow-haired, adipose-
tissued Swedes; Cinnamon guarding
their pig tails; Russians, also stolid and
curious and drilled to a mechanism of
action; Greeks; Italians; and the English
tar himself. at 'ome and indulging in
- <1@ Of ft1f
old-time "Black-eyed SUSAN"
The Hole in the Wall was upon the
very rivers edge. public house for
sailors. watermen and their friends
Grandfather Nat who kept it was
sinner as we'll as a publican. But the
permanent neighbors and inhabitants
were--and probably are-landsharks
who lived off the seamen. drugging,
robbing. stabbing to gain possession of
the pockets of the paid off Jacks.
OF such things and such folks does
s"The Hole in the WaIl' tell. 1t is evil
dent that the tale does not lack for ex-
element of incident, nor for daring Its
murders one would hesitate to count,
and there are fire, robberies and des-
peration without stint.
But the manner of telling is the point
to consider With such material the
author might make the veriest of blood
and thunder romances, adding perhaps
a duke or duchess or two, things which
come cheap. For if you stop to consider,
you see 1t is the manner or the telling
that makes the difference between, say,
Dickens BLEAK House" or "Oliver
Twist and the penny horrible of some
author whose name is not conveniently
at hand. 1t is the delicious manner, the
broad humane spirit, the fine feeling for
the right thing in work; the sense of the
nearness of nature and art the genial
elevation of the originating mind that
make the difference between the living
and the dead in art.
The manner of the telling of this story
Is excellent, so clever that the atrocities
to which we above adverted do not
nauseate. 1t is lively, quick in move
ment, pointed, with the saving grace of
q downright pleasant humor. For in
stance when the little boy of the tale
startled a lady in the bar-parlor who
had been doing something with a bottle
which involved the removal of the cork;
which cork she snatched hastily from a
shelf and replaced; and straightway
dropped on her knees and went to work
with brush and dust Dan."
Then there is the close devotion-and
the strengthening of soul and muscle
such devotion a1wa.ys carries-of grand
sire and child; and there is the child
likeness of the child cleaning sweetly
in the murk. These form the bright
background to the forepiay of thieves
and murderers. their initial action for
gain and their sequent action for
vengeance.
That the vast output of literature
about rogues is due in measure to the
humane sentiment that grew to signif-
cant proportions during the last half OF
the nineteenth century, this little book
is a part testimony. For it's author, we
are told, not only served active secre-
taryship of a London charity for years
but he also went down among them ano
lived the life of the people. He lodged
in house inhabited by toughs, he
worked in a matchbox factory and join
ed the local clubs where in the sparrine
he won the name of the gentleman
boxer"
Now anyone who goes down into the
purlieus of a great city, with half {
heart beating under his ribs, can no
but be moved by the unspeakable mis-
being he sees on every side 1t is no
the poverty that strikes him most, it i
the moral degradation. The democrati
sentiment, the sentiment that ha
grown until in our time it rounds tn
earth, tells him that here is as goot
material in original form as that h
sees at the other end of town wber
things are fair and beautiful; that tn
material is bad because in most case
It has been dragged down; that it i
bad because 1t never was directed an,
other way: that it has its moments Q
aspiration and labors to rise: that i
lacks ideals because they never hav
been presented, or if presented, cam
too late, or are too remote and at va
Rance with surroundings to make ap
peal Moreover excessive manual labo
has often blunted. dulled. an magma
tive impulse. and independent brain &C
ton. All power of the brain but it
muscular power is atrophied.
What would you do said frien
of mine to a Russian Of the foregoin
type, What would you best like to dc
If you had the money and leisure yol
are talking of? How would you spen
your days?'s The Russian had worke
like an OK since he was fodder; h
stood near where he was born and ha
lived; fuel and food had been Difficult
to gain, and poorer folks in Russia slee
on top of their big stoves for warmth
He answered unhesita tingly, I'D lie O
g. stove all the time, and I'd have.
piece of bacon hung from the ceiling o.
a string SO 1 could suck it withou
moving
The humane sentiment of our times
offspring of the democra tic idea, has le
many tqb so down into all sorts o
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