The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-19
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trayer of quaint and curious charac- ters, which. after all. was his special- ty. The machinery of the story--the several wills left by old Harmon, the < drowned heir coming to life again and the gentleman. wrayburn, marrying the poor girl. Lizzie Hexam--is we'll worn machinery which has done service in novels time out of mind.
 Neither is the story a coherent whole It is rather composed of several stories which have but a slight thread connect ing them with the main story or Jonh and Bella and the Boffins. But Tn the book Dickens created characters which have become immortal in 1iceion and each character Is study by ltsei' we'll thought out and well worked out. Dickens began to collect materia for Our Mutual Friend" in 1S6o, put the first numbers of the novel-it was published serialiy--did not appear until four years later. He wrote the story amid anxiety, want of repose and un- happiness caused by the loss or Irlehns' and this, combined with the exigeneies of serial form of publication in whlch each month demanded its toll Of copy explains why "Our Mutual Friend ex- hibits some of the most glaring faults of Dickens literary workmanship. ana also proves that no conditions now ever unfavorable, could dim his genus for character drawing.
 
 Lady ,Tippins. relict of Sir Thomas Tippins. knighted by His Majesty George III. in mistake for somebody else (IIis Majesty was graciously pleased to remark while performing the ceremony: What, what whata) Who, who, who? Why, why. why?) Lady Tippins. at dinner given ny the veneerings, insisted upon Mortimer Lightwood telling the story of the Man from Somewhere" Mortimer, lawyer who had one client, never had one before and never expected to nave one again, being thus urged by the skittish, ancient and bony charmer' proceeded to relate his story to the guests who had come to dine with each other and not with the veneerings- who were brand new people in brand- new house in a brand-new part Of Lon don.
 The story began with old Harmon a tight old screw, who had amassed a big fortune in the. business of a dust man or collector and sorter of refuse, rubbish, ashes etc. When he died mo- body regretted him. He left one son whom he had driven from home as a boy and to his son. who had been max Ing living as a grower of vines some where across the water. he willed all his wealth, on the condition that ne came home and married a certain youns
 
 Harmon the younger did not do this the property was to go to one Nico- demus Boffin, who for years had served as foreman for Old Harmon.
 The olu skinflint had done this with the idea of taking posthumous re- venge upon his son. Being in pup lie park one /, he had seen little girl flying in rage at her father, slap Ding him with her bonnet and pinch1ng his legs Old Harmon considered that a child with a temper like this, and in- dulged as she apparently was by her father, inevitably would grow into woman calculated to make any man miserable for life. So he inquired her name, and left her to his son John in his will And now John Harmon was coming home from 'somewhere to take possession of the gold and the girl.
 lust as Mortimer had finished his story the butler handed him note The lawyer read it and said: Thls arrives most opportunely; this is the conclusion of my story. The Man from Somewhere's drowned!
 Gaffer Hexam was one of those river side characters who made living by picking up dead bodies from the tur- hid water of the Thames Strangely enough. the bodies all had their pockets turned inside out when Gaffer got them ashore. Rogue Riderhood, another Iva terside character, had heen Callers [ partner. but Rogue had been caught robbing. live man, and Gaffer's con science was so shocked that he dis solved the partnership at once
 It was Charley, the son of Carer Hexam, who brought the message to Mortimer. Lightwood and his friend Eugene Wrayburn, accompanied the boy to his fathers hovel by the river and then to the police station
 Tn the hovei they found besides Gaf- fer, his daughter Lizzie, charming girl, modest and pretty. By scrapins and saving and denying herself. she had managed to give her brother some 'schooling." and the very next day she was to send him away from the mis- erable home to school where Bradley Headstone master, who had taken g great interest in the boy and his am bition to make something of him. self" was to see that he had chance eventually to become teacher.
 Eugene Wrayburn was immediately smitten with Lizzie Hexam; and tc Lizzie Eugene was as something splen- did come into her dark, hard life, to gC away again-but not to be forgotten.
 At the police station they saw the body in little morgue across the yard The steward and a passenger from the ship on which the man had come from "somewhere" the inspector said, had 
 that of John Harmon; papers found on the body, including letter from Light wood, showed the dead man to have been John Harmon, and the steward aforesaid had also sworn to the clothes being those worn by John Harmon
 While they were viewing the body a stranger called with one of the newly printed bills describing the finding oi the man. He acted so queerly that the inspector called a reserve" and had him to follow to the address he had gwen Finding that he really Ii, 3d there and that he was registered as Julius Handford; no more notice was taken of him. The pale, seemingly bewiIdered stranger, however, had made an impression on Mortimer and even upon Eugene Wrayburn, who was sell dom impressed, being. like Mortimer a briefless barrister and, moreover, a person living in a perpetual state oi boredom.
 So John Harmon was declared of ficially and completely dead and Nico- demus Boffin came into his fortune with the help of Mortimer. MT Boffin being the solitary client before men, tioned as Mortimer's sole possession ir that line.
 Mir. and Mrs. Boffin were good heart ed. simply creatures, who had stood between t cruelty of old Harmon and his boy as much as they could and who now sincerely mourned the death of AAA natural heir. even though they