The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-30

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 ':John Halifax. Gentlemen" just misses being really great novel As t Is. 1t has q decidedly high place Tn English literature. and 1t can. be said i spf It that It's Influence is wholly good. " Dinah Maria Mulock was approaching 70 when she became Mrs. Craik, and it was under her unromantic maiden name that her literary fame was achieved. Of all her works--and she wrote both poetry and prose--"John Halifax, Gem tleman," Is the best known. It came out in 1857, and delighted our parents and grandparents as, doubtless, 1t will our children and grandchildren. If Miss Mulock could have drawn her characters with little more strength. H&ould have put a little more human inconsistency into them. she would have riyaled Dickens and NThackeray. On reading John Halifax" one feels a regret that one who had so much genius should not have had a little more. But one who has not read this story should read it--and will be a better man or woman for doing so.
 He was only boy of IA, a wander Ing vagabond boy, when Abel Fletcher, the wealthy Quaker tanner of Norton Bury. encountered hlm on the street and hired him for . penny to see his son Phtneag safe home--poor1 little, sickIy, crippled Phineas. orphaned of his mother and with no sisters or brothers or indeed, any other children to play with. It was rather a won derful thing that Abel Fletcher should have so far trusted che unknown lad; N but there was something so manly and Sstraightforward about John Halifax, and so much of a certain dignity too, and he answered the stern old Quaker's ratechism so frankly that Abel trusted
 
 Brown eyes. deep sunken. with strongly marked eyebrows, nose like most other Saxon noses, nothing par ficular; lips well shaped, lying one npon the other firm and close; a yquare. sharply outlined, resolute chin: Nohn Halifax might have been, for bis looks, three years older than f. The hard school of poverty, want. tabor--the constant habit and necessity pf -reiiance--had made him in bear Ing man.
 To lonely, sickly Phineas. this great, strong, self-reliant boy seemed so exactly what he would like to be him. self and was not, and John was so tender in helping him along. that the N.acquafntance thus begun waved Into a suddsn. strong frtendship, and the soul of Jonathan loved David as his own soul"
 John remembered his father as sad.
 
 tleman and scholar he had once heard him called. After lis fathers death he and his mother had been rrueliy poor, and since her death the boy had wandered about the country, helping on the far-7s--working when he could. starving when he must. \, John was taken into the employ of Abel Fletcher at the lanyard and after while the boys were at times allowed to be together, but not often. for the Quaker would not trust his son much in the companionship of boy whom he had not yet thoroughly tested. One day John, who could read. but not ment from his pocket and said to Phineas, T wish you would write SRomething for me" On the flyleaf was written:
 Guy Halifax. his book.
 Guy Halifax, gentleman. married Muriei Joyce spinster. May 1T, in the year of our Lord 1779.
 John Halifax. their son. born June IS. 17so."
 There was one more entry in feeble, illiterate. female hand-"Guy Halifax died January {, 17sl." Write" said John. .;Muriel Halifax died January l, i794."
 That was all John ever knew of his pedigree--a1l he ever cared to know. His father had been Guy, Halifax, gem tleman, and he would be John Halifax, gentleman. That was enough.
 On that first day. just before his good fortune threw him in the way of the F1etchers and he was on his way home with Phineas. an incident oc- cured which John never forgot, for 1t was the beginning of his lifes TO- nance. As he stopped to stare with his gaunt, hungry eyes at the fine front of the Mayors house, with its fourteen windows, in one of which clustered the tow heads of happy children. a little girl came running to the door with a loaf of bread in one hand and a knife in the other.
 Here, poor boy you look hungry" cried the little girl, cutting off a slice of bread. A nurse girl rushed out and seized her, and exclaiming: You 2 must not, Miss Ursula, you must not" dragged her Into the house; not with out a struggle, however, and not until Ursula had thrown the piece of bread to John.
 It was wheaton bread, such as poor folks in England did not often get in those days. John ate 1t immediately He could scarcely remember having tasted that kind of bread before and the face of the child who had given yat seemed very beautiful to him.
 John Halifax. gentleman, hated the xauyard with its smells and It's unclean work, but nevertheless he labored there assiduously and faithfully. and when he read 'aThe Pilgrims Progress he called the strong desire to give up his task and fly away to try the world again his Aponiyon fought 1t down. So John increased in years and strength and in his masters favor until, at last, he came practically to manage the business for the rapidly falling Abel Fletcher; and all the time he was edu- eating himself with the help of Phineas until the latter confessed that his pupil had outstripped him.
 Old Abel let the young men be to- gether as much as they pleased now. It had been his ambition to have Phineas succeed him in his business, but though Phineas grew somewhat stronger as he grew older he was never anything but delicate, nor ever would be: and Abel began to look upon John as some one who should be a shield and heip for his son when the time came that he himself must go hence and be no more.
 Phineas gave John his first writing lesson on hill overlooking the flooded Avon, using a stick as a pen and a stretch of sanC as a copybook In that one lesson John learned to write his own name; but before the lesson was compiled the boys saw boat with two men in it in danger of being swamped by the dreaded "eager"--a sudden rush of tidal water which came swinging up the stream.
 John got the boat to the shore and