The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-26

Cn8rleS Reade WAS pOtn a uoVeist and a dramatist. and though he himself may have looked to his plays to per- petuate his name, 1t is by his novels that hs is best remembered. His fame rests largely on the skill with which he inveigh9d against social wrongs; and his novel of Hard Cash--originally called Very Hard Cash-caused sem sation.
 Parliamentary debates and the datly press rang with echoes of it, and Reade found himself engaged in a warfare which, as he was well supplied with ammunition. he thoroughly enjoyed and entered into with zest. Reade liked to write a novel or a play with "a pur- pose" and the purpose of Hard Cash was to expose the abuses of the pri- vate insane asylum system and the danger and idiocy of the laws then in force relating to lunacy.
 In these matters the revelations Of Hard Cash brought about a great re- formation, just as Dickens account of Dotheboys Hall in Nicholas Nicklebyl caused the reformation or extinction of such boys boarding schools as the immortal one that he depicted as being under the management of Squeers. With Charles Reade and Charles Dick ems writing at the same time, many social abuses in England woke up in the morning to find themselves dead"
 Reade is one of the enduring Eng fish novelists, and his fame would be greater had his genius not been over shadowed by that of his two great con- temporaries, Dickens and Thackeray. Hard Cash Is an excellent example of his literary style and his moral ''pur- pose"
 On the face of it there seemed no reason in the world why Alfred Hardie should not marry Jane Hardie. Both families lived in the town of Barking ton, both young men were at Oxford and the two girls were fast friends. MT. Hardie senior conducted the local bank, as his father had done before him. and was better off in this worlds goods than the Dodds. But then Mrs. family, and though. to the horror of her titled relatives. she had married the captain of an East Indiaman, Cap tain Dodd's social standing was quite equal to that of the banker. He re- ceived a good salary, Mrs. Dodd had a snug litt.e for. ne of her own, and for the Hardies to ally themselves, thrdugh her, with the Fountains and Bazal- gettes was an honor which more than overcome any discrepancies as to worldly wealth.
 At Oxford Alfred Hardie was a sort of Admirable Cr:chton-wrote prize poems. throttled the classics with one hand and without half trying, sported gleefully with philosophies ancient and modern and rowed and cricketed better than anybody else at the university.
 According to all accounts. he was a bit of prig and a bit of a snob. well satisfied with himself and thoroughly conscious of his own excellencies That is probably why Fate, seeing that he was a good fellow at bottom. after all, took him in hand and knocked the nonsense out of him.
 Edward Dodd was a square built square -souled young man, with a great taste for mechanics and figures and not much of a hand piece for philoso- phy and the classics. He was a match at boxing with the Tinkelton terror, but Aristotle knocked him out in the first round.
 fresh, country type, carefully brought up by her mother, not more sentimen- tai than girl of her age ought to be- and she regarded her mother with deep affection as an elder sister.
 As for Jane Hardie, she was a good sort of a girl enough but obsessed by an extravagant religious fervor She found texts for lay sermons in casual remark about the weather and food for moral reflections in hard-boiled egg.
 In her work as a district visitor she scorned to minister to the ''perishable bodies" of her poor when there was so much to do in saving their 'imperish- able souls" Had she lived in an earlier age she would have sent all low churchmen to the stake quite cheer fully for the good of their souls. But she loved her father and her brother the poor girls mother had long been dead-and she loved Edward Dodd. Edward, of course. thought Jane was an angel.
 As for Captain Dodd, he was on friendly and evep speaking terms with his family, and enjoyed his occasional visits to Albion Villa, his home on the outskirts of Burlington, exceedingly. But most of his time he spent knock ing about on the high seas between Canton, Calcutta and the ports of Britain; and Mrs. Dodd controlled the affairs of the family. Mrs. Dodd, in spite of her relationship with the peer age. had a good store of hard. common sense, hated slang and drew her re- marks from a fathomless well of poly syllable English. When Mrs. Dodd saw that, in the long vacation, Alfred was hanging about Albion Villa half the time and managing to meet Julia in the street or in the garden the other half, she recognizei the symptoms and brought the young people to book at once When Alfred said frankly that he wanted to marry her daughter and was going to do so, Mrs Dodd objected All mothers do that unless they have made the selection. Mrs. Dodd had not selected anybody for Julia as yet but she was going to when the time came-which amounted to the same thing But when the good woman saw how deeply in love Alfred and Julia were. she relented and said: Well, MT Hardie, write to your father and get his consent, and then we will have wedding when you finish 'your course at Oxford if both of you are still in the same mind"
 Get his fathers consent! That was too easy. So the complacent youth sat down right there in the parlor oi Albion Villa, and wrote 70 the gover- nor" who was up in London for week or SO Mrs. Dodd. too. thought thai Richard Harde would accept the all lfance as an honor and show becoming gratitude for her condescencion, what was her surprise. then. to receive few days later the following note form Hardie. ST.
 .'Madam-I have received a very juvenile letter from my son by whtcf I learn that he has formed a sudden attachment for your daughter. I write to inform you that this match is out of the question"
 Mrs. Dodd was filled with a high bred. poIysyllabic anger. She called old Hardie a "parvenu" in a tone whtcf sounded almost profane' and warned Alfred off the premises. But. seeing 4hat Julia began to droop and fade