The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-22

bumous Papers of the ptckWfck Club"
 s. St was , wri5ten n. @ when pieksns wss 2S &1romance of thievery" was euIminattng.
 its last notable example having heen H BWlwer Lytton's Paul Clifford" For * guard were portrayed ip their true, Hroundings.
 pie accustomed to having thsir hiEh- VI waymen and househrealers served up & in ruffies and lace. Critics denounced
 the writer for the evil truths which ha * the world censnred the hand that threw light into the dark places.
 4 was, and is stili, that Dickens has made q the conventional melodramatic stage 3 tricks---a stolen will, concealed identi- S ties and bewtldering eo1nciaanees This
 is true. The-plot h oliver Tyisg. M
 meyer -did concern himself seriously with plot and in "Oiiver Twise'' hs plainly used 1t only aa Q matter of nee
 sssary machinery
 Oliver Twist was born in that eio- quent monument to civilized charity I and raee-love. a workhouse The aus thorities had picked up hia young 4 mother. dying on the streets of the town to which she had wandered with
 
 over to the tender nursing of one of the wretched hags who had found their final haven in the institution; and the old woman had tenderly rnhheA her of her gold ring and her sold locket, which she had kept through all her suf- ferings and priveGions that they might serve to identify her child.
 Thus the boy that was born just bee fore the weary young creature closed her eyes forever was namelass so far as the parochial officials knew. Mr, BumpIe drew on his inspiration so sue oessfully that he produced the high sounding and poetic name of Oliver Twist.
 Mir. Rumble was that magnificent and awe-tnspiring functionary, a paroehtAT beadle. In his capacity as a high ot1- cer of government he loathed the siEht of a pauper, and when he acted as the instrument of extenosng parochiai re- lief he did it with a proper hatred Of the objects of it. This IaudabIe spirit, though 60 ef- fective that 1t reduced the pauper pop. uIation by the simple method oe chang. ing it to a graveyard population. had It's little drawbacks. In the case Of Oliver Twist. for instance. q little more Kindness and care bestowed on hih mother would have relieved. Ar. Bnn1- ble's parish of the onerous responsthil- ity of caring for her infant. sor. while sfe was dying. hes father vas seeking her.
 A retired naval oflcer. he had been living with his two mokherleae daugh- ters. one almost twenty and the other barely more than an infant. near Lon- don. when chance gave him the ac- Quaintance of Edward Leeford.
 Handsome, distinguished. clever and rioh, he won the affection of his hosts daughter, Agnes. With no guilty iu- tention, but with bitter folly. none the less, he concealed the fact that In his eArly youth his family had forced him Into marriage with a woman whom hat hated and who repaid the hatred wsth interest. They had been long. sep- arated. For ten years he had not seen her or their son, who had inherited his mothers bitterness of passton,s her ma Asnant disposition and her cruel self ishness, @8 Fl
 Carried away by his ardent love for Agnes, he delayed his confession until it was too late. Then, awakening to I the enogmity of his sin, he determined to convert all his property into cash at whatever loss settle part of the money on his wife and son, and nee with Agnes to some distant land.
 Before he could carry out his inc tention he was forced to make hasty visit to Rome. On the way he stopped I to visit his best and oldest friend, to whom he made partial confession and told his intentions.
 carried him off. and his wife and son, who had hurried to his side, succeeded to his property.
 At the news of his death.. Agnes. overwhelmed with grief aud ashamed to face her Sather,. lied from the house. His search for her was unavailtng. Shortly after she died in the work house he was overtaken by mortal ill., ness in a village that he hads reached during his frantic efforts to find her. He died without being able to tell his name; and his little daughter. whom he had carried with him, was adopted by charitable strangers.
 So Oliver Twist grew up with thirty or forty other juvenile. offenders against the poor laws, who were ''farmed"' to a branch worlyheuse where they rolled about on the floor, with out the inconvenience of too much food or clothing, under the parental super intendence of an ancient female, who received sevenpence halfpenny a week for the support of each small culprit
 The elderly female knew that 1t was i'll to overload a, child's stomach with food. She appropriated good part of the weekly stipend to her own use and succeeded in keeping the rising generation on the rest. thus finding in the lowest depth one that was deeper still.
 Despite this care. the perverse OH yer and his playmates insisted on re- mafnfng puny and miserable condi- tion which caused MT. Rumble to shake his solid head sadly and lament the .ingratitude of the poor. Mfr, Bumbles Indignation, however, remained gen- eral until Oliver Twist reached his sth vear. when an unfortunate cirSun- stance made him the concentrated ex- ample of pauper selnshness and wick
 He was removed to the main work hnuse to earn his board by picking oalxunn in company with other pale, Sirninutiye monsters of hiA kind. The narochial authorities had succeeded In Solving a great part of the peuper question by reducing the rations served fo the inmates to such degree that most paupers preferred to starve out aide rather than inside of the estab-
 The boys were fed in a large room ,vtth A cooper at one end, out of which the master ladled gruel into each lads nnrringaF. The dishes never required xvashfnp. The boys polished them with their spoons. After completing this oneration. which did not require long, aS tha bowls were not much larger than fhe spoons, the boys would sit stsrine at the copper aA if they could have deyoured the very metal of which If vas made, employing themselves meanyvhile in sucking their fingers aH- siduousiy to catch any faint traces of gruel. .,s