The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-07


 most emphatic form those traits in the writing of Charles Dickens which give opportunity to his critics for accusing him of bathos and excessive sentimentality. The charges are based on truth. but the lovers of Dickens can afford to ac- knowledge 1t. for despite all literary crit icisms and all professional carpings the wonderful characters created in the course of this story are like real and contem- poraneous beings today. Little Nell re- mains and promises to remain long after the present living generation has been forgotten, one of the most tender and beautiful creations ever imagined by a writer since man first learned to utter thoughts. Quilp though a piece of wild fantastic extrava ganza, is a familiar ac- uuaintance of all the world. Nobody ever forgets Dick Swiveller or the Marchioness or Mrs. Jarleys waxworlSs or Sampson Brass and his sister Sally.
 A MIDST suits of mail, standing like "A ghosts in armor. amidst fantastic A carvings brought from monhsh cloisters; amidst rusty and terrible weap- ons, distorted figures in metal, china and wood, grotesaue tapestries and furnitures that might have been designed in wild dreams, Little Nell existed as in kind of allegory-the only fresh, pure. youthful object in all the place.
 The human life around her was as strange and unnatural as the old curiosity shop in which she dwelled. Her grand father, who had lost his fortune some years before, had gone half mad with fear that he might die esand leave her poor and the old man crept away from home every night to gambling houses, only to creep back home again at dawn, pinched, gray and stripped clean, but with his desire and hope for big win ming burning only the more fiercely for his reverses.
 To obtain money for his fight with for tune he gave bills of sale and other deeds to creature whose very presence in the same place as the gentle, beautiful child would have seemed an unpardonable crime to any one not obsessed like the old man; for in Quilp nature had made being as repulsive without as he was malignant within.
 His stature was so low as to make him quite a dwarf His head and features. however were very large. Cunning, cruel black eyes and mouth that disclosed fang-like teeth were set in a dirty face that was always bristly with black stub ble. He wore an immense hgh-crowned hat and linen that was so dirty as to be in keeping even with his hands
 The dwarf was the only visitor to the place, with the exception of Nells brother who honored the old curiosity shop with his society at intervals when he needed ,ol, n 1Ix drunk and used such threats and menaces to aid his extortion that the child trem- bled whenever she saw him.
 Living thus, it was inevitable that she should become thoughtful and grave be- yond her years. To the old man she was still the same. When he could disengage his mind from it's mania he saw her with the same smile for him, the same affec- donate words, the same love that had been present to him through her whole life He did not see that, child as she was, she watched him with dreadful fear and sorrow, knowing that there was something greatly wrong with him and struggling with her alarm and grief all alone.
 This lay on her heart more heavily, far more heavily, than the monotonous days unlit by variety and uncheered by com panionship, the dreary evenings and the long, solitary nights, the absence of every slight pleasure for which young hearts beat high and the lack of knowledge of what belongs to youth except it's weak ness and it's easily wounded spirit.
 Many and many a long evening and far into the night Little Nell sat by a win dow watching and waiting, and mournful fancies came crowding on her mind. She looked at other houses and wondered if there were rooms in them as lonely as her own. She thought of her grandfather and dreaded lest his changed manner should develop into madness. She even thought that he mioh+ '-'u himself some night when he returned home so de- spairing and hopeless. Always her thoughts were mournful, but when they became thus terrible she would sink to her knees and pray with all the trusting belief and courage of an innocent young heart.
 The only childish pleasure that came to her was through Kit, the boy who ran errands during the day for the old shop. The shock-headed, shambling lad with his uncommonly wide mouth, his very red cheeks and his upturned nose, had the most comica expression that one could wish to behold; and whenever Nell saw him she clapped her hands and laughed heartily-an honor that delighted Kit be- yond all measure, for the uncouth fayor- ite looked on the child as something near Iy akin to an angel
 There was only one person in the world whom this good-natured, simple, loyal young Kit disliked, and that per- son was Quilp. Though he did not know what brought the dwarf to the shop, he knew that his visits distressed the old master and made Nell cry; and for a much lesser offense than that to his worshipped young mistress Kit would have flown at a lion.
 In one of his passages at arms with ouilp. Kit told him that he was an uglier dwarf than could be seen for penny. Quip heard it with an evil leer and treasured up the remark for future payment.
 At last came the time when Quilp had in his hands bills of sale and other documents that made him owner of the place He appeared and took posses sion with his attorney, Sampson Brass, Esq, a tall, meagre man with a nose like a wen, a protrudng forehead, re- treating eyes and hair of a deep red. The distinguished lawyer wore a black surtout reaching nearly to his ankles, short black trousers, high shoes and