The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-26

'I wonder you have never turned your
 thoughts to emigration to Australia"
 !. Madam returned MT. Micawber in-
 stantly, Tt was the dream of my youth.
 and the falacious aspiration of my riper
 years" He never had thought of it in
 his life.
 Miss Trotwood said that she would
 supply the capital.
 | ."I could not receive 1t as a gift" said MT Micawber, full of fire and anima-
 tion, but if sufficient sum could be Iadvanced. say at 5 per cent interest | per annum, upon my notes of hand at
 12. Is and 24 months respectively, tof
 allow time for something to turn
 up"s
 l You shall have it on your own Eterfns.'' said Miss Trotwood.
 | Then there is just one question" | said Mrs. Micawber. ARE the circum- stances of the country such that a man of Mr. Micawber's abilities would have
 a fair chance of rising-I will mot say
 al present to be Governor or anything
 of that sort-but would there be op- portunity for his talents to find ex- pansion?''
 I Satisfied on this point. MT. Micawbs7 | presently looked sanguinely forward to something of an extraordinary nature 1 turning up in Australia and Mrs. l
 of the kangaroo.
 This happy prospect was blighted in | a few. days by the unfortunate turn ing up of various notes of hand which
 Mir Micawber had given at various | times to Mr. Heep in return for pe-
 cuniary assistance. When the first one)
 turned up, MT. Micawber's friends were l apprised of it by note saying: The | fair land of promise lately looming on
 the horizon Is again enveloped in im- penetrable mists and forever with drawn from the eyes of a drifting
 wretch whose Doom Is sealed! Another
 writ has been issued. My course is run. Bless you, bless you! Some future trav- | eller, visiting from motives of curios- l ity not unmingled let us hope with | sympathy, the place of confinement
 allotted to debtors in this city, may.
 and I trust will, Ponder as he traces
 on it's wall, inscribed with a rusty nail.
 The obscure initials, w. M" "P. S.-I reopen this to say that our common friend, Mr. Thomas Traddles.
 has paid the debt and costs in the noble
 name of Miss. Trotwood and that my
 self and family are at the height of | earthly bliss"
 l Uriah Heep. with infamous cruelty. 1 used the notes one by one before he | disappeared, to make a sort of Red In dian torment for MT. Micawber, who was arrested almost every time he l turned around, so that he was forever being torn from the heights of earthly bliss to states of despondency so low l that he called for knives and other dangerous implements with which to pu an end to his Wretched existence. | Still, the whole, he enjoyed him.
 self hugely. Among other things suit
 able for the long voyage, he had pro- vided himself with complet suit of | oilskins and a stray hat pitched or caulked on the outside, in which attire
 he rolled through the streets. with bold buccaneering air, like child of the wilderness about to return to his native haunts. He carried mariners telescope under his arm all day, and, possibly, all night. and his whole fam l fly was correspondingly cleared for &C., tion, Mrs. and Miss Micawber being
 bundled in shawls secured behind the waist by a strong knot and the chil- | dren being done up like preserved
 meats in impervious cases. Wilkins Micawber, Esquire I All the members of the family were pro- | vided with huge clasp knives, MT. Mi- | cawber's being about a foot long. They made 1t a point of honor to use nothing else, even at table. and MT. Mcawber l carried his conscientious preparation for | a hardly and venturesome life so far that | he wiped his knife on his sleeve after use. Each younger child had it's own wooden spoon attached to its body by a strong | line; and in practical anticipation of lfo | afloat and In the bush, all the Micawbers drank out of tin cups, scorning the glasses | that stood on the sideboard And thus out of a tin cup, MT. and Mrs. l Micawber drank farewell to England in that beverage which Mir Micawber knew, 1 so well how to compound. And of their fortunes in the new land of Australia,
 there is a hint in this paragraph in the Port Middlebay Times: The public dinner to our distinguished fellow colonist and townsman. Wilkins Micawber, Esquire, Port Mddlebay Dis- | trict Magistrate. came up yesterday in the | large room Of the hotel, which was crowded to suffocation. It is estimated that not fewer than 47 persons must have been accommodated with dinner at one time" And farther on comes the pas- sage: "At length all was hushed, and Wil- kns Mcawber, Esquire presented him- self to return thanks. Far be it from us, in the present comparatively imperfect state of our establishment, to 'endeavor to follow-our townsman through the smooth ly flowing periods of his highly polished and ornate address! Suffice 1t to say that 1t was masterpiece of eloquence, and that those passages in which he more particularly traced his own successful ca- reer to it's source, and warned the young
 CT portion of his auditory from the shoals
 of ever-incuring pecunary liabilities which they were unable to liquidate,
 brought a tea into the manifest eye pres.
 ent'
 There Is every reason to believe that
 this article was accurate, for there. Is
 every reason obelieve that Mir. Micaw-
 Der wrote 1t himself.
 Copyright, 1911, by J. W. Muller).
 
 Title of next Sundays article: Mfr.
 observation-disclosures Best Beloved Char