Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-09-02
FAMOUS MEN OF FICTION
Counterpart In Real Life Not At All
Uncommon.
GREAT ROMANCE BASED ON FICTION

Huso's MASTERPIECES Recalls Tru'
story-The Count Of Monte crist,
Was Not Altogether Creature o
Imagination.-AlT of lDiokens's Char
acters Were People In the Flesh.
The late Russell Sage was guilty o
at least one essay in authorship. FIT
teen years ago, In the columns Of {
New York weekly, there appeared owe
his signature a paper>entitled "The In
justice of Vacations that was quoted
from one end of the country to tht
other. Here, in part, was Mr.. Sage,
argument:
"Let us assume that an employer
and his clerk make an agreement te
exchange just remuneration for rea-
sonable services and each keeps his
part of tho agreement. Are they not
then quits? If there is an obligation
I think it is on the part of the clerk
who ayails of the credit, skill and or
ganization of the employer to learn o
business and advance himself along a
path which has already been prepared
for him. What right has he, then. to
expect pay for two weeks time for
which he renders no equivalent, not
considering the serious inconvenience
to which he often puts his employer?
Suppose we were to reverse the con-
ventional order of things and instead
Of the clerk demanding two weeks pay
gratis the employer should demand
two weeks work without pay as a con-
dition of retaining the clerk in his
employ. What a tremendous howl
would go up!'
1t was not exactly a literary master
piece. that essay, of Mr.. Sage's, but
for brief time it was the subject Of
hot controversy. Then some one came
forward with the discovery that the
really important point in the . whole
matter was that Mr.. Sage's article was
another vindication in real life of a
page of fiction, that there was moth
| ing new in, the argument, that 1t was
precisely the argument that Charles
Dickens had put in the mouth of old
Scrooge/o of "a Christmas Carol" be-
fore that worthy had undergone the
change of heart as a result of the visit
of the fairies. Here is the clinching
evidence: ~
pa sproose's Half Crown. Z
At length the hour of shutting up
the counting house arrived. With an
i'll will Scrooge dismounted from his
stool and tactily admitted the fact to
the expectant clerk in the Tank. who
instantly snuffed his candle out and
put on his hat.
You'll want all day tomorrow. /
suppose?" said Scrooge.
"If quite conyenient, sir"
Its not convenient" said Scrooge,
"and it's not fair. If L were to stop
half crown for it you'd think your
self i'll used. I'll be bound."
The clerk smiled family.
"And yet" said Scrooge, you don't
think me i'll used; when I pay days
wages for no work"
The clerk observed that 1t was only
once year.
"a poor excuse for picking a mans
pocket every 25th of December" said
Scroogc, buttoning his great coat to
the chin.
In all fiction there is probably no
more extraordinary plot than that Of
"The Count of Monte Cristo" Of the
elder Dumas. Edmond Dantes, the
illiterate sailor of Marseilles, de-
nounced as a Bonapartist agent and
confined for fourteen years in the
dungeon of the Chateau diff, there TO
meet the Able Faria, who educatcs
him, indicates to him the existence Of
fabulous fortune. and in whose burial
shroud he escapes to return to the
work to wreak his terrible vengeance
upon his prosecutors, Is one Of the
great romantic imaginary figures Of
all time. But Dumas, for his plot, did
not have to draw upon his inve ntion,
He found all the details at hand in
real life, or rather in the archives of
the French secret police. The actual
Edmond Dantes was named Francois
Picaud.
The Real Dantes.
In 1906 Picaud was a journeyman
cobbler, betrothed to girl named
Marguerite Vigoreaux. On the eve of
his marriage he was denounced as. a
spy and thrown into. prison. There
he remained for seven years, acting
during his incarceration as the servant
of q wealthy Milanese ecclesiastic.
The churchman treated Picaud like
son, and dying in prison bequeathed
to him seven million francs on deposit
in the bank of Amsterdam and told
him of a hiding place in Italy where
diamonds to the value of twelve hun
fdred thousand francs, and three mill
ion of specie consisting of English
guineas, French louis dor, Spanish
quadruples, Venetian forms, and
ducats of Milan, were concealed.
After the fall of the empire in 1914
Picaud, who had been imprisoned un-
der the name of Joseph "Lucher, was
released. He gathered together the