Evening star., 1924-12-19

Now is the time for all good men
to read "A Christmas Carol" by
Charles Dickens. The time has gone
by for them to come to the aid of
their party.
Every man and woman who has
reached the age of 21 years ought to
make 1t a point to read this greatest
of Christmas stories at least once a
year. Just before Christmas is the
best time.
Now IL instills some Of Its spirit
into a reader. Whether he be young
or old, rough OF gentle, sophisticated
or innocent. the overhowing hearth
ness Of the great master story teller
will enter into his heart.
1t is practically impossible for one
to read "A Christmas caro-" without
acquiring some genuine enthusiasm
for the Yuletide. Even II he be q
modern old Scrooge. a man bored
with Christmas gifts and panied at
the giving OF them, the rude genialfty
of the great Dickens will stir some
thing within him.
Try It, all you who have not read
the Christmas Carol" for many years,
who perhaps remember 1t as some
thing read by the teacher back in that
class room of the days of long ago.
Especially IL you feel sort of out Of
joint at this season.
If jostling through crowds of shop
pers has got your goat" and made
you express the wish that Christmas
were good and over, go read "A
Christmas Carol" and get back some
Of the Joy that once was yours at this
time of the year.
"a Christmas Carol" will do 1t II
anything can.
Il y
one of its greatest assets. Plot, con-
structlon. sentence structure. these
and other qualities. count for much,
but unless a story manages to build
up certain atmosphere of it's own II
becomes a lifeless sort OF thing
after all.
The story lacking this intangible,
though very real, quality. usually
Known as atmosphere, may be a
cracking good tale. with a plot better
than any o. Henry ever devised, dia-
logue carrying you along faster than
Dumas tale, yet it's total effect will
be somehow lacking.
Atmosphere, in a story, is the fine
bloom of the personality OF an author
upon the printed page. The essence
OF the man, as II were, has carried
over from the immaterial mind to the
material paper and ink.
somehow the reader gets more than
the words. He reads between the
lines" as the saying is, deriving a
subtle yet no less real pleasure from
what he does not read than from
what he actually gets from the type.
Probably there never was a writer
OF fiction who managed to put him
self into his stories with better ef-
feet than Charles Dickens. 1t Is never
obtrusive. however. Dickens did not
bow before his readers, or lug in his
morals on n silver platter
Yet the man Is woven inextricably
through the warp and woof Of his
books. The hearty spirit which one
catches from the "Pickwick Papers"
and from "A Christmas Carol" be-
longs in them by divine right.
The Dickens who wrote them was
the Dickens who thought nothing OF
taking a 15-mile walk before dinner
He loved all the romance, the poetry
the happiness and sadness of the
Christmas time.
Even as he was heartier in his ply
sical habits than others, so his spirit
was more inclusive, leading him often
to sentimentality on the one hand
and to sublimity on the other.
-
Marley was dead, to begin with
There is no doubt whatever about
that. The register OF his burial was
signed by the clergyman, the clerk
the undertaken and the chief mourn
er. Scrooge signed IT. And Scrooges
name was good upon Change for any
thing he chose to put his hand to. Old
Marley was as dead as a door nall"
Such Is the lugubrious beginning OF