Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-16
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
ADVICE TO GHOST
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

a., Charles Dickens isl2-is7o. was an Eng
isn novelist, author Of The Pickwick Pa
Cities" etc.I
He was little yellow. high-shoul
dered man, with very remarkable fea'
lures. There was fixed grin perpet'
ually on his countenance: he leaned hi.
chin on a long skinny hand, with nail:
OF extraordinary length, and as he in.
keenly out from beneath his ragged
gray eyebrows there was a strange, wilo
SlynesS In his leer, quite repulsive to
behold
III you want to know about the Inns, y
said the old man. Il am the one who
can tell you of those lonely rooms, called
Inns which provide students quarters
Young men shut themselves up in them
and read and read, hour after hour, and
night after night, till their reason has
wandered beneath their midnight
studies: till their mentai powers are ex-
hauSted; till mornings light brings no
freshness or health to them. and they
sink beneath the unnatural devotion of
their youthful energies to their dry old
books.
They are no ordinary houses, those
inns. There is not a panel in the old
-Waincoting but what. If it were en-
dowed with the powers of speech and
memory, could start from the wall and
tell its tale of horror-the romance of
life, sir, the romance of lifel Common
place as they may seem now, tell you
they are strange old places. and would
rather hear many legend with ter
rife sounding name than the true his
tory Of one old set Of chambers.
For example, there was a man
eyneu Of mo yaarS aCN Tanu,--
he took an old damp, rotten set of
chambers in one OF the most ancient
Inns, that had been shut up and empty
for years and years before.
There were lots of old women's
stories about the place, and it certainly
was very far from being cheerful one;
but he was poor and the rooms were
cheap, and that would have been quite
a suficient reason for him II they had
been ten times worse than they really
were. He was obliged to take some
moldering fixtures that were on the
place, and among the rest was great
numbering wooden press for papers, with
large glass doors and a green curtain
inside.
THAT press was pretty useless thing
for him, for he had no papers to put
On IL. AS to his clothes, he carried them
about with him. and that wasn't very
hard work, either.
well, he moved in all his furniture
- wasn't quite a truckful-and had
sprinkled it about the room, so as to
make the four chairs look as much like
a dozen as possible. and was sitting
down before the fire at night, drinking
the first glass of two gallons Of whisky
he had ordered on credit, wondering
whether 1t would ever be paid for, and
If so, in how many years time, when
his eyes encountered the glass doors Of
the wooden press.
"Ah,' says he, IF I hadn't been
obliged to take that ugly article at the
old brokers' valuation, might have
got something comfortable for the
money. I'll tell you what it is. old fell
low he said, soeaking aloud to the
press, having nothing else to speak to:
IF 1t wouldn't cost more to break up
your old carcass, than it would ever be
worth afterwards, I'd have a fire out OF
you in less than no time
HE had hardly spoken the words,
when a sound resembling faint groan,
appeared to issue from the interior OF
the case. It startled him at first, but
thinking, on moments reflection, that
1t must be some young fellow in the
next chamber, who had been dining
out, he put his feet on the fender. and