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-- Nahai 0 3 oh MERA NE Don Christian Electric | Electric Range and Refrigerator Bargains "Used. Special $49.00 used one season. Reg. $235.00. Sale $149.00 '1 Frigidaire, 6 cubic foot." 1 Norge, 1 General Electric, 5 cubic foot, reconditioned. "new at $215. Sale $119. 00. Guaranteed. 1 Géneral Electric, 1937 model. Used six months. Reg. $192.00. Sale $139.00. 1 General Electric, 7 cubic foot. $185.00. Full Guarantee. 1 HOTPOINT RANGE. 4 Burner. 8 Moffat, Gurney, and McClary Electric Ranges--$10 00 up. 1--3 Burner SUPERIOR RANGE. Brand New. 1 HOTPOINT, 3 Burner, Low Oven. Reg. $99.00. "1 MoClary Console Table Top Range. Demonstrator. Regular $169.00. Sale $129.00. Don Christian Electric, 38 Sitios St. N,, a "What C (NOTE This article, written over thirty years ago, is a timely reminder of the wonderful improvement that has been mhde in social conditions. The conditions in which we live are improving in spite of all the wars, and fears and troubles.--Editor.] WHAT CHARLES DICKENS DID There is a characteristic little' pic- ture which Dickens gives of "himself which I should like to quote from David Copperfield. If you want to know something of this author's early life read Copperfield. Here is the sketch: {Childhood's Heroes. "My father had left a small collec- tion of books in a little room upstairs to which I had access, for it adjoined ~ my own; and which. nobody else in our house troubled. that blessed little room Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Klinker, Tom Jones, the Viear of Wakefield, Don Quixate, Gil Blas, and Robinson Crusoe came out a glorious host to keep me company. They kept alive my fancy and my hope of something beyond that place and jtime--they and the Arabian Nights and the Tales of the Genii, and did me no harm; for whatever harm was in some of them was not there for me; I knew nothing of it. It is astonishing to me now, how I found time in the midst of my porings and blunderings over heavier things to read those books as I did. It is curious to me how I could ever have consoled myself under my small troubles (which were great troubles to me), by impersonating my favorite characters in them. I have been Tom Jones, a child's Tom Jones a harmless creature, for a week together. I have sustained my own idea of Roderick Random for a month at a stretch, 1 verily believe. I had a greedy relish for a few volumes of voyage and travels, I forget what now, that were on those shelves and for days and days I can remember to have gone about my region of our house armed with the gentre piece out of an old ever From set of boot trees, the perfect realiza-|. tion of Captain Somebody of" the Royal British Navy, in danger of be- ing beset by savages, and resolved to} sell-his life at a great price... When 1 think of it, the picture always arises «in my mind of a summer evening the boys at play in the churchyard, and I sitting on my bed reading as if for life. Every barn in the neighbour- hood, every stone in the church, and every foot of the churchyard, had some association of its own in my mind, connected with these books, and stood for some I6cality made famous in them. I have Tom Pipes climbing up the church steeple, I have watched Strap with a knapsack on his back stopping to rest himself upon the wicket gate, and 1 know that Commo- 'dote Trunnion held that club with Mr. Pickle in the 'parlour of our little 'village alehouse." This little portrait is taken of Dickens by himself as he appeared when nine years old. That he started Sale $69.00. Reg. $375,00. Sale Side Oven. Demonstrator. Latest Model. ---- ee ---------- FUT ---- Sold $49.00. Sale $59.00 Store . Oshawa harles Dickens Did to write little stories at that age is not very wonderful when we consider the imaginative nature of the child. He was too sickly to play at the games common among his chums, but he was a great favorite when it came to tell- ing stories, or singing comic songs. Charles Dickens. was born in Lon- don in the yéar 1812, His father was a clerk in the navy aay office and was moved. to different parts of England to suit the requirements of 'the gov- ernment. Most of the novelist's child- hood until his ninth year was spent at Chatham. father was transferred again to Lon- don and Charles was sent by stage coach smelling the wet straw in which he was packed and forwarded like game, carriage paid. He says: "There was no other inside pasenger, and 1 consumed my sandwiches in solitude and dreariness, it rained hard all the way, and I thought life sloppier than I, expected tofind it." : The Debtor's Prison. In "father's --circum- seein were much worse than when in Chatham, and they were forced to live in such surroundings that no fit companions were found for the boy, except of course his brothers and sisters, of which there were quite a number. In those days there were what were known as debtors' prisons; and his father was arrested and sent to one of these. On a visit to his father the following impressions were received: "My father was waiting for me at the prison and we went to his room on the top storey but one, and cried very much. And he told me, I re- member, to take warning and to ob- serve that if a -man had twenty pounds a year, and spent nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings, sixpence he would be happy; but that a sihlling spent the other way would make him wretched. I see the fire we sat before now, with two bricks inside the rusted grate, one on each side to prevent its burning too' many coals. Some other debtor shared the room with him, who came in by and by; and as the dinner was a joint-stock repast, I was sent up to Captain Porter @ the room overhead, with Mr. Dicken's compli- he, Captain P, lend me a knife and fork? ' In the Blacking Factory. In order to meet the demands of the creditors and the needs of the growing family: the precious books were sold and Charles was sent to work in a blacking warehouse run by a distant cousin, This is what he thought of the circumstances: "How much I suffered, it is as 1 have said already, utterly beyond my power to tell. No man's imagination can overstep the reality. But I kept ny own counsel and I did my work. I knew from the first that if T could not do my work as well as any of the rest, I could not hold myself above slight and contempt. I soon became at least as expeditious and skilful 'Though perfectly familiar with them, space between us. About this time: his | -| it vas like oppression, I wetn home, 'the Latin master who stuffed onions ments, and I was his son, and could' with my hands as the other tow whe, my conduct and manners were dif- ferent enough from them to place a They and the men always spoke-of me as the 'young gentleman." Poll, Green Iprose once and - rebelled against - this- 'young gentleman': - usage, but Bob Fagin settled him: speedily. 4 - At last-oné day the relative so'dftén| mentioned 'and my father, quinrrelled by letter, for 1 took the letter from my father to him which caused the ex- plosion, but quarrelled very fiercely. It was about me. My cousin told me that he was very much insulted by the letter and that after that he could not keep me. I cried, partly be- cause it was so sudden, and.partly' be- cause in his anger he was very violent about my father, though gentle to me.. Thomas, the old soldier comforted me, and said he was sure it was for the best. With a relief so strange that My. mother set herself 'to accom- modate the quarrel next day and did so. She brought" a Fequest 'for me to return to work next. 'morning. = My} father said I should go back no more, and I should go to school. I do not write resentfully or angrily; for I know how all these things had worked together to make me what I am, but I never afterwards forgot, 1 never shall or can forget, my mother was warm for my. being sent back. Training for Law _ . The school to which Dickens was sent was a semi private house, where day and resident students were taught the rudiments of learning. Dickens entered as a day student. One of the assistant masters was an usher whom we believed to know everything, He was writing 'inaster, English master, mathematical master, divided the little boys with the Latin master, made out the bills, mended the pens, and always called at par- ents' homes to enquire after sick boys, because he had gentlemanly manners. You will recognize - the picture of Nickolas Nickleby. -There was also in his ears for his deafness, the gruff serving man who nursed the boys in the scarlet fever, the principal who was -always ruling ciphering books wit a bloated mahogany ruler, and smote the palms of offenders with the same diabolical instrument.' The next change in Dicken's life was his employment in the law office of Edward Blackmore. Here he was simply among the office boys who fn their first surtouts, feel a fitting con- tempt for boys at day schools, club as they go home for saveloys and porter, and think there's nothing like life,' Newspaper Work This early law training did not last long. Shorthand' was a new and valuable acquirement in those days and Dickens set himself to become master of the art, While engaged in newspaper work signing them Boz, short for ily his youngest brother's pet name. 'these frst efforts though much ap- preciated by the editor, who published them, brought Dickens no money; be- cause the paper was not strong enough hnancially to afford such a course, so for a time the 'papers stopped. So' fay you have been given 'Personal pictures of Dickens' life until he was about twenty-five years of age at which time Queen Victoria ascended the throne, Dickens' years of ap- prenticeship were served the rise and establishment Class in Great Britain\ He, lived w become a characteristi this privileged society, although he never ceased to criticise its follies and shortcomings, There were. a good many of them, too, for it was about that time that the Englishman de- veloped. the great conceit he has car- ried about with him for many years. 1t was very offensive at the time al- though not at all unnatural, when we remember his great military sue- cesses. Public Hangings Pride made poor food, however, and the people were very hungry and very ignorant... They also had very crude ideas of- entertainment--public hang- ings' were much enjoyed and very frequently at this time. Through all his work Dickens was much taken up with the gallows and | there is nothing very wonderful in the fact seeing that men were hung for the most paltry offences, and hung in public., . His description of one of (| these nungings is said to have been largely instrumental in stopping them; but that was long after this time. Child labor was very common, too. Lord Shaftsbury had only just begun his work for -their relief, and was fiercely opposed by the Conservative House of Commons, who denounced his interference with the right of contract, meaning the right to hire little boys and girls, sometimes not more than five or six years of age, to work in coal pits and machine shops. About 'that time a law was passed for- bidding employers to work children more than thirteen hours a day, The members of = Parliament could not bring themselves to amend so benevo- lent a law, especially as the grimy little -beggers would have bothered nobody had it not been for Lord Shaftsbury's meddling. The church was in a bad state, ow- ing somewhat to the fact that men had lost their bearings in the 'scientific world, neither Drummond nor Tennyson having shown the har- mony between science and religion, Another reason for the failure of the church was the fact that a large part of the clergy were much more expert in' chasing foxes than they were in chasing wickedness. Dickens: Fights the Evils of His Day. The background of Dickens' stories has now been given and it remains for us to see how 'he made use of the sordid facts of life to lay the founda- tion of one of the finest diterary lives that English has produced; and, at the same time, laughed and jeered out of existénce many: serious evils such as those just described. The mst notable example of his art in this direction is found in his book Nicholas Nickleby. About Christmas time in the year 1837 he went down into Yorkshire to look up the cheap schools in that county to which public attention had been pain- fully drawn by a law case in the pre- vious year. Most notorious cruelties had been practiced in them and he was bent on destroying their power if he could. The + characters in Nicholas are splendidly drawn. One of the most stirring pieces describes a thrashing given to Squcers, master of Dothe- boys Hall, administered by Nicholas. Fanny Squeers takes her father' s part and is much 'upset by ' the circum- stances. Her letter to Ralph Nickle- by, guardian to Nicholas, is worth re- peating. It is as follows: 'My pa requests me to write to you, the doctors considering it doubtful whether he will ever recover the we of his legs, which prevents his holding a pen. We are in a state of mind be- yond everything, and my pa is one mask of brooses, both blue and green, and two forms are steepled in his fuery, since which we have suffered very. much, which leads us to the ar- rowing belief that we have received some ipjury on our insides, especially as no marks of violence are visible ex- ternal]ly. I am sereaming out loud all -the time I write and so is my brother which takes off my attention rather, and I hope will excuse mis- takes, "» Dickens Takes Time to Read. | 1 have taken for granted that you know something of Dickens" writings, wor one cannot be said 'to have even a fair acquaintance with English lit- erature until this author "has been read to some extent. Thefe are peo- ple who have been born into a world or hurry and who have never had a quiet moment in their lives, They are always up and doing, If they see a beautiful 'sunset, it only reminds COLGATE'S F LOATING 5 SOAP 5c. cake, or 3 3 cakes for 1lc. CIR # STATIONERY--One hundred boxes of stationery, regular SALE PRICE 29c. each. 3b¢. to 50c. each. ® ¢'0 RUSSIAN OIL--40 ounce bottle with handle and dati glass 89¢. Sixteen oz. bottle and measuring glass 49¢. ®@ eo : \ WAMPOLE'S EXTRACT OF COD LIVER for a Spring tonic Per bottle $1. 00 Morrison' 's Drug Store PORT PERRY. -- Phone 16 them that there is_another day gone|¥ and nothing done. the lake, chance, they are struck by the splen- 1f they go out on 'aid sleeping facilities, and feel that it would be flying in the face of Providence if they did not straight- way prepare themselves for the next day s work. 'Whenever there is the slightest possibilities of a quiet even- ing at home, this pet horror is headed off by making an engagement at a concert or the theatre. Such people will find Dickens tiresome. They also fing all nature more or less tiresome. Give them the city every time; lots of it served in a.rush, If you would read Dickens 'pleasur- or into the woods by any| ably, just go home and snuggle down |} into a chair, the easiest one in the room. Get your back to the light; and forget that there is such a thing as work in the world. Buy a volume with good type so that the pleasure may be all yours. There is no rush of events in Dickens' books as there is in the writings of Ralph Connor. You sit up on a high stand' and, in- spect the characters as they pass, and you do it at your leisure; * Once in a great while you get angry with the: characters, and once in awhile you find that your eyes are not quite dry; but this does not occur too frequently. Most of the time you have a suspicion that 'the characters pictured are very similar to yourself; but of course much exaggerated. You run back to the day when someone died in your family, and remember that in a mild way. you were a kind of hero, just as David Copperfield. - You think of the time when the big .bully tried to thrash the little fellow, and are proud to recall the fact that he didn't quite finish his job because you interfered, just the same as Nicholas did. You cannot help laughing at the silly actions and pretensions throughout the whole procession, and wonder if you were ever quite so stupid, or proud, or mean, which, of course, you were not. Then you'become more interested in the events. 'You really begin to want to know whether Mrs. Nickleby will marry again, or what will become of Smike., If ever you would like to start to read Dickens pick up the Christmas Carol. It is the finest thing of its kind. in the English language. Every Christmas eve, this story is read in the schoolhouses. Some day when Canadians have more time for home life, the familiar picture will be ré- peated here, Father, mother, and the 'young folk sitting round the fire read- ing Dickens out loud. There will be no need to ask what time Jack will be in, and shall I lock the door?, or has Jack a key to-night? If ever a- writer bubbled over with a steady stream of human love, that writer was Dickens. If ever a writer hated sham, Dickens did. I want to say a word before closing about 'the Amount of liquor that is consumed .-by the characters -in Dickens' books. They seem to drink very naturally, and without malice aforethought. George Gissing in his admirable criticism of Dickens gives (continued on page five.) 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