14 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
Px worth eine Reree 
pe ees ree. 8 
Published every Friday afternoon by 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE CoO. 
Knight Building - Manchester, Mass. 
Boston Office: 
44 Herald Bldg., 171 Tremont St. 
J. ALEX. LODGE, Editor 
Manchester 
Telephones: 137, 132-3. 
Subscription Rates: $2.00 a. year; 3 
months (trial) 50 cents. Advertising 
Rates on application. 
gas-To ‘insure publication, contributions 
must reach this office not later than 
Thursday noon preceding the day of 
issue. 
Address all communications and make 
checks payable to North Shore Breeze 
Co., Manchester, Mass. 
as second-class matter at the 
Mass., Postoffice. 
Entered 
Manchester, 
Number 5 
Volume 10 | February 2, 1912 
The Dickens Centenary 
Every one will read Dickens with 
renewed interest this month as it is 
the centenary of his birth. Without 
question he is, and is destined to 
remain, the foremost English novel- 
ist. He is the most striking illustra- 
tion, in the. world of literary en- 
deavor, of success through patient 
toil and heroic enterprise. All that 
he ever attained in life was due to 
his own efforts and pluck. Handi- 
eapped by the shiftlessness of his 
‘father, he. was turned out into the 
world, too early for-the best inter- 
ests of so young a child. In David 
Copperfield, a journalist hero, one 
eannot but feel that Dickens is re- 
vealing, in the ambitions of that 
good man, some of the hardships, 
ideals and. heart longings which 
stirred his own soul. There is no 
-doubt that the improvident Micaw- 
ber was a-pen'study of the careless, 
happy-go-lucky temperament of his 
own father. Charles Dickens went 
to school in a -blacking warehouse 
tying blue labels on pots of paste 
blacking. ..Against. this. restraint 
his sensitive and ambitious — spirit 
eringed and rebelled for he wished 
‘‘to be a learned and distinguished 
man,”’ 
With his: mind saturated with 
the Vicar of Wakefield, Don Quix- 
ote, Tales of the Genii, Tom Jones 
and Peregrine Pickle, and his poor 
G. E. WILLMONTON 
ATTORNEY AND 
COUNSELOR AT LAW 
little body impoverished by a lack 
of care and food, he lved out the 
reign of terror in that prison of in- 
dustry and in his hours of leisure 
prowled about the submerged and 
unknown haunts of the Wicked City. 
Ile was a goodly plant in poor soil. 
But by the strangest paradox of 
life, the very obstacles in his way, 
were the opportunities by which he 
climbed. He was born in poverty 
and absolutely without human pros- 
pects in life, yet out of this environ- 
ment he achieved usefulness and 
fame. 
Ilis field of training at fifteen 
was in an attorney’s office and later 
as a parliamentary reporter he ac- 
quired a power to wield the pen. 
Can anyone fail.to notice that David 
Copperfield was put out as an at- 
tachee to a barrister, then reported 
the news of parliament and_ there 
achieved fame as a writer. The try- 
ing days and labor was preparing 
him for a large work. In the writ- 
ing of David Copperfield Dickens 
was writing out his own ambitions. 
Dickens discovered himself in. a 
few sketches afterwards collected 
under the title.of Sketches by Boz. 
Then he was discovered by a pub- 
lisher but before the Pickwick Pa- 
pers were completed the whole of 
England had discov ered him. Then 
followed a hfe of productivity such 
as the English speaking people have 
never seen equaled. Such a wealth 
of spirit, such a keen understanding 
of human ambitions, such skill *in 
portraiture has never been sur- 
passed. 
Nothing has ever been, written 
which opens the mind of Dickens 
and reveals his method of work 
better than his short preface to Da- 
vid Copperfield where he writes, 
‘“‘sorrowfully the pen is laid down 
at the end of a two years’ imagina- 
tive task; an author feels 
as if he were dismissing some por- 
tion of himself into the shadowy 
world, when a crowd of the crea- 
tures of his brain are going from 
him forever. Yet, I have nothing 
else to tell unless, indeed I were to 
confess that no one can ever believe 
this narrative, in the reading more 
than I have believed it in writing.”’ 
What the reader finds real to hint 
was indeed real to the writer. 
3ut Charles Dickens was more 
than a novelist of fiction and the re-. 
eorder of an unreal world of imag- 
ination. He wrote in a world of 
WILLMIONTON’S AGENCY 
REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE OF ALL KINDS 
SCHOOL AND UNION ST’S, MANCHESTER 
‘for his eyes? 
OLD SOUTH B’LD’G, BOSTON 
imagination but the back-ground~ 
was intensely human and _ natural. 
Perhaps, it can be written, without 
exaggeration that Dickens was the 
greatest social.’ benefattor:.: of his — 
age. The correction of‘: almshouse 
and boarding school “evils, “if not 
atrocities, were due largely: to his 
vitrolic pen.” He belongs: by his 
very works and usefulness’ among 
the great men of’ the: world of 
letters. To bury ‘him in':Westmin- 
ster Abbey was England’s*just and ~ 
well-earned tribute to’ ‘cher: great 
citizen. Ber ore 
Our Eyés';  .*' 
What will aman take in exchange 
Whoever possesses his 
sight has wealth—yéet :thousands 
come into hfe without sight who 
could, if proper care had! beén given 
at birth, have had eye sight., Fully 
ninety per centum. of the: blindness 
in children is due’’to .:opthalmia ne- 
onatorum. If proper .care’, be not 
given the child, within twenty-four 
hours or forty-eight hours blindness 
cannot be prevented by‘ any* known 
means. It is now known. that the 
disease is directly due to-immoral- 
ity. In the literalist sense the sins 
of the father are’.visited upon the 
children. The State. “Board of 
Health have inaugurated..and are 
prosecuting a vigorous ‘eampaign in 
the medical fraternity to reduce the 
number of affectéd’ children. The — 
Secretary, of ..the State..Board of | 
Health is justified ;when: he-, writes, 
‘“When it is considered: that: this is - 
the fourth time in two years that — 
the importance of opthalmia,: neona- 
torum has been brought:'to the at- 
tention of the profession, -it, would 
certainly seem that medieal, practi- 
tioners can have «little :cause for 
complaint if prosemuions follow ne- 
sleet.’ in fikk, arene Re 
A. Humane pAthiovemendt 
The Massachusetts » Child. Labor 
Committee is doing a. quiet, éffective 
and commendable work in the inter- 
ests of the children, of’, Massachu- 
setts. In other years it.sueccessfully 
formulated and. succeedéd :in  hav- 
ing. passed by. the legislature, bills 
preventing the employment.‘of chil- 
dren. upon the stage... During the 
year 1911, bills were passed: prohib- 
iting children under fourteen years 
of. age from working during school 
hours, between 7. p.m. and’6 a.m., 
workshops 
in factories or. at} ail 
Se RENT, ES FOR 
MORTGADES oni! LOANS 
