provided. Its success was due chiefly to the fact that the original
idea of the editor was actually carried out. He aimed to produce a
paper which should morally benefit the public. It was not always
right, but it always meant to be.




CHARLES DICKENS

(1812-1870)

THE FACTORY BOY

This factory boy felt in his heart that he was qualified for a better
position in life, and great was his humiliation at the wretched
meanness of his surroundings. But his demeanor must have been
admirable, for he succeeded not only in retaining the respect of his
associates, but also in winning their regard. In his case, as in that
of so many others, it was darkest just before the dawn of a better day.

They are his own words which follow:


An autobiographical fragment from Forster's "Life."

In an evil hour for me, as I often bitterly thought . . . James Lamert,
who had lived with us in Bayham Street, seeing how I was employed from
day to day, and knowing what our domestic circumstances then were,
proposed that I should go into the blacking warehouse, to be as useful