Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1883 — A Story of Thackeray. [ARTICLE]

A Story of Thackeray.

London Letter. I heard a curious story of Thackeray last night, and believe it to be nnprinted. Thackeray was one day sauntering away from the Garrick Club, then dose to Covent Garden, and, strolling through Cranboume Alley, stopped opposite a, pie shop around which several urchins of both sexes were congregated, looking with wolfish eyes upou some pork pies which the baker had just placed in the window'for sale. Thackeray had a great kindness for children and dumb animals; in fact for any creature that could not hit back if injured, so* his soul was touched by the hnngry-looking children. Calling the tallest, a slip of a girl some eleven or twelve years old, he gave her half a crown, telling her to buy five sixpenny pies, take one tor herself, and give the others to her little companions. Presently he saw the girl with five pork pies, one in her hand and the others in her apron, making off at her best pace. Overtaking her he reproached her for taking all and not giving her friends any, whereupon the girl screamed out: “Let me alone, you nasty, dirty old beast, or I'll call a policeman!” The novelist, it is needless to say, dropped this Flower of St. Giles like, as he said, “a hot potato,” and never dabbled in practical philanthropy again. He took a cynical pleasure in relating the story as an instance of early depravity. All who know anything of juvenile vice in Txradon will understand that there is nothing wonderful in the incident, except that the girl spent all th-, money in pies instead of pocketing, if she had a pocket, the silver.