SRNchinaves London. w/e This is a remarkable autoblograptiy a Londoner's struggle with the adverse conditions of modern life. The son of parents in humble clrcumstances in South London, his father a rolling stone who made occational absences, physical' instructor in the army, the futher had to turn out at. 'School leaving age to corn six shill-Ings a week aS a boy in a railway' ticket printing amice. His first set~ back came through his being indis-erect enough to indulge in a grin. when the manager entered the prem ses ina state of intoxication. This initial experience of the sack pleased him rather than otherwise for it en~ abled him to have two weeks' pay in hhis pocket—more money than he had fever had before. He went through the usual experiences of the career fon which he had started, and his own intelligence, supported by a capacity for reading above the or-Ginary, enabled him to. undergo these youthful vicissitudes with remarkable fortitude. In the course of them he gained just that sort of experience which made Sam Weller so Invaluable a servant to Mr. Pickwick. There seems to have been hardly any occupation from errand boy to office boy, butcher's boy, window cleaner and the like, which he did not try. And then came yet another disaster, which carried him period of street roaming, from which he was saved by the decision to join the army. He insisted on the cavalry or nothing, and managed to have his way. Before long he had started for India, The Indian episodes bring ut clearly the grit and exceptional Intelligence of the adventurer. They also show how heavily the scales were weighted in those days against the young man who tried to get out of the rut, and there is more than a Tittle pathos in his account of his efforts to pass the examination in Urdu. Of all. the private "soldier candidates he was the only one who Succeeded, The attraction, of course, was the reward of £4. But when he came into the examination room he felt himself terribly at a disadvantage beside the officer candidates who had been able to pick up the language by constant opportunity of talking to their bearers:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.