Dickens probably wrote the following portion of 'Post-Office Money-Orders': from 'The Central Money-order Office' (p. 3) to 'wealth and laurels!' (p. 4).
Dickens may also have rewritten or added to the following sections: from the opening to 'might be extinguished' (p. 1); from 'All these people' to 'hereditary bondsmen only' (p. 4).
In 1852 the following anonymous pamphlet was published in London: Methods of Employment, Being An Exposure of the unprincipled schemers, who, through the means of Advertisements, profess to give Receipts by which industrious persons of either sex may realize from £1 to £5, and even £10 per week. With Remarks by Charles Dickens, Esq. Most of the pamphlet was given over to reprinting gulling advertisements and recording the responses received when the ads were answered. But before getting down to this business, the author reprinted, under the title 'Post-Office Money-Orders,' a duly labeled extract from Household Words - the extract being that portion of 'Post-Office Money-Orders' which begins with 'A prosaic place enough' and ends with 'restore the orders to the deluded senders' (p. 3). No authority is given for attributing this extract to Dickens, and though the title page says the remarks are by him, the text itself claims only that the passage is from Household Words - a claim that is made in the introduction to the extract and reiterated at the end.
For a discussion of the Dickens-Wills attributions, see note to 'Valentine's Day at the Post-Office'.
Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.
