125:, aware of the power behind Victorian evangelicanism, and of how spite and aggression could be concealed under a philanthropic cloak – mingled the serious with the comic in his portrayal of Miss Clack. The issue comes to a head with regard to her apparently endless distribution of tracts – extracts in pamphlet form of evangelical literature – to the modern eye, a seemingly unique eccentricity. We first see her giving tracts to a servant and a cabbie in place of a tip; and then concealing no less than "twelve precious publications" around her dying aunt's house for the latter to find. This sort of activity would be characteristic of individuals associated with the
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opposed what they saw as "the peculiarly nauseous form of charity as a vehicle for tracts and enforced religion", judging that it was generally applied to social inferiors, with aggression masquerading as generosity.
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