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Instead of describing Scrooge in relation to his clerk, Bob Cratchit, or the overall office interior as Dickens does in the text, Eytinge studies the genial clerk, trying to keep himself warm in "the tank," giving us something of the employer's perspective:

The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who was in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would not be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed. [Stave One, "Marley's Ghost"]

Adding to this textual moment, Eytinge includes the clerk's stove (right), white scarf ("comforter"), and flaring candle on his copy desk. In his right hand he carries a poker while keeping his left in his trouser pocket for warmth, having tucked his quill pen for convenience behind his left eye. The walls and floor boards, as one expect of Scrooge's office apartments, are entirely bare. Regarding Eytinge's study of office clerk Bob Cratchit, one has the impression that he is cheerful in spite of his less than pleasant working conditions.

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Last modified 25 December 2010