Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1857-12-26

At the fourth anniversary dinner Of the Ware
housemen andClerk'sSchools (LOndnu, Mr. Charles
Dickens occupied the chair. On The subject which
had brought the company together Mr.. Dickens
spoke with his usual felicity, as follows:
must now solicit your attention FOR = few
minutes to the cause Of your assembling together
The main and real object Of this evenings gather
ing for | suppose we are al. agreed that tl!e mot
TO Of these tables is not Let us eat and drink, Tor
tomorrow We die : but, Let us eat and drink, tor
to. morrow we live. 1t is because y great and
rood work is to live tomorrow, and 70 live II great
er and a better life with every succeeding TO NOR
row, that we eat and drink here at all. Conspicu-
Gus on the card Of admission to this dinner Is the
word Schools This set me to thinking this morn
ing what are the sorts of schools that | don't like.
| found them or consideration, to he rather numer-
Gus. ! don't like-to begin with, aud to begin like
charity, at home-I don't like the sort of school to
which | once went myself, the respected proprietor
of which was by far The most ignorant man | have
ever had the pleasure 10 know-0ne Of the worst
tempered men perhaps that ever lived, whose bust.
ness il was to make as much out OF us and put as
little into us as possible, and who sold us at a fig
uro which | rememember we used to delight to es
innate as amounting to exactly two pounds,
four shillings and six pence, sterling, per head
l(Laughter). | don't like that sort OF school, be-
cause ! don't see what business the master had ia
be at the top of it instead oi at the bottom, and
because | never could understand the wholesome
ness of the moral preached on the affect appear
ance and degraded condition of the teachers, who
plainly said to us by their looks every day of theiI
lives, Bows, never be learned whatever you are,
above all things be warned from that time by our
sunken cheeks, by our pimply noses, bv our neag
er diet, by our acid beer and by our extraordinary
suits of cluthes-(roars of laughter)-Of which nc
human being can say whether they are snuff color
ed turned black or black turned stuff colcred-a
point upon which we ourselves are perfectly un
able to offer any ray of enlightenment, it is so very
long since they were undarned and new
| do not like that sort OF school because | have
never vet lost my ancient suspicion touching
that curious coincidence that the boy viii
four brothers 90 come always got the prizes
In fact, and short | do not like that sort Of schoo
which is a pernicious and abominable humbug al
together. (IIear, hear.) Again ladies and gentle
men, | don't like that sort of schoOl-a ladies
sehool-with which the other school used to dance
on Wednesday,, where the young ladies as | lool
back upon them now, seem to me always TO have
tbeen in new stays and disgrace-the latter concern
ing a place Of which ! knew nothing at this day
that bounds Timbuctoo on the north east, laughter
and where memory always depicts the youthful
enthraller OF my first affection as forever standing
against q wall, in a curious machiDS Of wood, which
~lconfned her innocent feet in the first dancing po
sitior, while those arms. which should have encir
.eled my Jacket, those precious arms, / say, wer
pinioned behind her by an INSTRUMENT of tortur
called a blackboard, fixed in the manner Of a doubl
direction post. Again, / don't like that sort 0
school Of which we have a notable example in Ken
which was established ages ago by worthy scholar
r and good men long deceased, whose munifcent en-
~ldowmsnss have been monstrously perverted fror
t their original purpose, and which in their distOrte'
{ condition are struggled for and fought over wit
the most indecent pertinacity. Again, | dontlik