The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-01-12
A Dish for Dickens.

The Richmond Dispatch has heard
that Mr.. Charles Dickens is about to
take another look at this country, and
thus welcomes him:
It was about twenty-five years ago,
we think, when Mr.. Dickens first did
our country the honor of o visit. He
dropped In upon us In nelghborly
way, and was received with immense
hospitality At that time, though a
young man, he was in the meridian
of his fame, and his popularity, in
the United States as in England, was
unbounded. We greeted him with a
perfect fu,'ore of enthusiasm. There
were some people who thought we
rather over-did the matter. They
said we went down upon all fours, as
it were, before this promising worship
of the British Lion. But the truth is,
there never was more genuine out
burst of good feeling than that which
the great mass of our people displayed
towards Dickens,
Some funkyism there was, as there
always will be, hut the most of us
loved Boz like q brother We iden-
titled the man with his works, and
his works had always been true to
humanity. We were his debtors
for a vast amount of fun, and, what
was better, he had taught us to sym
Pathize with the poor and suffering.
He had never degraded his pen by
servility to rank and power. His
heroes and heroines had been always
of the common mould, and when
nobleman figured in his productions
1t was not much to his advantage.
Such genius and such a nature as
shone IL his pages touched an cleo
trio cord in the soul of this repub-
1ican country. We welcomed him
with both hands and our whole heart
His first speech at Boston festival
rather opened our eyes. It was evi-
dent in that speech that, while we
fancied him hugely; he did not much
fancy US. That makes a great differ
once in matters of friendship and love.
sentiments; 70 live long, must
be somewhat rec1procal Perhaps we
did not deserve return of our con-
fding affections, but the fault that
Dickens found with us in his first
speech, and great many other
speeches, need not have made our
charmer SO cold; and the making it
the constant burthen Of his song was
not calculated to raise him in our
esteem.
One great sin, which it appeared he
had come across the water to reform,
was the neglect to protect. by copy
right law, the property of British Nu-
thors in their productions. No one
can dispute the justice of such law,
and it ought to have been enacted
long ago, but we had not expected to
be lecturea on our short-coming at
that time, ia ihat way, and by that
man, It gave q kind of mercenary
aspect to ous gay cavalier that chilled
the ardor of our young affections and
dispelled the halo of romance that
had encircled our heros brow. But
the festivities to Dickens went on all
the same, and his progress through
the country was perfect ovation.
At last, having spent two months
in travelling through sixteen States of
the American Union, Mr.. Charles
Dickens returned to Europe and
wrote book. We expected it would
be % candid, just and somewhat
friendly estimate of our national cha
racter and habits. We did not look
for anything very philosophical or
profound, but had the right to antici-
pate brilli2nta and good d1kVmored
portraiture kerican life, There
werS some predicted we should
-ssr.selA -ssr-sselA il il 9iS was believed that. if
satiriZed at all, it would be in such
artistic style that we should enjoy our
own dissection. But we were , 20
be grieyopsly disappointed. The
book oyerfiowed with gall and venom.
There was scarcely q drop of the milk
of human Kindness in it. 1t out
Trolloped Trollope, and in downright
misrepresentation and abuse threw
Hall and Maryatt into the shade.
AS specimen Of wit and humor,
it was beneath contempt. He came
back at us IN the same style in ':Mar-
tin Chuzzlewit, Instead of a Da-
mascus blade of bright and trenchant
satire, he cut us up with rusty
butcher-knife, which, considering us
q nation Of swine, eprobably thought
the most appropriate weapon. For
getting his own carricature in Pick
acick of French travellers in England.
NE himself eracted the part of Count
Smorltork in America. He gravely
declal ii in his veracious sketches
that all American men chew tobacco
and talk through their noses, and
that all American women are ignorant.
He spoke of public journals in the
North as the Sewer, the Stabber, the
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