Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-06-24
Death Of Charles Dickens.

CHARLES DICKENS is dead. TIE an
nouncement will come as shock of grief
to thousands Of homes. He has left no
brother among mortals whose loss would
be so keenly and SO widely felt as a per-
sonal affliction. No other man has en-
throned himself in so many hearts; no
other man has visited SO many households
and been so welcomed there as 8 beloved
guest.
Charles Dickens was essentially and Pc
culiarly the friend Of the poor; the rep
resentativerof the common people. Be-
fore his time, the great popular writers
had cOntented themselves with painting
the upper classes the weaknesses and
strength, the greatness and littleness, the
friendships, trials, scandals and amours OF
the nobility. Over all the novels of the
ante Dickens period, was thrown the gla-
mour Of the purple. Walter Scott dipped
somewhat into the lives of the lowly peo-
pie of his time, but even his novels were
written for a far different constituency
than those of the author Of Oliver Twist.
Bulwer rarely stepped down from his ma
jestic height to talk with the poverty
stricken wretches of his time. ~ seAAA
But with Dickens came democracy in
fiction. And he not only wrote about the
common people, bat he wrote for the
common people. He let in light to all the
dark crannies and rookeries of low life in
England. He led twenty million readers
through the leprous dens of infamy and
blight, and gave them no rest until they
carried relief For thirty years the
inmates of English prisons have been
less oppressed; the urchins of the ragged
schools have been less meanly clad and
fed; the plundered victims Of the Chan
Gerry Court are less prosecuted; the help
less creatures in the alms-houses have
been less wretched in their misery, be-
cause, Charles Dickens was their cham
pion. He moved constantly in their be-
half in palace and hovel, in the church
and at the bar, at court and in all the
seats of power, and his app ealing voice
had potency that no other human voice
had ever yet attained.
Charles Dickens has gore hence-but
what family he has left! Up and down
the world they troop, representatives of
every variety of the human race. AS
Mrs. Dombey left her character trans
mitted in her child when 'sclinging fast to
that slight sspar witl9in 4her arms she
drifted out upon the darksand uhkhown
sea that rolls round the world" so has
Dickens, weighing anchor and trimming
sail upon the same sea, left wonderful
procession of immortals. Pickwick and
Sam Weller, fanked by the devout but
bibulous Stiggins; the unpleasant Cark-
er, the wonderful little Cleopatra, and the
florid Joey B. ! Thomas Gradgnind with
his extravagant love of facts, Josiah
Bounderby, Esquire, of Coketown, and
that miserable little comfort Sissy Sleary
Scrooge, shadowed by the ghost. Of Mar;
ley, escorted byg the FShost Of Christ.
mas Past, and followed tfhaidly by
Tiny Tim; the diabolical Squeers, and
Nicholas, Nickleby, giving him his dues;
stalwartand generous JohniB iBrowdie, starv.
ed and frightened Smike, the embarrassed
Kate at her first cooking, and the Brothers
CHEEKY bile, representatives of the grandest
men that God ever sent ta Bless the world
Pecksnif and the party at Todgers's; the
jolly Mark Tapley and the melancholy
Sairey Camp; David Copperfield, Little
Emily, Uriah Heep, Micawber, Little Dor.
rit, and all the other marvellous creations
they defy death, and live forever to tel
the world who Charles Dickens was. Nc
need of a eulogist, when soul going tc
the sunny land leaves such. eloe sent wit.
nesses. Dickens will be mourned, but he
will not be forgotten. He wrote for al
the world, and for all time, and he. will be
tenderly remembered as long as the Eng
lish language shall retain its form, and
humor and pathos shall move the heart Of
man. Chicago P0st.* sss& ~,