Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-06-24
5Hiscellar,u.
Charles Dickens.

heauache, Miss Hogarth took his arn
and led him from the room. After on
or two steps he fell heavily on his lei
side, unconscious. He was speeches
until his death, twenty-four hours after
ward. The pupil of his right eve wa
dilated and his left eye was contracted
Ills breathing was stentorious, and hi
limbs placid until half an hour before
death, when slight convulsion occurr
ed. The physicians of Mr.. Dicken.
state that they had long warned him O.
the danger Of his intense mental and bod
lily exertions. Mr.. Dickens had assured
them that upon his retirement from read
ing, which took place some weeks since
and the completion of Edwin brood, >
he would take a long season of rest. Ii
was understood that he intended to visit
America, and make social trip through
the west, and as far as California. The
reports in reference to the forwardness
OF his work on his last novel are contra
dIctory, some declaring that it was quite
completed, and others that it is not more
than half done. The copyright of this
and OF most of his works remains with
his family, and he leaves besides com.
Portable fortune. In his will he leaves
All the Year Round" to his son. with
many valuable suggestions about its
management.
The leading journals of our country
unite in giving tribute to the memory
and works of this truly great man. Some
extracts will show how strong hold the
great novelist has upon the hearts of the
people.
"The mournful news brought US by
the Atlantic Cable, Friday morning
touched the hearts of the people as the
death of on author never touched peo-
pies heart before. The loss of single
man during the present generation, if
we except Abraham Lincoln, has car
ried mourning into so many families, and
been so unafectedly lamented through
all the ranks of society. Whatever
may be the place Of Charles Dickens in
English literature-and that it will be
permanent and an illustrious place no
one can doubt--it is certain that he has
endeared himself to mankind more uni
versally than any other writer in the
language. Shakespeare is the poet of all
classes and all times but not even
Shakespeare's glorious creations are
cherished so afectionately by the mass
of mankind as Little Nell, and San
Weller, and Dot, and Captain Cutie
Dick Swiveller and Sarah Camp. The
death of the man who enriched the
world with these wonderful characters,
happening as it did in the vigor of his
intellectual maturity, is universal mis-
fortune"
1t will be the glory of Charles Dick
ems, when his fame comes to be fairly
weighed, not that he has created some
of the most beautiful and by far the
most humorous characters in English
fiction not that he has drawn scenes of
real life with vividness no artist ever
attained before, but that be has acquir-
ed such absolute mastery over the human
heart that we take his ideal men and
women at once to our bosoms, and make
every one of his books a gallery of our
personal friends. Little Nell is not the
most beautiful creature in our literature
by any means; but is any other loved
so we'll ? "Oliver Twist" is not remark
ably good as novel but ever since we
read it, thirty years ago, we have been
crying for more. Bob Cratchit and his
lame child, Bob Sawyer and Mr.. Benja-
min Allen, Betsy Trotwood and Mr..
Dick, Pegotty, Micawber, Pickwick =
dear old monarch of them all-these
are not for US the airy fctions of the
brain, but flesh and blood friends whom |
we love with all our hearts and hope to |
meet some day in this very world. 1t is
the greatness of Dickens that he can in
spire us with feelings like these, and no
other man has ever done it in an equal
degree.
Ten or twenty millions of people keep
a corner in their hearts for Dickens, be-
cause he has seen so perfectly the poetry
the beauty, the hundred lessons which
the life of the masses contains, and in
all that he has done he has striven for
their good. "I have always had and
always shall have, said he ON his first
visit to this country, San earnest and
true desire TO contribute as far as in me
lies TO the common stock of healthfui
and enjoyment. believe
that Virtue shows quite as well in rags
and patches as shedoes in purple and fine
linen. l believe that she and every
beautiful object in rnalnature claims
Ia Lrooef &c /