The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-01-20
CHRISTMAS AND CHARLES DICKENS,

Miss Kate Field repeated her lecture
on Charles Dickens last evening, at the
Fifth Avenue Theater, introducing it
with this seasonable preface:
s'The better the day the better the
deed" declares the old saw. 1 believe
this firmly, if the deed be honest; and
it seems to me eminently fitting that
the man who did so much good cheer,
should be the subject of Sabbath dis
course, especially of discourse from a
stage, for one of the best papers in
''The monumental Traveller" dwells
upon Sunday meetings in theaters. 81
do not doubt" writes Dickens, 'sthat
they will work lower and lower down
in the social scale, if those who preside
over them will be very careful not to
set themselves in antagonism to the in
born desire of the mass of mankind to
recreate themselves and to be amused
Pursuing the argument, Dickens asks,
''Is it necessary or advisable to address
such an audience as fellow-sinners? Is
it not enough to be fellow-creatures,
born yesterday, suffering and striving
to-day, dying tomorrow? By our COM
mon humanity, my brothers and sisters,
by our common capacities for pleasure
and pain, by our common laughter and
our common tears, by our common as
pirations to reach something better
than ourselves-by these, hear me 7"
To night, with Charles Dickens as
my text-a text taken from the Bible,
for does it not mean loving my neigh
Dor as myself address you, my bro
theirs and sisters, ''by our common
laughter and our common tears"
| And on this, the best day in all the
year, whose memory should be kept
green if not that of him who has done
more to make Christmas glorious than.
all the rest of the world, clergy and Ia
ity, put together? Twenty-seven years
ago England was spellbound by the
music of carol that softened the hard
est hearts, opened the tightest purses,
made poetry of stern reality. Chimes
succeeded carols the genius of Dickens
conceived holiday literature without
which the world of to-day would in
deed be impoverished. Standing here,
there starts up before me a larger fam
| lily gathering than any that has assem-
bled elsewhere. / see squeezing,
wrenching, grasping, clutching, COW
in the dog days, and didn't thaw it one
degree at christmas; I see Mrs. FeZzi-
wig one vast substantial smile; l see
that humble, grateful Cratchit family
around their festive goose, hear Tiny
Tim tell his simple-hearted father how
che hoped the people saw him in the
church, because he was a cripple, and
it might be pleasant to them to remem-
Der upon Christmas Day who made
lame beggars walk and blind men see."
hear sweet bells singing "Toby Week,
Toby Week, keep good heart, Toby !!
Toby Week, job coming soon, Toby
Week, jobs coming soon" "And 1T
comes at last, father 2" asks Meg. CAL
ways. Never fails" hear the kettle
and the ''Cricket on the hearth )" l see
how much it costs to fight "The Battle
of Life ;" 1 see ghost bargaining with
the hollow checked Haunted Man :"
L see the head waiter at the Slamjam
Coffee House, London, appropriating
Somebody's Luggage" under the bed
in No "a, and pouring over the touch
ing narrative of ''Little Bebelle and the
Corporal" 1 find myself wandering
into "Mrs. Lirriper's lodgings" and
bequeathing to myself "Lirriper's Leg
acy." / find doctor Marigold's pre-
scription" very sweet to take-for life,
SO sweet as to render even "Ghost stor-
les" palatable, and "The Boy at the
''Holly Tree Inn" and see the "Seven
Poor Travellers" in Rochester listening
to the exquisite "Story of Richard
Doubledick.'. I hear glad voices sing
ing the Christmas rhymes in s'Pickwick,"
and, ever present, above and beyond,
1 see the withered form of ''Tiny Tim"
held in the arms of Dickens himself, as
the boy folds his hands to pray, "God
bless us, everyone i7-N. Y. Tribune,
Dec. %.