Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1871-12-23
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE
AND VIRGINIA ADVERTISERS
For the COIlntry)

(FOr the COuntry,)
Published Regularly on TUESDA Us, THURS
DAYS and SATURDA Us, at Sir Dollars per
an"auna.
DICKENS SCENES AND PORTRAITS The
London Daily News, in reviewing Forster's
Life of Dickens, says:
The publication of Mr. Forster's First vol
ume' will almost prove as great surprise to
the world as the first appearance Of the first
story which won fame for the subject of the
biography. No one ever doubted that Mr..
Dickens drew from actual observation and eX-
perience many of the characters and scenes Of
his novels. But no one suspected that he had
actually lived through so many of the most
painful experiences which moisteued the eyes
of those who, reading Of them in the pages Of
fiction, believed them to be only the imaginary
sufferiugs of novelist's hero. We now learn
for the first time as a certainty that Dickens
actually knew the very depths Of poverty. 1t
was he, and not David Copperfeld, who sorted
the bottles and was half starved and shabby,
and ashamed of himself for the company which
he found himself compelled to keep. 1t was
he who wandered through London streets a
poor little social outcast. Now for the FIRST time
we seem to have learned the secret OF the in
dividuaity belonging to all of Dickens really
great novels. The effect OF the exaggerated
care which surrounded the childhood Of Mon
taigne with luxury, which wakened him
in the morning with music, and made his early
life soft holiday, is not more evident in his
easy, pleasant, happy-valley meditatiens, than
is the schooling of that episode Of London
poverty visible in the best writings OF Dickens.
1t would hardly be too much to say that in
IL al bolo
stock of materials, his entire outfit for his
career of fortune and of fame 1t wasthe in
tensely healthy and manly moral nature of the
boy, contrasting so much at times with his
physical condition, that kept him sinking ar
tistically into cynicism and despondency, as it
kept him from plunging individually into rcck-
lessness and debasement.
All that is striking, enduring, celebrated in
Dickens books would seem to have been simp-
ly transferred there bodily out of real life. All
that is weak, defective and evancscent in the
way of portraiture or reflection, came from that
inner consciousness which people once called
imagination. For ourselves, however, we shall
not cease to believe that she ideal, as well as
the real, must 60 into a truly great work Of art,
even though David Copper6ed and Micawber
are pictures taken from models that then lived.
We are still convinced that Shakespeare never
knew Hamlet in the flesh, and that Faust
never walked the streets of Frankfort, Lelp-
sig or Weimar.
THE New MYsTERY-The spectral face on
the window pane" which has been fitting here
and there through the country, has reached
San Francisco. In the case of the manifesto
ton in that city, however, two ghosts are per,
ceptible on two different panes. One appeared
upon a window in the second story OF dwell;
ing on North Beach, the house being occupied
by widow, who puts in the pathetic claim
that the face-that Of an elderly man OF melan-
choly expression-is the face OF her late nus
band. The newspapers having gwen. glowing
and picturesqe accounts OF this apparltlon, large
crowds assembled before the house to wonder
at the spectacle. But that day was destlnedIa
though not strictly speaking,a good day tor
ghosts. to be a memorable one in the ghost annal:
ofSau Francisco The fact having become pub
lie that the bereaved widow, with pralseworthy
ingenuity, had turned her late husband coun
terfeit presentment' to some account, by dis
posing of it tor the goodly sum of $lO, 1000, the
multitude had attended to take one last look
at the face which was soon to pass into the pos
session of an other. Strangely enough, how
ever, the face was 20 longer visible but, while
the people we're wondering at the cause OF thu
eyanishment, tidings were brought to 1t tha
another ghost was visible on the pane OF a WIN
dow in a house Just around the corner. Here
was truly an embarras of ghosts, aud so all th'
crowd rushed to the rival house, to gaze upol
the apparition of "a nice-appearng. youth, 0
a lively turn of feature, whose hair, contin
ues the local reporter, was parted IN the cen
tire, and fell in short, graceful curls; ne wore
mnnstache and imperial, strait shirt collar
and black neck-tie.' The person on who's
window pane this spectre has appeared, is san
to be a Eel-known citizen, who has lived Il
the house for eight years. Committees OF IN
vrst;patiop. the San Francisco papers say, arr
to examine into the causes Of so much mystery
Washinqton Patriot.
A CuRE FOR EARAcHE. Eve have recent
seen several recipes published as beneficial Il
case Of earache but one who has severe at
tack of that malady will, we think. soon nm
the inef6ciency OF them all lherels' however II
one remedy which the experience OF twent
wars has taught us is unfalling. We hav
seen il repeatedly tried in our own family, an,
have freoueutly recommended it to others, al
,yavs with the same satisfactory result.
No house should be without its bottle G
arnica. 1t is indispensable in cases OF cuts
burns and bruises, and IN earache 1t is soVei
eign cure. AS soon as any soreness is felt l
the ear-which feeling almost always precede
the regular ''ache"-let three or four drops :,
tincture of arnica be poured in, and then tn
ori6ce filed with little cotton to exclude tn
are =; and in short time the uneaslness is to-
gotten. If the arnica is not reSorted to unit
there is actual pain, the cure: may not De
speedy, but it is just as certain. Ii Que appl
cation of the arnica does not effect cure
will be necessary to repeat it, it may be sever!
times. It is sure preventive Of gathering
We have never yet known any harm or st
rious inconvenience to attend this use OF arnlc'
though ifthe spirits with which it is made al
very Strong, it may be diluted with a. little Eate
as the spirits-not the arnica,WlII sometime
cause temporary dizziness of the head, who
is uupleasant.-Arthurs S Mngazu'e
sr11-11 rry ~ q corrasnondent saws lis abOt