Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-01-03
DICKENS,s GREAT SECRET.

story of his life. Mr.. Forster was OF
the most intimate terms with thu
great novelist from the spring of 1SS'
to the day Of Diekens's death in June
| 1870. They were men Of about the
same age, and to no one, probably
did Dickens confide so much of hi.
inmost nature as to the literary com
panion who now gives us this record
of his career.
The story of that career is one o
the deepest interest. To the outer
world Dickens is seen only in the
light Of an unparalleled success but
those who knew him better than the
world could know were not Ignorant
that all that sunshine was cheekered
by many deep shadows. Dickens
suffered more than ordinary men, and
the pathetic part of his writings was
the richer for the knowledge thus ac-
quired. Doubtless the enjoyment
too, was intense: yet, on looking back
oyer his whole life, it is difficult to
resist the thought that it was rather O
sad than a happy one. There was a
middle period in Diekens's career
when he certainly appears to have
enjoyed life to the finger-tips, with q
vivid and tingling sense Of pleasure,
very delightful to recall. But his
childhood was painful, and his wan
ing years overshadowed.
THE CLOUD.
lie was a very little and a very
sickly boy" says Mr.. Forster. He
was subject to attacks of violent spasm,
which disabled him from any active
exertiOn. He was never q good little
cricket player. He was never a first
rate hand at marbles, or peg-top, or
prisoners base" This was at Chat.
ham. Afterward, when the elder
8lr. Dickens removed to London, this
small, sickly child-then about ten
years old-had a series of experiences
very unusual with the children OF
middle class parents, but which,
while they gave him the most ex-
quisite pain at the time, and to a great
extent threw a cloud over the whole
of his subsequent existence, were
undoubtedly the source of his mar
velOus knowledge of human nature,
and his familiarity with scenes of
want and wretehedness. It need be
no secret now, for the fact will do his
memory no disserviee, that the child
hood OF Charles Dickens was passed
in almost abject poverty.
His father, Mr.. John Dickens, fell
into money difficulties, and was
confined in the Marshalsea prison,
afterward so vividly described in
Little DOrrit." Every small sum of
money that could be earned by any
member of the family became of vital
Importance, so that the boy Charles,
about ten years of age-that is to- say,
some time in the year 1S32-was placed
i'll backing warehouse, belonging
to distant connection of the family,
named Lamert, which establishment
was opened as a rival to the famous
backing shop of Warren, in the
SINKING IN THE DREGS.
Lamert's house was at old Hunger
ford stairs, and it is to be found
exactly described in david Copper
field" What many suspected before
is now specifically revealed. The life
Of the boy David Copperfield is the
life of the boy Charles Dickens. The
future novelist entered the warehouse
Of James Lamert IN the most menial
capacity, at a salary of six or seven
shillings a week. His work was to
cover the pots of paste blacking, first
with oil paper and then with blue
paper, to tie them round with string,
TO clip the paper close and near, and
TO paste on 3 printed label. In the
discharge of these duties his COM
panions were boys of humble birth
and uncultured manners, and young
Dickens, remembering his happier
childhood at Chatham, longing for
education and q start in life, and
that, if his present employment
he would sink into the
mere dregs of society, suffered degree
If anguish, the memory of which he
,ould never shake off at the very
height Of his prosperity.
STRUCK DUMB WITH HORROR.
In a fragment of autobiography
which Dickens wrote in 1S47, he said: !
From that hour until this at which !
wrote, no word of that part OF my
which / have now gladly |
brought to a close, has passed my lips |
o any human being. I have no idea |
low long it lasted; whether for a |
Tear, or much more, or less. From |
hat hour until this my father ami |
ny mother have been stricken dumb |
lpon it. have never heard the least |
Illusion to it, however far off and !
emOte, from either of them. have |
lever until l now impart it to this |
,aper, in any burst Of confidence with |
my one, my own wife not excepted,
aised the curtain 1 then dropped,
hank God
Many portions Of this unfinished |
autobiography wereintroduced,a almost !
yord for word, two years later into |
David Copperield, and the manu- |
eript has now been largely drawn
Ipon by Mr.. Forster.
low THE SECRET WAS BROUGHT To
LIGHT.
That gentleman thus relates the |
Tay in which the revelation was first
made him:
The incidents to be told now would
never have been known to |
ne, or indeed any of the occurrences
f his childhood and youth, but for
he accident of q question / put to
lin one day in March or April of
S47. l asked him If he remembered
yer having seen in his b0yhood the
lder Mr.. Dixie, his fathers acquaint-
nee and contemporary, who had been
clerk in the same Office in Somerset
House to which Mr.. John Dickens
'elonged. Yes, he said, he recollected
t seeing him at a house in Gerard
treet; where his uncle Barrow lodged
Turing an illness, and Mr.. Dixie had
listed him. Never at any other time
Jpon which / told him that some
ne else had been intended in the !
MENTION made to me, for that the
eference implied not merely his being
net accidentally, but his having had
ONE juvenile employment at a ware
louse near the strand; at which place
lr. Dixie, being with the elder
Dickens one day, had noticed him,
nd received, in return for the gift Of
half crown, q very low bow. He
vas silent for several minutes; felt
hat had unintentionally touched q
ender place in his memory; and to
ir. Dickens 1 never spoke Of the
ubject again. 1t was not however
hen, but some weeks later, that
dickens made further allusion to my
hus having struck upon a time Of
which he never could close the re-
as long as he remembered
nything, and the recollections Of
Thich, at intervals, haunted him and
lade him miserable, even to that
our.