The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1872-01-09
YolthfLl days Of Dickens-His First
Loye-Hls EARLY Essays in Jour
naiism. .g
V''''0l0 9ELL13II .Ui

Inc contributions 10 Dlcken carry
history are all the more valuable, since
he has himself left no direc, recofd ut
tnose days, save in Copperfield aud in
those nnumerable aud inimitable
sketches of legal life, which prove that
he did a good deal mere than keep
MIR. Blaekmore's petty cash. After
quitting tile precincts of the law,
struck by the example of his father,
who had beeume Parliamentary re-
porter, Dickens devoted bimsclf to the
study of shorthand; but he could not
get into the gallery at once, ,apd two
years were spent in reporting Proceeds
ings in the law courts "a zsne of the
officers in Doctors -c6mmons. But the
boy of seventeen waN now weAerved to
patience aud industryNby his first love,
for he had found. and dfistly wor-
shipped Dlra, i,thf the 1stship open
ed out to the dolater, b5tB in fact and
fiction, highly unsybstaIRial, happy,
foolish time Mr.. Foster Sishelie1ei
ia any but the Dora Of the III, dntii
in 1855 the Dora of 1929 really reap
peared in Dickenss life. then
Dickens wrote to his stillgskeptieal
| don't quite apprehend What you
mean by ovefrating the strength of
the feeling Of five and-twenty years
ago. If y6u mean Of my own feeHssg,
and will only think what the desperate
lntensiiyof my nature is, aud that this
began When | was Charley age; that
il excldded every other idea from my
mind for four years, at a time of life
when four years are equal to four times
fout; and that | went at it with a de
termination TO overcome all the diff.
cg ties, which fairly lifted me up iutp
that newspaper life, aad floa,ed. me
away over hubdrea anieu'sA heads;
then you are wrong, because nashing
can eAaggerate that. have positively
stood amazed at myself ever since.
Aud So | suffered, aud so worked, and
So beat and ha inner away at the mad
dest romances that ever got into any
boys lfead aud stayed there, that to
see the mere cause of it all, now, loos.
ems my hold upon myself Without for
moment sincerely believing that it
would have beea better if we had new
er got separated, i conuot see the oc
caslon of SD much emotion as | should
SEE any one else. No one car Imagine
in the Most distant degree What pain
the re collection gave me in Copperfeld.
And, just as can never open that
book Us open any other book, cam
not STE the face (even at tour-and. f0rty)
or hear the voice without going wen
derlng away over the ashes of all that
youth and mipo in the widest manner.
Mr.. Foster adds:
More and more plainly seen, howev-
er, in the light of four and forty the
romance glided visibly away, its work
being fairly done at the close of the
month following that in which this
letter was written, during which he
had ve.y quietly made Il formal call
with his wife at his youthful Dora 5
/ hcuss, and contemplated with a calm
equanimlIy, in the hall, her. stuffed
iavorite Jip, he began the fiction in
which there was Flora to set a-ainst
its predecessors Dora, both derived
fren the same original. The fancy
had comic humor in 1t he fund il i'm.
pussihle to resist, but it was kindly
aud pleasant 10 the last; and if the
latter picture showed him plenty Il
lauyh at in this retrospect of his youth
| there WAS nothing he thought OF m,rs
tenderly than the ea. iier, AS long as h,
was conscous of anything.
AT l9 Dickens began his manhood
by entering the gallery ON the staff o
u Phe True Sun, with which MIR. Foste
was tdItorially and also in ether way
connected and he tells how he Hrs
saw Dickens one day wAen there ha,
been a general strike of the reporters
| we'll remember Noticing at ihi
time. o. the staircase OF th9 maguif
cent Inansioh we were lodged in,
young man of my oeflage whuse keg
animation of look would Lave arrest
cd attention anywhere, aud Who's
name, upon inquiry, then for the hrs
time heard. 1t was coupled wi1h tin
fact, which gave it interest even then
that youne Dickens had been spokes
man for the recalcitrant reporters, An,
conducted their case triumphanlfy.
There never was such short han,
writer, said of him his friend Nh
Beard, whom he first met in the gal
lery; and upon this path in Iite hi
success WAS sure. For two eessiou.
after leaving The True Sun, he work
ed for the Mirror of Parliament, an,
in his twenty third year he j,ined tn
staffof The Morniag Chrouicle Mean
time, in January, 1884, his first writ
ing saw the light-lhe sketch OF Mr.
Joseph Porter over the Way, which h
had dropped stealthly one evening .
twilight, with fear aud trembling, il
to dark letter hox in dark Office u
a dark enurt in Fleet street. The u
: ter-hox was that of the The Month
, Magazine, and when snnie days aftt