Litchfield enquirer., 1874-01-15

MT. M. B. Fields Personal Recollec
 dons gives the following not very ycompli tmentary aneedota of CLarles Dichebss 1
 IS said to have occurred at Cincinnati dur
 ing the authors first visit to this countr,
 in in 1s42:
 mere were not many persons in th. room when we entered. s1 Immediatelv he
 nind us followed small Enolishman. o su0dued and timid manners. Mr Dick. ems was standing in front of the fire-nlaca With his coat-tails under his arms oor.
 gsously attired, and covered with v iaweiry. sirv
 Mrs. plckens vas lotflpinr rrr,oS a aofs
 at the farther end of the room wa n.,,, wars
 duly presented by an usher. and after or-
 changing few words with fine autbnr o,
 "Pickwick, retired. to give place to ths n.
 little Englishman who was heb;,d ,,a
 Upon being introduced, this oenfIena, ,, :, deferentiaily remarked, sI had fha ,,laas. ure of meeting you. .Mr. Dickens at W, Lovers, m -shire. two veara aoo ,, Dickens looked him steadily in fbe 5oco TOT few minutes, and then Answered ;n a loud voice, 'T never was there in ro,, life, T beg your pardon" replied h;s interiocuter, covered with confusion. "Tf was m the winter, and"-fnanli1no several persons l-''were there at the same lime ; Dlckens again gave him whitening look ana after pause, repeated, in a stiil more elevated tone, 'T tell you. sir never was there in my life." Here Mrs. Dick ems interposed, and addressing her bus- band, said, 'tWhy, Charles, you certainIv were there, and I was there with von Don't you remember the occurrenee2" MT. Dickens glared at her almost fiercelv. and advancing step or two. with his right hand raised, fairly shouted. ssI tell you, was never there in my life.'' Ihad never been so disenchanted in all my days. The unfortunate Englishman withdrew. without another word; and I and my friend retired disgusted I then for the first time reluctantly appreciated the fact that man may be great author without being gentleman.
 Mir. Field was s't.-Sec of the Treas ury during Lincoln and Johnson's admin istration and pays the following tribute to the ability of Mir. Welles then Secretary of the Navy:
 A very protracted and very able core spondence passed between the Treasury and Navy departments in relation to cer- tain regulations issued by the former. af- fecting what was called restricted trade i" The navy objected to these regulations. whose enforcement, it was claimed, would tend to interfere with an efficient block. ade. On our side, MT. Chase himself wrote every letter, and it is needless to say that they were ably written The let ters from the Navy Department were. to say the least. equally able; and we could not help feeling that we were little over matched m the controversy. Fox, the as- sistant secretary, we all said must have written those letters; they could have no other author. But 1t afterward turned out that they were written by the Secre- tary, Mir. Welles, and that neither Mir. Fox nor anybody else had even been con- suited about them. This circumstance greatly raised my estimation of MT.
 Weiles; and from my subsequent inter- course with him became convinced that he was one of the ablest, and in every re . spect one of He best. of MT. Lincoln's inn mediate advisers. The country has never done him any thing like justice. His pa- triarchal looks, his immense wig, his flow ing beard, and his somewhat stolid man. ners, and the names of tsFather Welles" and "Noah" applied to him. by the slang takers and writers of the day, created an altogether false impression of him in the public mind. WheneverI had occasion to call upon him officially, always found him, perhaps to a greater degree than any of his associates, we'll up in all the details of the department over which he presided. His personal mamegement of its affairs was intelligent, thorough and efficient. More, perhaps, than any other of his col leagues, he was given to minding his own business, and in the discharge of his du- ty he was as inffexible as an old Roman. It affords me pleasure to hays here the opportunity to pay brief tribute to a public officer who has apparently been so little appreciated by country which he so intelligently and so faithfully served.