The daily intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Territory [i.e. Wash.]) 1876-1881, 1877-03-30

ana bribery. IL Obtaining the girls par
don, On condition of her immediately
leaving Athens.
Much that i published As novel is
only Anonymous biography. Many =
nlan who Is bore in conversation NAV
llaTe qualities which give indescribsbie
charms 70 narrative. and the ego.ist j.
he 3uly have the art to conceal bis iden-
'lty, can then hold the reader bv the
powerful grasp Of sympathy
This IS the reason why our best fc-
! tlen-writers are at their best when thew
relate the story Of their own lives under
the thin eauceaiment of u novel name.
Take. for Example, David Copperfeld. /"
which Dickens always insisted was his
very best work Those who heard him
could :-ot understand him The fact is.
Ls had pat the sal story OF his own
childhood into it.
" hat Dickens intimate friends bad
partly known and partly guessed. was
reve@iet after his death Mr.. Forster
published q fragment II autobiography,
in which David Copperfield stood re-
vealed a. Charles Dickens. The pliser-
able story Of his employment. as q child,
in washing aud labelling blacking- bot
ties In cellar in London, though told
of Coppertield, Was true of Dickens.
There are very many tine touches in
the chapters Of the romance, in which
! poor David. half starved, over worked
and half broken hearted, vegetables in
the backing cellar. but nothing more
touching and dramatic than the poor
lads visit to the public house, when,
after giving his twopencc for the glass
Of stunning ale. requesting it to he
drawn with good head on it. the pub
llcan's wife calls him back "a he is 60
ing out. returns him his money and
gives the little fellow kiss.
This never could have been invented.
II must have occurred. So there are
well-known passages in the "Tattler,"
where n little boy. for the first time IN
the presence of death. beats with his
battledore the coffin in which his father
lies. and. turning to his mother, asks
her. woul,i fatbee never come and play
with him again:
The language is 20 simple. so pathet-
ic. and goes 80 directly to the heart of
the reader, that we know Sir Richard
Steele was telling the story of bis own
chiidhood. and descr' bing the first be-
reavement If his own life.
Coming back TO Dickens The reader
of The Posthumous Papers os the
Pick@ick Club" will doubtless recolcct
a story therein, told by Samuel Weller.
of an old gentleman who, having heard
that mullins were unwholesome, ate
hat.-crown's 5 worth at one meal, and died
OF Indigestion. The story appears alb
surd ard impossible. Sam laughed Mt
it as lie TOLD il. and people thought that
Dickens might and ought to have in
vented something better.
Bat he did not iacent it, The story
MAS related in conversation ninety
eight years ago. and was first printed
in BosweIFs life of Johnson" A gen.
tleman, "who loved buttered mullins,
but dared not eat them. because they
disagreed with his stomach. resolved to
shoot himself; aud then he ate three
buttered mullins for breakfast before
shooting himself, knowing that he
should not now be troubled with indi-
gestion, He had two charged pistols,
one being found lying charged upon
the table beside him, after he had shot
himself with the other"
The gentleman in question was Mr.
" lll.am EitZhcrbert. one of DR.. John
sons most particular friends. who ac-
tualiy did terminate his life in the man
rcr above related. on January 2, 1s72
The aceouu, have copied into the pre-
ceding paragraph is part of Topham
boauclerk'> conversation with Doctor
johnson What on earth could have
induced Dickens 10 transfer it to Sam
Weller?
Culld we read between the lines of
.ny great novel. probably We should
recognize that wherever the book
touched rs the author spoke as AT egot-
ist: changed, indeed, from the first per
son 10 the third. but still holding the
reader by the charm. no, of art. but ef
nature
The great and Cardinal truth OF iic-
tan Is thai the novelist should be real
ana should describe not merely what
he wants Won. the reader TO feel, but
what he feels himself. The fault Of
modern novels Is that they contain plen-
+ I, al falsehooa and but little truth.
\ writer may describe what he has
never kseH. aud II be is clever he may
succeed. bat be must not describe what
he las never fsjt Even Ill painted
laud-cape there is reality. In some of
his novels Scott puts a Highland scene
n,lp.niy before YOU, and who. that has
ul.ce u II. can ever forge. how his,ori-
cally MacauIsy photographed the fatal
AMI gloomy Pass OF Glencoe.
Diclc, also remembered, and hence
could farcibly and faithfully dcscril e.
vita, he saw lie places before us the
4 sIatencSs # =. aesrey Woed, the
,fat,s Down IN Lincolns'irt, when the
ti1o IL a,e out: og that my sterious tract
# rheumatic u,ar>hl j where poor Pip
in ",srca, Expectations was terrified
l,v the convict
The conventional landscape. however.
i, }'u, q stn.ll TaT1 Il the " h,ie~ mere
aoruan,l. bu. character. emotion.
l,arlar passion. the touch Il nature that
tua x.ss ~ all kin. should be taken from.
tie lil'. aui Il Is here that most ot our
uo.lera uareli-ls fan They present
.sa fex realities in tic,i0n
MISCELLANEOUS