The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-04-24
DICKENS AND HIS WIFE.

The telegraph reports the widow OF
Charles Dickens is seriously i'll. The
mystery which led to the separation OF
Mr. and Mrs. Dickens has never been
satisfactorily explained and perhaps never
will be. 1t is only known that the sep
aration was one of the most sensible af-
fairs of that unfortunate kind that ever
occurred. There was incompatibillty, at
least, and the lives of the two could not
be happy SO long as they ran on together.
There was, therefore, a quiet agreement
to disagree. The wife as quietly went to
her fathers house, being doubtless al
lowed a sufficient income to allow
her to live properly. There was no pub
tic or private complaints. There was no
violent quarrel. Mr. Dickens spoke in
the most complimentary terms OF the
lady whenever he referred to her, and so
far as known she was equally generous
in her references to him. Both held,
notwithstanding the hundred rumors
that were afioat at the time, and which
have been more or less prevalent ever
since, that the cause of the separation
was not the business of the public. They
had separated and that was all there was
about it. There was bad blood, but not
so bad that Miss Hogarth. the wife's sis
ter, was not permitted, without scandal
and without objection on the part of Mrs
Dickens, to remain in the family of the
husband. She evidently possessed a
warm sisterly affection FOR the great nov-
elist, and she remained with him until
he died.
An Auburn clergyman who recently
visited London processes to have learned
all about the cause of the separation, and
in letter to the Auburn Advertiser has
given the public the entire information.
The sole and only trouble was, he says,
that Mrs. Dickens did not appreciate her
husbands books. Without having the
ability to understand, or at least the cast
of mind necessary to appreciate them,
she was nevertheless free in her crit
oisms, and these to the sensitive mind of
Mr.. Dickens We're annoying. She per-
sisted in her criticisms until they and
she became hateful, and the separation,
to two persons peculiarly given to judg-
ment and to action in opposition one to
another, was a natural consequence. The
story seems absurd, but it is the only
reasonable explanation of the domestic
differences Of Mr.. and Mrs. Dickens that
has ever been given; and that the man
who wrote such wonderful books, very
evidently uniting his whole heart in the
work, should be sensitive regarding them,
and perhaps unreasonable so far as the
judgment of his family was concerned,
is not at all strange. There have, indeed
been too many such cases to question the
reasonableness of the story-too many
cases more saddening, the free thinking
and free talking wife remaining with the
man to whom her presence was persecu-
ton, to the creation of smaller but
meaner scandal than that which followed
the wiser course of the Dickenses, whose
separation was, after all, a mere declara-
ton of domestic peace.
In his first visit to this country Mr.
Dickens was accompanied by his wife.
In many instances, having perhaps been
prosecuted too much by the admiring
crowd, he was naughty and overbearing,
and thus made enemies. He became
fretful and nervous, and his self esteem
was developed to far greater degree
upon his first visit than when he came
last. We have read somewhere that Mrs.
Dickens on these occasions was not slow
to chide him, even before his assembled
admirers; that she was glad to catch him
in inaccuracies in his unconsidered re-
marks, and to correct him, with the best
Intentions, but with an air of Importance;
and that whenever she WAS thus free her
husband exhibited unmistakable signs of
impatience and even anger. "Behold how
great matter little fire kindleth -
From these slight differences may arise
the whole great trouble. To believe so
is to be in entire harmony with the reas-
enable story of The Auburn clergyman;
and there are thousands who will be glad
Of such an explanation, preferrinS It to
the supposition that Mr.. Dickens was
unintentionaliy unjust to his wife, even
in the slightest degree, or that his part
of the blame was other than might have
been expected OF a man of his peculiar
temperament. But it is strange recol
lection that man who made so many
happy firesides for others should have
had one SO barren of love and comfort
for his own. 1t is told that John Howard
Payne, whose "Home Sweet Home" will
live as long as there are homes and hearts,
was mere wanderer, and drew the in.
splration for his song from glimpses
through the closed windows at domestic
circles utterly strange to him. Is it that
which we cannot possess that plessas Us
mosts Is possession necessarily disap
pointment? MIR. Dickens fictitious
households showed fine understanding
of the rule of disorder that prevails
where siovenly woman manages. His
story of the child wife in David Cop
perfield' is the very poetry of misman
/ agement, at the same time, that it is on,
of the tenderest and most touching eve
written. With her accomplishments a;
critic Mrs. Dickens may have possessed
| all but the lovable attributes of Dora
and we know that there was visited upol
the imaginary woman all the manlines
and all the disposition to bear and for
I bear which characterized the great aufh