Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-03
DICKENS AMANUENSIS,

An Interesting Talk With the Man
Who Used 70 Write for Charles
Dickens.
"You were an amanuensis of Charles
Dickens, were you not ?"
Eyes did shorthand work for Mr..
Dickens for eighteen months. I did not
take dictations for any of his novels,
only his fugitive pieces. He dictated to
me most of his articles in AN the Year
Round. He was very clever man to
those under him. He always treated
me very well indeed. Most people seem
to think Dickens was a ready writer.
This is by no means the case. He used
to come into his Office in st. Catherine
street about 8 o'clock in the morning
and begin debating. He would walk up
and down the floor several times after
debating sentence or paragraph, and
ask me to read it. I would do SO, and
he would, In nine cases out of ten, order
NE to strike out certain words and insert
others. He was generally tired out at
Il o'clock, and went down to his club
on the Strand. A very singular thing
was that he never dictated the closing
paragraphs of his story. He always fin
ished it himself. I used to look in the
paper for it, and find that he had changed
1t very greatly from what he had dictated
to me.
dickens had a very odd habit of
combing his hair. He would comb it a
hundred times in day. He seemed
never to tire of it. The first thing he
did on coming into the Office was to
comb his hair. have seen him dictate
sentence or two, and then begin comb
ing. When he got through he dictated
another sentence. he was very careful
about his writings. He wanted every
sentence to be as perfect as possible be-
fore letting it go to press.
chickens was an odd fellow regarding
the company he sought. I have known
him, while I was employed by him, to
go down to the Seven Dials, about the
worst place In London, and sleep and
eat there. He roasted his herring where
the rest did, and slept with the poorest.
He loved low society. He never seemed
so happy as when seated in poor coffee
house, with crowd of the lower classes
talking around him. He never missed a
word that was said, and was the closest
observer ever saw. Nothing escaped
him. When I was working for him he
was at the zenith of his fame, just be-
fore his death and even then he loved
these careless, rollicking rounds among
the poor better than a high-toned din
ner."
s'Was he as great drinker as he has
the reputation of being?,"'
81 never saw him drunk myself.
have seen him several times exhilarated,
however. He only drank the best of
vine, but ne drank that very freely.
Sherry was his especial favorite, and he
never refused glass of fine old sherry.
He was an insatiate cigarette smoker,
and when debating to me always had q
cigarette in his mouth. He was very
spruce man, too. He brushed his coat
frequently, and changed his collars sew
eral times day. He was every bit as
humorous in his speech as in his writings.
When he was in peculiarly fine humor
he could keep you laughing by the hour
with his witty talk. He was not one of
those men who are above those they en-
ploy; he chatted as freely with me as
with any member Of his club on the
Strand. Dickens was undoubtedly the
best after-dinner speaker in England.
heard him at Whitehall once, the occa-
sion being the anniversary Of the British
Museum. There was an enormous
crowd, hardly standing room, and he
kept them In one continual roar. He
was fine actor, and this, added to his
wit, made him irresistibly funny. He
was q great eater not an epicure, but a
gourmand. He ate, and ate, and ate, and
cared little for the quality SO there was
enough before him. "-Louisville COM
merci0s.