Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-10-13
Some of Dickens Peculiarities.

hC toAiOhtuk 10 LtOlu luLcTVloW lpuU-
lished by the Louisville "Courier-Journal)
with gentleman who was once the aman-
uensis of Dickens, the novelist:
you were an amanuensis of Charles
Dickens, were you not?''
Eyes; l did shorthand work for Mr..
Dickens for eight months. I did not take
dictations for any of his novels-only his
fugitive pieces. He dictated to mo most
of his articles in All the Year Round.'-
He was very clever gentleman to those
under him. He always treated me very
we'll indeed. Most people seem to think
| Dickens was a ready writer. This is, by
no means, the case. He used to como into
his office in Catherine street about eight
O'Clock in the morning, and begin dicta-
ting. He would walk up and down the
floor several times after debating SEN
| tence or paragraph, and ask me to read
it. l would do so, and he would, in nine
cases out of ten, order me to strike out
certain words and insert others. He was
generally tired out by eleven O'Clock, and
went down to his club on the Strand. A
very singular thing was that he never die
tated t'.r closing paragraphs of his stories.
He always finished them himself I used
to look in the paper for them, and found
that he had changed it very greatly from
what he had die ated to me. Dickens had
! a very odd hatt If combing his hair. He
would comb it a hundred times in day
He seemed never to tire of it. The first
thing he di! on coming into the office was
to comb his hair, I have seen him dictate
sentence or two, aud then begin comb
lrg. Wien he got through, he dictated
another sentence. He was very careful
about his writings. He wanted every SEN
tence to he As perfect as possible before
leaving it go to the printer. Dickens was
a queer fell w regarding the company he
sought. have known him, while was
employed by him, to 60 down to the Seven
Dials-about the worst place in London
and eat and sleep 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
a poor coffee house with a crowd of the
lower classes talking around him. He nev-
er missed word that was said, and was
the most attentive observer that I ever
saw. Nothing escaped him. The most
minute mannerisms were noted and stored
away. When was working for him he
was at the zenith of his fame, just before
his death, and even then he loved these
careless, rollicking rounds among the poor
bet ter than heightened dinner"
"Was he as great drinker as he had
the reputation of being?'' a rs.
Il never saw him drunk myself. I have
seen him several times exhlarated, how
ever. He drank only the best of wine, but
he drank very freely. Sherry was his es,
pecial favorite, and he never refused
glass of fine old sherry. He was an insa-
table cigarette smoker. and when dicta-
ting to me. always had cigarette in his
mouth. He was very spruce man,
too. He brushed his coat frequently, and
changed his collars several times in day.
He was every bit as humorous in his speech
as in his writings. When he was in a
particularly 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 employ. He chatted as
freely with me as with any member Of his
club at the Strand. Dickens was undoubt-
eddy the best after-dinner speaker in Eng
land. 1 heard him at Whitehall once
the occasion being thelanniversary: of the