The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1882-09-21
peculisrities OF Charles Dickens.

Garrett Dumas publishes the following in
teresting interview with the private bust
ness secretary OF the great novelist Dick
ems:
"You were an amanuensis OF Charles
Dickens's, were you not!"
ayes. did short hand work for Mr..
Dickens for eighteen months. l did not
take dictations for any OF his novels, only
his fugitive pieces. He dictated 70 me
most OF his articles in AH The Year Roard.
He was q very clever gentleman 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 6
O'Clock in the morning and begin debating
He would walk up and down the floor sew
eral times after debating q sentence or a
paragraph, and ask me to read it. / would
do so, and he would, I'm nine cases out OF
ten, order me to strike out certain words
and insert others. He was generally tired
out by IL O'Clock, and went down to his
club on the Strand. A very singular thing
was that he never dictated the closing para
graphs Of his story. lie always finished
il himself. / used TO look in the paper for
il and find that he had changed it very
greatly from what he dictated TO me.
chickens had very odd habit OF
eombing his hair. He would comb it a
hundred times 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 combing. When he go:
through he dictated another sentence. He
was very careful about his writings. He
wanted every sentence to be as perfect as
possible before letting it go to press. Dick
ems was an odd fellow regarding the CON-
pany he sought. have known him, while
/ was employed by him, TO go down to the
Seven Dals, about the worst place in Lon
don, and eat and sleep there. lie roasted
his herring where the rest did, and slept
with the poorest. He loved low society,
lie never seemed so happy as when seated
in poor colee-house with crowd OF the
lower classes talking around him. lie
never missed a word that was said, and
was the closest observer ever saw. Moth
ing 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
rollcking rounds among the poor better
than heightened dinner"
"Was he rs great drinker as he has thu
repntatl0n OF Deing
81 never saw him drunk myself. / have
seen him several times exhiiarated, how
ever. He only drank the best wine, bu
he drank that very freely. Sherry was hi
especial favorite, and ne never refused
glass of fine old sherry. He was an insati
able cigarette-smoker, aud when debating
to me always had cigarette in his mouth
He was very spruce man, too. lie brush
ed his coat frequently, and changed hi
collars several times in q day. lie wa
every bit as humorous in his speech as il
his writings. When he was in a particularly
fine humor he could keep you laughing b.
the hour with his witty talk. He was no
one Of those men who are above those the
employ; he hated as freely with me a
any member of his club on the Strand
Dickens was undoubtedly the best after
dinner speaker in England. heard hin
at Whitehall once. the occasion being a
anniversary OF the British Museum. Their
was an enormous crowd, hardly standin
= room, and he kept them in one continua
roar. He was a fine actor, and this adde
TO his wit and made him irresistibly funny
He was q great eater, not an epicure, but
gorYnand. He ate, and ate, and cared littl
for the quality, so there was enough befoi
him ~