The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-12-08
THE GREAT NOVELIST.
Charles Dickens ~ He Appeared to His
Amunuensls.

Charles Dickens ~ He appeared 10 lns
Amnnuensis.
From an Interview with His Amanuensis.l
"You were the amanuensis of Charles
Dickens, were you not? 2"
"Yes; L did shorthand work for Mr..
Dickens for ten months. j did not take
dictations for any one of his fugitive
pieces. He dictated to me most of his
articles in "All the Year Round" He
was very clever gentleman to those
under him. He always treated me very
well. indeed. Most people seem to
think Dickens was a very ready writer.
This is by no means the case. He used
to come into his Office in st. Catherine
street about o'clock in the morning
and begin debating q sentence or par
agraph and ask me to read it. 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 IL o'clock and went down
| to his club on the strand. A very sin
gular thing was that he never dictated
the closing paragraphs of his story. He
always finished it himself. used to
look in the paper for it, and find that
|
what he had dictated to me.
Dickens had very odd way of comb
ing his hair. He would comb it hun
dred 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 SEN
tence or two and then begin combing.
When he got through he dictated an
other 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. Dickens was
an odd fellow regarding the company
he sought. / have known him, while
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 talk
ing around him. He never missed a
word that was said, and was the closest
observer 1 ever saw. Nothing escaped
him. The most minute mannerisms
were noted and stored away. When 1
was working for him he was ut the
zenith of his fame, just before his death,
and even then he loved these careless,
rollicking rounds among the poor bet
ter than high-toned dinner.
"Was he as great q drinker as he has
the reputation of being?"
II never saw him drunk myself. I
have seen him several times exhilarated,
however. He only drank the best of
wine, but he drank that very freely.
Sherry was his especial favorite, and he
never refused glass of fine old sherry.
He WAS an Unsuitable cigarette smoker,
aud when debating to me always had a
cigarette in his mouth. He was very
spruce man, too. He brushed his coat
frequently, and changed his collars
several times in a day. He was every
bit as humorous in his speech as in his
writings. When he was in 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 any member of his club on
the Strand. Dickens was, undoubtedly,
the best after-dinner speaker in Eng
land. 1 heard him at Whitehall once,
the occasion being the anniversary OF
the museum. There was an immense
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 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."