Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-10-17
DICKENS IN EDINBURGH.
Personal Acquaintance Inrrra>fny
Attraction Tor the (.rpnt W rifrr.

Attraction Tor the Great W ritter,
James Pawn in Cornhil Magazine
He came 10 Edinburgh To give his pub
lie readings for the first time, ard had
little time 10 spare. oi course. for pri-
yatr intercourse. ON tn" evening after
his arrival he wis 81 ynpl. however. as
10 propose Il meeting. The hours and
day. he writes. run away while am
thus occupied, 50 inl~neltlbly that do
nothing that prol"I>'' to myself to do.
| Thought We should have walked ten
miles together by this time Tomorrow
morning am going To take my daugh-
ter> out To lIawthorndcn, and it occurs
to me- to ask ii you could spare time to
go with lis on the cxprdiiion.'
Ii had had only twenty four hours
to live should have spared time" for
such purpose, which did not indeed
seem to trench upon my earthly span at
ALL but to be Il forcta>te of paradise.
Such enthusiasm is unknown i'll these
days, wherein Dickens himself, as an
American writer Informs us, rs no
longer to be- endured" and will doubtless
excite some ridicule; but for nv part
am not anc whit ashamed of it, Nav,
contcmptIble as the confession NAV ap-
pear, feel the same love and aimira-
ton for Charles Dickens now IT'S did
then. What indeed ;istOnishcd even ME,
| remember at the time, was that per
sOnal acquaintance with him increased
rather than diminished his marvellous
attraction for me.
In general S,cittl. especially if il has
been of an artificial kind, have known
his manner To- bctray Sonic sense of
effort, but, i'll the company of tho,. with
whom he could feel at hom,.. | have
never met Il man mor,. natural or more
charming He never wasted lime in
commonplacr> though Il lively talkcr,
hc never uttered Il platiiudr and what
he had 10 say he said i> if he meant it.
On an occasion, which many of nv
readers will call To mind hr once spoke
of himself as vry human: he did 80, of
course, i'll Il drprtciatory sense; he was
the last person in the world to affect to
POSSESS any other nature than that OF
his fellows Wh, some one SAID. How
wicked the world is" he answered.
True; and What Il satisfaction il is that
neither You no" belong toi it," But the
fact is ii was this very humanity which
WAS his charm. Whatever tn was of
him was real, without padding. and
whatever Was genuine III Others had Il
sympathetic attraction for him.
The subject. however. which most in
tcre>ted him (and in a less degree. this
was also the ease with Thackrrayp was
the dramatic-nay, even the mclodr:t-
matic-Side of human nature lie had
stories without end, taken from the very
page of life, of quite different kind
from those wit i which he had made his
readers familiar. There are, indeed, in
dicaii"n> Oh this tendency in his writ
ing>, a. III the tales nier>pcrsed in
"fickwick, in the abandoned com
mcnccmcmt of "Iiunphr,y Clock" and
more markedly in all lis occa-
>ional sketches. but they We're much more
common in his private talk. IL
WIS not one oi the days on which Iiaw-
thorndcn Wa, open To the public, and we
had much difficulty i'll obtaining admit
taiIce at the lodge, and when We got to
the house We We're detained there
again, and there WAS Il difficulty about
seeing the glen. | went within doors
and rYpo>tulatrd bat for Il long time
without success: the inmates, | am
sorry 10 say. did not seem 10 be ac-
quaint,d with Dickens name-a cir
cumst;nce which, though 1t would only
have made him laugh the more, did not
venture 10 disclose The fancy icture
which be- drew of my detention in that
feudal abode and of the medi Va; tor
lures which had probably been inflicted
upon lrr, made ample amends, however,
for what had suffered on behalf of the
party.
In The end We saw all that was to be
seen; and never shall forget the face
of the hereditary guide and gatckeeper
when ! ckens tipped him in his usual
lavish luanner This retainer had not
thought much Of him before indeed,
had obviously never heard Of him-but
his salute at parting could not have been
more detcrential had the author of
''Pickwck" been the Lord of the Isles.
The hlmors of the day must have made
some impression upon Dickens himself,
fer in p letter two years afterward he
reminds NE of the Imprisonment had
suffered for his sake in the gloomy cells
OF Hawthornden. Late that night |
supped with him, after his reading, at
his hotel alone; after which | discarded
forever the picture which had made in
my mind of him, and substituted for it
still pleas;tnter one. taken from life.
The ''Oil SpoC' Of the GuIf.
milwaukee, Wisconsin