The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-03-22
"THIS IS THE LAST OF ME-"
The Dying Words of the Convict "Dickens's
Dutchman,"

Dutchman."
| a telegram in the Dispatch OF yesterday
announced the death OF Dickens'S Dutch
man. The philadelphia Press says:
| Dickens's Dutchman is dead and buried.
lie has gone to join that innumerable cara
van of which the man who made him IA
nous long since became q member. His
| feeble LIGHT fickered out before the sun
was IN on Friday morning last, and that
same evening he was buried with the GUS
tomary pomp of a pauper convict's funeral
| in Potter's field, on the old Lamb-Tavern
road.
| Charles Langheimer would probably
never have been heard OF outside of the
Police Court had not the distinguished
English novelist, while making his Ameri-
can tour, singled him out as an example OF
the evil effect of the system OF solitary
confinement. He was already quite an old
iai-bird when Dickens stumbled across
him in the Eastern penitentiary.
He was born in SaXony, Germany, in
1904. and was apprenticed to a mason,
under whose direction he learned five
trades. He did not fancy FASTING bricks
together, so he forsook that occupation and
took up the pa;nt-brush. He driited to
WIS NOuLill nuCll lllitN-lhO vi aye.
and Immediately entered upon his long
career Of petty larceny. He had only one
Notwithstanding. He did not steal to get
rich, because the thefts of his lifetime, for
which he recOmpensed the law with forty
three years Imprisonment, did not aggre-
gate 81 900.
II was in the middle OF Nav, 1910. when
he first entered the portal Of the Eastern
penitentiary. He was convicted OF two
cases OF petty larceny, and had been SEN
fenced to undergo five years imprison-
ment. No particular notice was taken OF
him, because it was not then known that
he had determined within his bosom TO
make Cherry Hill his home for the rest of
his natural life. He had served out two
years Of his term when Dickens, who was
at that period in the height OF his fame,
q literary autocrat who was writing
his "American Notes" in haste TO re-
pent them afterwards at his leisure,
visited the penitentiary. Langheimer was
a willy, consummate hypocrIte. He under
stood Dickens's purpose in visiting the
penitentiary, and was quick TO seize the
opportunity to intrude himself Significantly
upon his attention. Affecting an air OF
deepest misery, he crept with the feigned
step OF fear and palsy beneath the eyes of
the novelist, bemoaning his wicked exis-
tence. Dickens's imagination was fired by
this assumed misery, and he told woful
tale OF the life OF convict in solitary con-
finement in his +" American Notes.
The book made Langhelmer famous, and
so many people from everywhere visited
his cells that after his first term had ex-
piaed he shortly managed to commit an
other larceny, and was again sentenced for
two years. Thereafter, to the close of his
life, he was not happy out Of Jail. He
pinned for the curious attention bestowed
upon him by visitors, and boosted that he
would die in prison.
On the 9TH OF July, 1882, he was passing
feed-store. Noticing that the store con-
tanned no one, his old desire TO steal took
possession OF him, and he sneaked in and
rifled the money-drawer Of $40. He was
caught and tried, and sent to the peniten- !
tiary for one year. That was his last term. |
In July last his time expired, and he went |
to the home Of his stepdaughter, Mrs. Peter
McCoot, who lived In Richmond.
There he lived in obscurity, gradually
declining in vitality, until the 18th of Feb
ruary. On the evening of that day feeble
jerk was given at the huge bell that hangs
inside the penitentiary door. The guard
responded, and outside found a little old
man. with silyer-gray hair. Clearly dressed.
beggingto be allowed to 90 inside. II was
Langheimer. He said he had come back TO
die. Hewas taken inside, and placed upon
cot. From that day his vitality ebbed away.
Towards the last he lost consciousness.
md forgot that he was Dickens's Dutch
nan. He died quickly. Only Oyerseer
" iikinson was with him. He threw up
us thin white hands, and said, This Is
ne last OF ne" And so it was. In five ,
minutes he was dead. A certificate Of
exhausted vitality" was made out and
is body, after having been placed in a {
ude pine box, was put in Potter's field.
lie was buried In the only suit OF clothes q
had in the world. and not even his name ! a
as put on the coffin-lid. Id