The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-02-18
ENGLAND'S NOVELIST.
Detroit Echo.


 More pens have been employed by literary genius in the field of fiction than in any other, and the result of their use has brought to those who have yielded them we'll more gener- ous measure of success than has come to the toilers in any other line of lit- erary labor. Pre-eminent among the novelists of our own times stands the name and fame of Dickens-the man than whom there has been no brighter in the list of English novelists-more brilliant, in fact, than any preceding writer in English fiction. Nor is it the lapse of time since he wrote that lends a charm to what he wrote, for, had the famous author lived until now he would not be as old as the Quaker poet, John G. Whittier, who recently rounded the milestone of four score years.
 Charles Dickens was born at Land port, suburb of Portsmouth, Eng land, on February 2, 1912, and in the recurrence of his birthday anniversary is found the excuse for presenting the sketch of the novelist's life that follows. He was baptized as Charles John Huffman, and occasionally dur ing his life subscribed that name.
 His father, John Dickens, was a clerk in the navy pay office at Ports mouth dockyard, and his character istics are portrayed in immortal char acters in the person of good hearted, shiftless, sanguine, unfortunate Mr. MicaWber.
 Charles was the second of eight children and his youth was hard one "a fact which seemed to furnish the dark reflections that shadowed his subsequent life. When he was four years old his parents removed to Chatham where his education began in the instruction he received from his mother and later at school. Being sickly and united for the rough school sports of his more rugged com- panions, he read necessarily, and with remarkable eagerness devoured such books as Arabian Nights" "Vicar of Wakefield" "Don Quixote," "Robin- son Crusoe," and the "Tales of the Genii." Nor was his fondness for reading the only sign of his precocity, for at the age of nine he produced a tragedy called "Misnar, the Sultan of India," founded on one of the "Tales of the Genii."
 The next year his father became bankrupt and was imprisoned, and the family removed to Bayham street, one of the poorest quarters in London, whence young Charles was sent to work in a blacking factory. The father, having received small legacy about this time, retrieved himself somewhat, became reporter for the Morning Chronicle, and placed his son after two years schooling in an at torney's office. The drudgery of the position was not agreeable to the future great in the literary world and after year or two, during which he had devoted his leisure to novel read ing and attendance at the theatre when his means would permit, he de- cided to become parliamentary re- porter, and accordingly mastered shorthand. He attained his ambition in this direction at the age of nine- teen in position on the True Star, and four years later occupied sim liar position on the Morning Chronicle.
 The Old Monthly Magazine for Jan uary 1884, contained his first sketch, entitled, "Mrs. Joseph Porter Over the Way" Similar sketches appeared in the succeeding numbers through the year over the signature Boz, hen they were discontinued because the author believed that if they were good enough for publication they were good enough for pay, in which mat ter of opinion the author and pub fisher were not in unit. These sketches were subsequently, continued in the evening edition of the Chroni- cle, and attracted considerable atten- tion, besides adding two guineas to the weekly salary of their author, whose aggregate stipend at that stage in his career was seven guineas.
 Dickens was married in April, 1886, to Catharine Hogarth, the eldest daughter of George Hogarth, a writer for the Chronicle. His sketches were collected this same year and published in two volumes, illustrated by Cruikshank. The originality of the sketches and the apparent power of their author led the firm of Chap man < Hall to propose to Dickens 8 work of fiction in monthly numbers for which he should write the text, and Seymour, comic artist of some celebrity, should furnish the illustra- tions.
 Seymour shielded before the second part of the "Pickwick Papers" ap- peared, but the work was continued, and by the time half Of the papers were published Dickens had taken the position he maintained until his death, of the most popular novelist of the