Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-25
"DIckENs DUrcAMAN.D
Hardly the Abused Creature the Novelist
Painted Him.

3
| Painted Him.
II is rather a trite subject TO refer to the
prisoner whom the great novelist made IA
nous by his pity, and who afterward be-
came known as Dickens Dutchman," and
yet there are features of the marvellous
manner in which he gave the lie to the
story of Boz" which Richard Vaux told
me, Of which he is a part, which may not
be generally known. The reminder that
this man, Charles Langheimer was one of
the prisoners with whom Dickens con
yersed, of whose condition he drew such
mournful picture. is scarcely necessary.
He compared the little garden leading into
the main cell to grave.
"A more detected heart broken, wretched
creature it would be difficult to imagine
neversaw such la picture of forlorn affection
and distress of mind, wrote Dickens, and
later on he added; II never saw or heard of
any kind of misery that impressed me more
than the wretchedness of this man" What
spectacleI This poor creature being
driven into his grave by the heartless regu.
lations of the system of solitary confne
mentl That was in 184l In 1870 Dickens
died. In 1885 Charles Langheimer was still
alive. But that is not all the tale When
the novelist saw the German thief he was
serving Il second term of Imprisonment in
the penitentiary. After that he served
twelve more, or fourteen in all, in the same
institution | once saw him in the quarter
sessions after he had been sentenced to a
brief Imprisonment in the county prison
With tears pouring down his cheeks he
begged to be sent back to the penitentiary,
even if his time was doubled His request
was granted.
With Langheimer stealing was disease
Mr.. VauX tells me that at one time he
could have trusted him to carry thousand
dollars in gold to bank, but upon his re
turn, if he saw doorway open he could
not resist the temptation to enter it and
pick up the first thing he could lay hands
on. After his last imprisonment his
daughter, who is married to a very respect
able man, refused to have anything more
to do with him. He was then 80 years OF
age, and without IA penny. He was given
an order of entrance to the almshouse
With this in his hand he entered Mr.
Vaux's Office and said "See what have
come to. Please don't let me go to the
almshouse Send me out to the prison. Ii
is the only good home l ever had Please
send me back there"
If Dickens could have heard those words
| wonder what he would have said
Charley" said Mr.. Vaux, II don't know
whether or not the warden can take you in,
and then, too you are dreadful nuisance
But if you will promise to behave yourself
you can go out to the prison and ask the
warden if he can find room for you"
He presented himself and made his re
quest and pleaded earnestly that it might
be granted Finally the good hearted
warden said: "Wcll, if you behave your
self lguess we can find room for you and
enough for you to eat" The old man act
ually leaped for JOY and tore his almshouse
pass into bits, which Mr. Cassidy, the
warden afterward collected and pasted to
gcther, and the card is now one of the curl |
osities of the big building. The next time |
Mr. Vaux visited the prison he met Lang
heimer, who began one of his customary
complaints - similar probably, to that |
which deceived Dickens this time the trou |
bic being ofan alleged rheumatic character |
Mr. Vaux loosely seized him by the Shout |
ders and shook him until he screamed |
The next time they met the old man said, |
laughngly: Mr. Vaux, shake all the |
rheumatism out of mep' But in n few
days the pains of old age, whose meaning |
he did not understand, returned with re.
newed violence, and he sent for the ward |
en-. When Mr., Cassidy saw him in his cell |
he knew that poor Langheimer's time had
come, and two hours slater he quietly
breathed his last in the prison in which he
had spent the greater part of prolonged
life. Solitary confinement had permitted |
him to die of old age. Philadelphia In
quirer.