The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-06-01
lens LOST LOVE.
nrried Her Sister, Whom
He Didn't Love.
VISITS HIM As 4 SPIRIT
q 6nesy Of the Great SovsSist's Mseyt.
rlnl BIandsr-Hs Cosvsrses win
His Guardian Spirit.

s1nnyjd Copperfesd" Is justly regarded a
- Biographical. but II 10 Q mistake to
s II Dora. - has often been done, With
!: - aho moved in Dickens' domestic
21le II after lie. Dickens vas q young
- esudying shorthand when he met hia
Z r = 3 pretty girl whose name the biog-
~ rsirains from giving 10 the world.
S1Ia rsvsr marry our fsrst love the French
- nd Dickens was no exception 10 the
- H himself tells what powerful In.
1--we this passion was TO him 81 q time
1 ,156n BE vas putting forth his seyerest ef-
~ % obtain start IN life. But he never
,nerried Dora, az did his hero Of the novel:
& s-l -. on her part, did not die one OF
- youthful pathetic deaths that the
sornlisf VS. 70 fond OF depicting.
a1ollfeees would be prevented in this world.
Soue score OF years afterward, when he
= ths husband Of Catherine Hngarth,
okon he did rot love, he and his wife
- formal call on the Dora Of his boy
I1i dreams. He found her q comfortable
Ifs6Ieaeed British mstron who gave no
,iru that juvenile courtship had left any
In1tine impression upon her. This visit
nnouss % have cured the amiabie sentimen-
l1l6t 81 The iniatuation which had haunted
- ior quarter OF century. Inc vision
r nan vas completely DESTROYED by the
sSs|Iir. II young lovers were only gifted
80 pfsscience what a host Of unhappy
m. On The other hand. how much poetry
uoaId b precluded. and what setback
me1,1d BE- 9iven to tho census. Benedlck
- tYue philosopher when he moralized:
sThe world must be peopled.
n Dickens escaped making the mistake
= 80 lfs when he failed to marry Dora.
RI eeFtAinlv made IL when he married
C1therine HogarIh. This Was in 1887.
Vim be vas writing installments Of Pick
Utek' and had not yet tasted the feast
ekIeh fame was preparing for him. He
- obliged TO borrow d few guineas from
NJ publisher in order to indulge In the
hxufy d honeymoon.
n twenty years that followed saw
f1n1unt but pronounced change come over
b1tons' life. Happy in his children and
= ~ friends. be grew estranged from his
~ and conceived an affection for her
yomfer sister. Mary, which was noble
~ dlsinterested from the beginning. and
~ intensified by the girls death into
mnolhing resembling idolatry. There Was
= o1oment Of vulgarlty either IN tho
GI1neemxnt from his wife or IN his
lament 70 Mary Hogarth. In Cath
uno1e did not find the sympathy that he
- or imagined he found in Mary. The
r VAS lovely and gentle. bu: does not
- 10 have been remarkably gifted. II
6pfobable that Dickens idealized her after
~ early death and attributed TO her ali
~ peFleetions he could dream OF. True
Il b that he looked upon her with faith
issembling spiritualism as his guardian
angel
~. A. -.-t ~~~s...i- IA A. sS~~.
tsse over the living wife in the imagina-
ton OF so sentimental writer as Charles
Dickens. Like many another extremely
sensitive man he was not a. careful Of
other peoples feelings as OF his own: and
far from plying him in his union with
Catherine Hogarth ones sympathies so
out to the wife. she mover did anything
wrong as far AS he or the world could dis
cover. she bore him children. and she kept
silence when after twenty years OF married
lie. he saw III 10 separate from her on &C
count OF differences In temperament. Did
he shed any tears over her. one 10 disposed
TO wonder. as he did over the imaginary
heroines Of his novels?
Mary Hogarth was lowering between
girlhood and womanhod when she en-
tered the Dickens household. Her youth
and the short space that she remained
there render 1t strange that she should
have left so great an impression on the
novelist's lite. She was doubtless the
model for the Agnes of David Copper
teid."
The hcadstone At the grave in Kensal
Green hears this inscription: Young,
beautiful. and good, God in his mercy
numbered her among his angels at the
early age OF Ia
In October. 1887. the first anniye rsary of
Marys birthday after her death. Mrs. Ho.
garth sent to Dickens chain made OF the
dead girls hair. In acknowledging the re-
celpt OF the present. the novelist writes:
u have never had her ring of my finger
BY day or night. except for an instant to
wash my hands. since she died. l have
never had her sweetness and excellence
absent from my mind So long. l can SOL
EMMY say that waking or sleeping. have
never lost the recollection Of our hard trial
and sorrow. and feel that never shall.
Y will be great relief 10 my heart when
md you sufficiently calm upon this sal
subject to claim the promise made
you when she lay dead in this house
never 10 shrink from speaking oil
her. ~ If her memory must be
avoided. but rather To take a melancholy
pleasure in recalling the times when We
o. tame and prosperity has only widened
tae gap In my affections by causing rne to
think how she would have shared and en-.
nanced all our Joys, and how proud l
should have been tas God knows ! always
wasl to possess the affections Of the gem
tiest and purest creature that ever shed .
night on earth. wish Won could know
new ! miss that pleasant smile and those
sweet words which, bestowed upon our
evenings work, IN our merry gatherings
afoand the ire. were more precious To me
NAN the applause OF Whole world would
@. can recall everything she said and
aid IN those happy DAYS. and could show
you every passage and line read together.
The depth OF hts feeling Is shown IN
letter To Forster later IN the same year.
That beautiful passage you were SO KIND
ana considerable as IL send me has gwen
oe the only feeling akin 10 pleasure tser.
mslul pleasure I. Isl that have vet bad
eonnecied with the loss ot my dear young
Hiend and companion. for whom my love
and attachment Will never diminish. and
~ whose side, IL II Ilease tod To leave nse
mrossession Of sense "a signify my wishes.
ny bones. whenever or wherever | die.
uii one dsy ne laid -
In his travels through Earope and Amer,
q The same face forever haunted him. At
Niagara Falls in isle he wrote lea letter to
Attend. What would give II the dear
giri who lies in kenSal Green had lived 10
come SO far along with us. bss. she has been
eere many times. doubt not sluce her
sweet taco faded from nay earthly sight. "
lie following Is an extract from 4 letter
addressed To Mrs. Hocarts in Is1S. The
eest portrait that was ever painted would
- OF little value IA sou and me in conpsrs-
son with that unfaiing picture we have
Within rs. trace in many respects
estrong resemblance between her mental
ussnfes agd Georgins's ther sisterssl 80
arrange aAne at times that when she ana
Aete snd | are sitting together seem 10
mlnk that what has happened Is nielan-
ehols dream from which am Just awaken
tne The ,..rf.cs ffk - b. 49,