The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-04

must have great talent to succeed"
And so the son of the Wizard of Gadshill
chatted on, showing that shrewd common
sense all the while which was a character
istic of his father in all his business trans
actions. If you read any of the various
books that are called Lives" of Dickens,
from Forster's down, You will conclude
that In addition to being genius Dickens
was rare business man. Had he been
merely genius he would never have pro-
fitted so enormously as he did from his
writings and his readings, nor would a
genius who was not also good business
man have been able to successfully estab-
llsh popular magazine such as All the
Year Round was, and is, as now edited by
Charles Dickens jr.
Charles Dickens, jr., has not at all inner
tied his fathers genius. He saws so him
self. But could not but think as I saw
him literally UP to the elbows in work that
the energy, tact, force and intuitive capac-
ity for business of his father had certainly
fallen to him.
Londoners think good deal of the
| younger Charles Dickens and for reasons
aside from the fact that he Is the son of
| their beloved BOZ" In England as in
America great things are not expected of
the sons OF great men. So, much was not
| expected of Charles Dickens, ir. Indeed
he made no pretenses to greatness, nor
| does ne now. But he has gone ahead and
made for himself fame that is all his
| own and that is entirely independent of
| that of his father.
| And yet this is not strictly true either.
| for the reputation OF the younger Dickens
| rests to a. certain extent on work which
| must have been in sense suggested by the
| methods of his father. If, say IN 1867 or
| 1868, you had asked any London ''cabby"
| or bobby" who it was that knew London
| most thoroughly, they would have told
you, "Mr. Dickens" Good judges saw
| that the man who now knows London
most thoroughly is also Mr.. Dickens, the
| son of his father, who studied the great
city by day and by night for many a year.
With magic wand tipped with genius,
| the elder Dickens touched the dark spots
beauties that men who had lived
near them all their lives had been
unable to see or appreciate, and
| that they in common with all the
world then admired for the first time, lust
| as we have gone on admiring ever since.
| So it was that Dickens and London be-
| came so identified each with the other: the
| phrase. 1t was London peopled 80 to
| speak, by the genius of the master wizard.
| Its dingiest spots had been rendered bright
| by his favor.
The elder Dickens loved London.
Whether or not his son inherited the same
feeling we cannot say, but certainly he
loves the great city, too, and has given evil.
dence of the fact.
But the London of the elder Dickens and
that of his son are very different. Even
London is not beyond the ravages of the
modern Philistine real estate Spectators
and builders. And so the Dickens land
marks have to large extent given way
to what is known as progress" Charing
Gross station stands where ''The Swan. $
! or "Swan and something else," to quote
Copperiield, stood, dingy ''public. !"
where young David Copperfield used 10
get his ale and bread and, cheese. accord
ing to Dickens. The white Hart Inn. !"
where Pickwick met the immortal Weller.
yielded way to modern progress a couple
books the Marshalsea prison no longer ex-
lists, but some admirers of Dickens hold
that il does in the shape of two buildings
in Borough Southwark, although they. of
course, no longer hold insolvent debtors.
And then the Kings Bench prison, where
Mr.: Micawber spent many an hour, and of
which he said
Gentlemen when the shadows of that
iron work on the summit of the brick
structure have been rejected on the grades
of the parade, l have seen my Children
thread the mazes of the intricate pattern
avoiding the dark marks. | have been
familiar with every stone in the place"
IHOSc SboiSS are EouS. Inc hlng 8
Bench prison was demolished several
years ago. The Six Jolly Fellowships
Porters is still said to exist, but the evil
denee is not strong. The house of Mr..
Tulkinghorn, the lawyer, is in existence.
but the pauper cemetery of St. Clements
Dawes that figures so mucn in "Bleak
House" is said to be covered by Kings
College hospital.
So the London of Dickens is being swal-
lowed up by greater London. There is a
body of enthusiastic admirers of Dickens
who are doing their best to identify anv
old views and resorts that were fayorities
OF the great novelist and that still stand
under other names, but so great have been
the changes in London that the work is
very unsatisfactory.
1t may have been a visible passing of the
London of 8 generation ago that led the
younger Dickens to take up the London of
today. But the younger Dickens in the
not entered the field that his father worked
so well. You will not see in it the pinched
face OF Poor Joe as he moves on, nor the
shrinking figure of Nancy Sykes as she
makes her way in the darkness to London
bridge, her footsteps logged by Noah Clay
pole, nor the form of Mr.. Micawber, wait
ing for something, nor the ugly face of
Quilp, or any indeed of those people with
whom London was peopled by Dickens
fancy The younger Dickens knew the
limits by which he was bound and gave no
rein 10 his fancy. His father bent London
TO suit his viii. His son has written a
handbook, dictionary, or call it what you
Will, Of London, that is masterpiece in its
way, Just as the first Dickens books were
Fin theirs.