The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-21
PALACE TO HOVEL.


even game. Perhaps he footed up the
| most to his score in the long run. He was
| always annoyed when beat him, and in
variably wanted to play another game.
snaii never forget how once at midnight
Charles Dickens faced me across the board
at the end of play.
The game was drawn.
We'll, said Dickens, somewhat resign
| ediy, Why not? Man and woman repre-
sent an equation after all. Discriminate
as you will in favor of either, they are,
when their mutual trails come to be con-
| sidered equals
That is certainly very ingenious way
OF defining draw. said
"A little of Uncle Hector's choice port
soon put him into loquacious mood and
We cnatted over the chess board merrily.
fes,' continued Dickens, the woman
| VINO grows up with the idea that she is
simply to be an amiable animal. to be ca
| ressed and coaxed, is invariably bitterly
disappointed woman. A game of chess
VIII cure such deceit forever. The woman
fhat knows the most thinks the most, feels
the most, Is the most. Intellectual affec-
tlon,' said Dickens, is the only lasting
love. Love that has game of chess in ii
can checSmate any man and solve the
| problem of life.'
Dickens moved very deliberately and
only after careful thought. | moved, as q
general rule, quickly. Then when a hard
| move came, as it often did, added up all
the spare time to my credit and moved
slowly.
There was one popularity about Dick
ems as chess player. He always wanted
me to move first. He followed my play
and accepted all my variations. 1t was
| just so in his novels. He lets a character
take lead and then he simply follows it,
studies it, exhausts it. He never created
| character.
"Ah. me. Wait a minute" said the
woman, as rising slowly from her seat and
| entering the door of the hut she CROPPED
| her way to an old chest, and reaching her
| hand down into it, drew out something
| that visibly affected her as she resumed
| her place.
Holding it up in her hand as the light
shone on it saw that it was beautiful
| little watch.
at was philopena from Dickens. He
never would cab almonds with me after
that, she said. Through those glrlish
| years of my life from 10 up he made me
many kindly little present, though he
was not as a rule in the habit of making
| presents to people.
".But them he said, "a girl who can
play chess with me, Hector, as Vic can
| deserves all the signs of appreciation that
man can give her.
II have kept that little gold watch, u
continued the woman brokenly, Through
all the agony of my life. | clutched it
from my breast when the bull tossed me
at Brixton. / held it in my mouth when
| | was overheard in the British channel in
seams when | slept alone in Epping forest.
| / saved it when everything else went to
| the pawnshop. | still refused to part with
it when | landed at Castle Garden, and
was obliged to sacrifice all | had in order
| to get my menagerie through the gates,
Il. Ill Il 4l.~k "A. AL l.,
| Dickens watch" said the woman, lifting
the tiny gold sphere to her lips with much
| emotion, "as a souvenir of other days
| when l was happy and unsuspecting and
| rich-when l wore clothes that made peo-
| pie look round and rode in carriage like
a countess to Buckingham palace many a
| time, for my mothers father was jeweler
| to the royal family"
EYES," she added, with sigh, 'those
were rare old days in my Uncle Hector's
house, and now here / am in this little
| hut
! "A little bit of bread and no cheese"
| There was something inexpressibly sad
in it all.
| Desiring to change the conversation and
comfort the miserably clad woman the
| writer asked: I'm your chats with Charles
| Dickens did you ever say anything that
made him laugh?"
DICKENS AS DRY HUMoRIsT.
Many and many time, SIT"
"Tell us some of these things"
81 remember once how late at night
| told him in answer to several inquiries
| about my school days, of the old fat lady
| who took header in the snow-drift when
the stage coach on the way to Maiden
| upset and came dangerously near being
| lost sight of, and buried in the
snow, and how nothing could be
seen of her but pair of legs sticking
up out of the snow, and how angry she
was when they dragged her out because
| they took hold of her by the feet upside
down and dragged her out, and she decent
woman when there was nothing else to
take hold of, the wav she was stuck. And
then everybody went and looked down the
| great hole she had made. as if it had been
a crater, and then looked at the crater that
| had come out of it.
although he seldom laughed except
when exhilarated by convivial hilarity he
did lie back in his chair at that story and
laugh out loud, again and again.
AFTER that story he always called me
| 'Waggy.'
| Dickens was fonder of funny story
than anything else on earth.
81 shall never forget how he seemed to
| enjoy an answer of mine once when he
| asked me what had found the most diff
cult thing in painting.
Il said, the management of chiaroscuro
| in some instances
"'Glve an instance said Dickens.
"a stale piece of boarding-school bread
scratched family with shadow of butter
Dickens appreciated the fine distinction
and laughed heartily.
II remember too that he laughed when
| told him how, when Sir Edwin Landseer
| was first presented to the king of Portugal,
he (the king acknowledged the introduc.
ton, and shaking hands with Sir Edwin,
said. in half broken English: Il am most
happy TO make your acquaintance, Sir Ed
win I.andseer. | am so found of beasts
SBut Dickens, as rule, was not a laugh.
| ink man. He was a stern, cold, formal
! man. who had a cynical curl of dry humor
! about his mouth, but whose sense of an
| excessively funny situation, in my judg-
| ment, was not at all remarkable
| He was not fine enough to
| be exquisitely sensitive, and not
sensitive enough often to get beyond dry
drollery. When Dickens was first intro
! duced to me by Uncle Hector he tried to be
| cold TO me. but wouldn't have it. | re-
morsely joked him at every angle. till at
| last whenever he saw me his stern face
would invariably relax into a broad smile
| because, take it, he liked the change from
| grave bores TO frolEicking school girls
! fun"
DICKENS PECULIARITIEs.
Had Dickens any peculiarities that you
| remember that struck you as being partic.
| ularly interesting"
Decidedly" said the Tregear. There
| never was"
The sentence at this point was suddenly
! ;rterruntAd hy lOud CHATTER above on r