The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-21

theory OF counter irritants, the blow haC
cured the crick; it is due to the impertur
bable stole of the porch to say that there
upon, with a muttered imprecation on those
''pesky critters'' as he styled them, he ross
from his box, mounted the dog kennel, sur
mounted the chicken coop, climbed the COW
shed, assembled the roof and with Ions
clothes pole scattered the goats at one pro-
digious sweeping stroke down the sides u
the ground.
Descending to the ground with all the al
OF victorious hero he sat down and SAID a.
he sopped his bleeding eye-lid with hi
variegated kerchief.
"Umph A peculiar coincidence, ter
ru-lyE"
"Yes," quoth his tart spouse, "Dickenl
never had any peculiaritles as marked a.
that
Disorderly order once more settled on r tn
epvirons OF Snug-Lake Shanty. IN,
woman resumed her seat by the door anG
after consulting her manuscripts said:
| Poor William, he spoke more truly thar
he knew, after all. A peculiar coincidence
indeed. See these, sir. just read"
read: THE story of an English gentle
woman, being q thread broken from the
life Of Charles Dickens" That was, a.
you see, sir, the original title Of my book
have changed il several times. Now le
US take up the thread once more where Il
was so abruptly broken"
NIBBLING AND BROWSING.
~ strolied out into the country on sew
eral occasions with Dickens, He took me
with him, as he said, because had fac
ulty for seeing everything at ridiculous
| angle Dickens wanted TO make the
world laugh, to make it happy, not miser-
able. noted this invariabie peculiarly II
| him. He never let q wagon loaded with
| fresh hay pass by him on country road
| without going up to 1t and pulling out a
piece OF hay and niboling at IL 1t was the
| same way with SHRUBS, trees, 5arks and
| roots. he chewed them, browsed on them.
He loved nature and took a good many les
sons from her. He loved water in all its
forms. He talked to me most exquisitely
about water. He loved to skirt along by
the edge OF cool gurgling stream, and eat
crosses and chew mint and thyme. He
was particularly fond of the sassafras root
He loved these natural objects for them
selves, but sought them largely for fresh
touches for his books. You see them
sprinkled all through. He was inordi-
nately fond Of trees. / shall never forget
his remark TO me once about q tree. The
wind touched it and q single leaf quivered.
He said, "See that tree smile" Inc wind
stirred IL and all its leaves contagiously
shook. He said again, Just see that tree
laugh" The wind rose in it and as IL
".
was positively a convGlsion." i used TO
take little book with me and jot down
whatever he said that struck me, aud these
manuscripts are full Of them. l once said
to him, "Mr. Dickens. have enough bright
things lotted down that you have said TO
make most interesting book"
make them," said Dickens. ''you have
certainly furnished me, Waggy, with
MORE THAN ONE HUMOROUS CHARACTER
for my books" And he used them, too.
can PICK them all out. L little thought then
that should ever carry out my literary
threat, but have made up my mind that
can write book of recollection about the
great novelist that nobody else can.
1 have said he loved water in all its
forms. So he did, but most of all when 1t
mirrored some object he loved 10 LOOK
down into some clear transparent spring at
the pebbles lying on the bottom. l remem-
Der such spring. / remember how he
pointed down to 1t and said There, Waggy,
that Is what / mean by clearLess, | insist
upon IL as the first trait OF style. Speech
IS only transparent medium through
which you should be able 10 see the thought
clearly that under les it as you see those
pebbles in the spring."
~ told him aiterward that had often
thought Of that remark and that it had
done me great deal of good"
well, Waggy," he replied, 81 am glad for
once that l have done you good in some
thing that l have said TO you, for L must
confess you are pretty incorrigible girl"
"On the same principle was his passion
for mirrors. He loved them like lucent
water for what they clearly showed. He
was always raving about clearness. He
used TO say that '.glass was only frozen
water and water only fluent glass; He
contracted his first passion for mirrors in
my Uncle Hector's house as he himself told
me. Be used to walk about those spacious
rooms whose walls were lined here and
there from top to bottom with multiplying
pier mirrors. And as he saw himself re-
Elected severally in each glass he would
turn to me and say:
.'See, in each mirror i am the same man,
and yet at the same time in each a totally
different man. And so l am the same in
dividual in all my different moods and yet
as many times different"
DICKENS HAD ANOTHER REGULARITY.
He would spend whole days in infinitely
and microscopically studying some appar-
emily Insignificant object 1 once saw him
sit in my Uncle Hector's garden for hours
watch a toad catch flies. 1t seemed to
amuse him beyond description. On another
occasion / found him on his hands and
kness bending over bug IN a SPIDERS web
that had just been caught. Dickens
watched the whole subsequent movement
OF that spider for two consecutive days till
the bug was eaten. The process as he
afterward described it TO me, was wonder
full.
II trust shall not be considered pre-
sumptuous if / say here,n continued the
Tregear, shat Mir. Dickens and / never
agreed about genius. Dickens swore by
Button, / by Ruskin. Dickens said with
said, and l still say with Ruskin in that
great sentence Of his, Genius does great
thing and does 1t without an effect Dick
ems had the genius OF industry. not the
genius of spontaneity. He went over and
over his work, again and again, aud it was
only by accretion that his best works rose
up like coral islands. Dickens once said 10
me. what would you rather be than any,
thing else!' l replied, A great musician
And what would you rather be than any
thing else, Mr.. Dickens, pray.' asked
"a great poet" he replied, disappoint.
eddy.
"Well, you never will be-" said.
''That was the only time, / think, that
Dickens was ever annoyed by me or angry
with me.
He looked at me sharply and said:
"Waggy, you're the sauciest girl that
ever knew" But his good sense came
back to him almost instantly, and he said:
"But 1 suspect very likely you're right
about it after all, and changed the sub
iect Immediately.
THE BREACH INTERPoSEs.
''That's what say, "interposed the sage
Of Snug Lake shanty; Dickens wasn't no
poet in a crick-hic- hic-crickical sense. Why,
he's away of. Just take that line he
thought so fine, see. 1 can't help rhym-
ing" said the sage, lust take that line on
which they say his reputation rests. L
guess it'll rest there: