The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-11-24
DICKENS SORE SECRET.
WHY HE REFUSED no VISIT CHI
CAGO WHEN IN THIS COUNTRY.

a Brothers. scandnIous COurse-Au-
Eustus Dickens, the Original
"Boz," Lived There with n Woman
for whom He Had Abandoned His
wife.
From the Chicago Times-Herald
Charles Dickens brother, Augustus
Dickens, and Mrs. Augustus Dickens
lived for some time and until their death
in house on the site of No. 568 North
Clark street. Chicago. Recent inquiries
concerning the title to the realty have
brought out surprising details concern
ing Augustus Dickens and his brother.
The disclosures now made for the first
time not only explain why Dickens would
not come to Chicago when reading in
this country, but also why he never de-
Tended himself against the charge that
he had been unnatural and heartless to
a member of his own family in indulgence.
The story contains much that is sensa-
tional. and it is told only to purge the
fame of the great novelist of an unde-
served but obstinate stain.
In Forster's Life of Charles Dickens
the novelist is made to avoid Chicago
solely on the score of distance. That
assumed from his coming as near this
city as Baltimore on the one hand and
Cleveland on the other. 1t was at Phila-
delpha he announced his intention of not
reading in Chicago In one of his letters
he writes: The worst of it is everybody
one advises with has a monomania re-
specting Chicago. Good heavens, sir
said the great Philadelphia authority to
Chicago the people Will go into iitsv
Well l answered, i would rather they
went into CTS than l did Why should
he have fits" if he came to this city?
Charles Dickens reason for remaining
away from Chicago also involves the real
origin of the nom de plume Boz. This
pet child, his youngest brother, Angus
tus, whom, in honor of The Vicar of
Wakefield, he had dubbed Moses, which,
being facetiously pronounced through the
nose became Bosses, ana, being shortened,
became Boz" Boz Dickens himself
says, was a very familiar household word
to me long before l was an author, and
so came to adopt it,"
There is little said by Forster about
Augustus Dickens. Early in the hfties
Augustus was placed in city en-
ployment by Thomas Chapman, which
after a little time he surrendered and
then found his way to America" That
is all That his death In this city was
known to the biographer is betrayed in
a parenthesis in the index, although no
reference is made to 1t in the text
Augustus Dickens was born in 1927
ana was, therefore, fifteen years younger
than Charles Dickens 1t is easy to un-
derstand how the elder brother became
tcnderly attached to the youngest, who
was an infant when he was beginning
to take on the responsibilities of a man
how, in the intervals when Charles was
free to have a little time at home the
child and the big brother grew fonder
and fonder, the hopelessness of the little
one attaching him more and more TO
the elder, and it is needless to recall
that as soon as Charles Dickens was able
to do so out of his own scanty earnings,
he became in fact, provider for his par
ents and the younger members of his
No picture should be more vivid. none
more convincing than that presented
his brothers and sisters By the time he
was reaching reputation after his own
childhood of dismal drudgery in the
backing establishment, on through his
gave him a real start in life, Augustus,
the little pet brother, was still his pet.
| never filled up. To the one there was also
the feeling of fatherShip as well as Of
brotherhood. To the sother fingered the
devotion of infancy and recollections OF
| the froIicsome retreats with Charles when
| the latter read to him out of Goldsmith
and Scott; and they played and studied
together, Indifferent to all the world else
| Inc Dickens homes were not ideals OF
/ brightness or cheeriness, but whatever
/ their other drawbacks. the love of Charles
| for Augustus never suffered interruption.
/ He cared for him until Augustus was able
/ to take care of himself when employ
/ ment was procured for him at the office
/ of the family friend, Chapman.
Augustus does not figure, so far as is
I known. in any Of Dickens fictitious Gre
/ ations. but that the pet brother and his
/ own cherishing OF him did contribute
! more or less 10 the playfulness, the path
/ os and the gayety OF many page cannot
/ be doubted. Like taper suddenly blown
/ out, Augustus suddenly disappeared from
/ the annals of the Dickens family He
had married. He had resumed ain fhe
/ responsibilities OF life for himself Dick-
ems Went on working. and his own lffa
became Swallowed with domestic grief.
/ his maturity about the pet brother n
/ that he threw up his place al Chapman s.
/ went 10 America and died there
Now the scene ~ shifted 10 Chicago