Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-04-17

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-. Great Novelist's Name For Many
Years-Augustus Was the Pet Of Charles
Until He Went Wrong.
Charles Dickens brother, Augustus
Dickens, and Mrs. Augustus Dickens nv
ed for some time and until their death In
a house on the site of SOS North CLARK
street, Chicago. Recent inquiries concern
ing the title to the realty have brought
out surprising details concerning Angus
tus Dickens and his brother. The dlsclo-
sures 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 defended himself against
the charge that he had been unnatural and
heartless to member of his own family
in Indulgence
Augustus Dicl s,ns was born in 1897 and
was therefore Is years younger IMAM
Charles Dickens. The elder brother be-
came tenderly attached to the younger,
who was an infant when he was beginning
to take on the responsibilities OF man.
The love If Charles for Augustus never
suffered interruption. He cared for him
until Augustus was able to take care OF
himself
Like taper suddenly blown out, Au-
gustus disappears from the annals of the
Dickens family. He had married. Charles
Dickens went on working, and his own
life became Swallowed with domestic grief
One day in the early sixties Augustus ap-
peared among the clerks of the ILLINOIS
Central Railroad company in Chicago
inert Indifferent and thriftless He wasted
his slender salary ON liquor, and the home
he occupied with Mrs. Dickens on North
Clark street was understood to have been
acquired with money given her by her IA
thcr.
When Charles Dickens camo to give his
great series of readings in the United
States, the fellow clerks of Augustus
Dickens, knowing the struggle the hap
less man was making against his adopted
vice, wrote to the novelist kindly at first,
telling him of the distress of his brothers
family and gently intimating it would be
worthy the fame of the great writer If
their condition should be relieved now
that it was brought to his notice.
A second letter entreated Dickens to
come to Chicago, not only to see for him
self the plight of his brother, the original
of "Boz," but also to give the people of
the city an opportunity to hear and wei
come him. Appeal, entreaty, finally pro
test, brought no sign from Charles DICK
ems except a brief statement that his
American arrangements were in the hands
of his agent, Mr.. Dolby, and that they did
not include visit to Chicago. Indigna-
ton succeeded sympathy among those who
knew that Augustus was brother to the
now rich and famous writer. They assum-
ed that he remained away because coming
might compel him to make provision for
Augustus and his wife, who were both in
poor health. The newspapers scored the
novelist numerically.
Not long after the novelist returned to
London Augustus died. On Christmas
eve, 1868, Mrs. Dickens swallowed a dose
of morphine and died. The empty vial
told of suicide The death of Mrs. Dickens
was attributed to grief for her husband
and chagrin over the apparent willful in
difference of his celebrated brother.
When the question of the disposal of
the homestead came up in the probate
court, strange fact was discovered. The
property was not in the name of Augustus
Dickens nor of Bertha Dickens, but of Ber
tina Phillips. Mrs. Dickens friends hush
to send to and receive communication from
London. Before the legal details were
completed for disposal of the material in
terest the fire came and destroyed the rec
ords of the probate court. The residuary
interest that had been acquired was quiet
ly transferred. But for recent tracing of
the tito probably tho truth would never
have been brought out, and Charles Dick
ems would have continued, in the minds
of all who thought they knew the facts,
little better than "a monster toward his
own kith.
Bertha Phillips was a daughter of
Charles Phillips, for many years one of
the most eloquent lawyers in the United
Kingdom. Augustus deserted his blind
wife, who became d member of the novel
lists family. How Augustus Dickens came
into contact with the daughters of Charles
Phillips is unknown. The family were
attractive, and their home was one of tho
places in London where everybody who
was anybody" was sure to be found. Phil
lips lived to 1859 and left fortune esti-
mated at 100000.
After the death of her father and of Au-
gustus Dickens Bertha found herself hope
less and desolatc and killed herself. Per
haps she had ceased to have communica-
ton with the surviving members of her
own family. Perhaps she had hoped to
the last that Charles Dickens, after the
death of poor Henrictte, would forgive
his hayward brother and restore him to
the cd place in his heart What the truth
was will never be known.
Charles Dickens could neither condone
the fault the two erring ones had commit
ted nor could he repair its consequences.
He could make no explanation in his own
defense that would not have exposed the
innocent to shame and inculpated in stat
utory crime his own brother and one whom
that unfortunate man was bound to pro-
tect as best he could since they had chosen
20 cast aside all moral obligations and take
the consequences
Every trace of the blighted household
disappeared long since from the city. The
occupants of the old site of Augustus
Dickens home are not even aware of the
tragic history connected with the past
Recent revelations fortunately will set the
famous novelist right and remove the stain
that has rested on his name SO many years.
Cor. Boston Paper.