The San Francisco call., 1897-06-27
A PLEA FOR DICKENS.

We hear frequently from certain critics that
the old fayorites-Scott, Dickens and Thack-
eray-are losing the popularity which their
writings have long he'd. Quite recently Mr..
Maurice Thompson remarked that Dickens
must pass out OF the LIST OF permanent flames
he has already gone, he is SO ignorant and
slovenly." When mere opinion or prejudice
is put on in the form of positive statement
of fact the writer, especially if he is one
OF ability and reputation, is very apt TO mis-
lead his readers and do them real injury.
The belief that the great masters of English
fiction are no longer popular has grown
out of such statements as Mr.. Thompson has
made. In this case DR.. J. L. Rankin, pres
ident of Howard University, Washington.
somewhat inpatient with Mr.. Thompson, has
joined issue SHARPLY with him in a spirited
article in the Independent, Well, says DR..
Rankin, If Dickens has already gone" we can
speak our minds of him freely. We may ad-
nit that he had mo vast reserve of culture"
He was only "ltersry feller," who mad
caught the knack OF making stories Of such a
nature that the whole world read them,
laughed over them, wept over Them. he
knew nothing about "Antigone" and
"Theocritus." Admitted he never studied
fine writing at the feet OF great masters 1t
was not his fault; so much the greater pity.
When he should have been in school he was
packing backing boxes. The completest mas
Greek and Lain classics, Still Dickens did
some things OF which even Greek would not
have been ashamed. At least, we thought so
when, in our youth, we were reading 1.-The
Christmas Carol" And it is pretty sum-
mary disposition OF the author of "Bleak
House." and "our Mutual Friend" and Dom
hey and Son" and David Copperheid" to call
him Ignorant and sloyenly" These cpl
thets do not apply to that kind of work.
There WAS one thing which Charles Dfpkaus
did: he studied great social wrongs thoroughly,
and he helped TO uprOOt not few of them.
He set the example of the novel Tor the pur-
pose of reform, breaking away from the mis-
torical novel, in whose construction Sir Walter
Scott has shown such greatness. Which is the
higher grade of story others may determine
In this he was the father of "a new school
where Charles Reade, Walter Besant. Harriet
Beecher Stowe and Mrs Ward on both sides
of the water have been his pupils. He did
hard and conscientious work I'm preparing his
materials, and certainly In the novels above
mentioned he also displayed great dramatic
power-we mean in the construction of his
plots and in making his personages real. Is
there another author from whose pages an
"Eyening" introducing q score OF characters
may be selected, every one of whom would be
instantly recognized? 1t is true this impress
sion is often made from the recurrence of an
idiosy yncrasy or a repeated phrase or from
some peculiArity in dress, but that is the man
ner in which we come TO know real men.
II 1t is true that D. ckens is already gone"
what will be said of such characters as Cap
tain Cutie, Peggotty, PickwicK, Sam Weller
and hundreds of others? Are they already
gone? They are just immortal in their
sphere as Hamlet and Lady Macbeth and
Othello and Iago. You cannot kill them by
criticIzing the Dickens literature. If Dickens
had been abie or had thought best, to write like
De Quincy, he would have had the educated
and cultivated as his readers-readers who do
not especially need him. And what of the
great multitude who do not appreciate liiera-
ture such. who read without any philoso-
ply about what constitutes literature? II travel
for the house of Human Interest Brothers, and
have rather a large connection in the fancy
good ways" This might be applied to Dickens
himself Everybody knows his defects as q
writer, but in spite OF them, and sometimes
because of them, much that he has written
the world will not Willingly let die. Ii hu-
manity should change, If they should be in
dueed 10 forget the man who ably and in
gentously and triumphantly pleaded Tor