Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1897-05-14
The Real "Copperfield."
From the New York Mail and Express.

from Ine New \ OTk Mail ana Express.
1t may interest many boys and girls to
know that few minutes before midnight
on Friday, February :, 1912, there was
born on the island of Portsea England, a
every queer small boy" who afterwards
became known to everybody who reads the
English language.
Some years before his birth his father,
whose name was John, lived in London and
was employed in the government navy pay
office as seventh assistant clerk at a salary
of $500 year He was then 10 years old.
Four years later he went across the street
from the pay Office 10 the church of st.
Mary -le-Strand and married Elizabeth Bar
row. They lived in London until John was
sent TO the Island of Portsea to attend to
paying off the ships that came into Ports
mouth, and here the queer small boy" was
born.
He was a delicate baby, with little
strength of body but a remarkable mind.
In his manhood he could remember when
he was taught to walk, and he could see his
mother kneeling on the floor while he tod
died between her and the servant He
could remember, too, the garden in front
of the house where he was born and where
he played with his sister, Fannie, before he
was two years old. He was carried into
| Portsmouth one day to see the soldiers
| parade, and when he returned to the spot
% years later he remembered the scene
and recognized the parade ground where
his baby eyes had beheld the soldiers.
When he was between four and five years
old his father left Portsea and went to Chat
ham, where he lived in one of a row of
houses like New York flats. Here the tile
| hoy STAYED until he was nine years old, and
| 10 lo, h. e
his life. He became acquainted with every
body in the row of houses, and they all
| loved him, for he was a sociable, bright
little fellow. His dearest comrade was his
next-door neighbor, robust, venturesome
boy named George Stroughill and his first
sweetheart was Georges sister Lucy, a
beautiful child, with long golden hair.
Many years later, when the "queer small
| boy became great novelist, he wrote of
his friend George as "Steerforth" in the
story of David Copperfeld, and his sweet
heart Lucy became the Golden Lucy" in
1.-THE Wreck of the Golden Mary" Many
other of his neighbors in the row of houses
became characters in his novels
Being a small and sickly boy and suffer
ing much from bodily pain, he could not
Join the other boys in their games, but this
did not prevent him from being with them
and sharing in the fun. When they played
cricket or marbles or hide seek he
would lie on the grass near by with book
in his hand and read This seemed great
hardship to him then, but it proved great
blessing to him as a man. He couldn't run
and Jump and tumble around, but he could
sing and recite poetry and parts of plays,
and this he often did in his mothers kitch-
en-, assisted by his friends, George and
Lucy.
His happy days ended when he was about
nine years old, and he went through period
of misery and drudgery, which was the
harder to bear, because he was so small and
weak. His father became involved in debt
and was arrested and put in prison in Lon
don. The little boy was forced to support
himself and he went to work in a shoe
backing factory, pasting the labels on the
boxes. He earned - cents week, and he
lived with kind old lady near the prison
where his father was confined. This sad
hard period of his life extended over three
years. When he was - years old, and
still small boy for his age, his father was
released from prison and happier days
came. He went to school for time, and
he became stronger as he grew to manhood
He studied shorthand writing and when
he was 10 he held the position of newspaper
reporter in the House of Commons. When
he was % his first piece of original writing
was published in monthly magazine in
January, 1894. 1t was entitled "a Dinner
at Poplar" This was followed by series
of mage zine sketches over the signature
Boz" His many great novels can be
found in every American library, and they
have placed the name of Charles Dickens
in the highest rank of humorists and fiction
writers.
He died June g. 1870.