The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-31
dryly answered.: "We wish to discour- age travelling on the Sawbuth as much as possible, sir."-Tid-
THE HANDICAP OF A NAME.

Charles Chadbrand's Literary Aspira- tions Were Crushed by His Sensitive
 ness to Ridicule.
 At four o'clock on the morning of 1 Easter Sunday. at his home, near Mall vern Wells, died Charles Chadband. With the name of Chadband every body thanks to Dickens, is familiar. It is associated with oiliness, hypocrisy and self-seeking. At the very sound of the name the reminiscence grin starts on all faces. He is national joke But We pay for all our laughter, and we have just paid for the Chadband jest l do not mean to say that the unhappy accident by which Dickens selected the name of Chadband for his impostor was the cause of the death of Charles Chad band. It was not; he died of an ordi- nary disease-of consumption, in fact, But that unhappy accident did over l shadow the whole of Charles Chad | bands life. It did prevent him from | taking the place and fame to which he was justly entitled It has prevented
  single line of his very excellent work. As his literary executor I have had no | choice but to destroy every line of his manuscript in accordance with his or ders. Not a single copy has been l taken, and not one word of his works l that his friends remember may be com | mitted to writing. l do not easily be- lieve In the existence of genius, but I | believe that Charles Chadband had 1 genius. Some, far more competent to l judge than I am, thought the same As l watched the last spark die out in the big pile of burned paper 1t seemed a pity that so much work and such won- derful gifts should be all wasted for such stupid, ignoble, maddening req son-because the author had inherited the name of character in Dickens.
 He was very sensitive. But, unlike most very sensitive men, he was not af- fected nor vain. When I was first in- troduced to him he said. laughing, that he was no relation to the original Chad band. He revelled in Dickens-and would quote the original Chadband freely l had known him long time before I knew that the coincidence of the names gave him any trouble at all It was long before I could make out why he should not publish anything He used to give the most absurd rea- sons for his reticence, and when driven Into corner he would say that he was going to publish a long story of hs implored him to let me take it away with me to London and see what could be done. No" he said nobody would publish it." I told him that it might be refused by five men out of six but that the sixth would afterward be proud that he had accepted it.
 Then, quite unexpectedly, the secret came out. No serious work" he said, "could possibly do anything associated with the name of Chadband." He said it so light-heartedly that I thought he was once more putting me off with a wrong reason. But soon found that he was sincere. He imagined reviewers making jests about his name and owned that he would not be able to stand it. This surprised me, for he fre- quently jolSed about his name himself, and so did his friends. He defended himself. That's different" he said. That is in conversation, among men that 1 know. But I could not have some vulgar brute who did not know me at all doing the same thing in cold print. It would present my stuff from the wrong point of view. Mo- the asso- citations of the name are too strong. If you are called Chadband, you are called Chadband, and there's an end of it; you may do what you like in private, but you can come before the public only as an incorporate, hypocritical, delicious ass, and in no other character what ever"
 He would not hear of a pseudonyme or of anonymity. If his work succeed ed, the secret would be found out and he would be ashamed. If it did not succeed-and he did not think it would it was not worth his while to add to the annual output of bad books. Why make all this fuss about nothing?" l said, angry with his obstinacy., If you think 1t matters one straw-though it does not-change your name once for all, and be done with it." He said that it would be sheer cowardice, and he could not dream of it.
 Very fortunately, he had private means. Poverty might have driven him to overcome his sensitiveness and to publish. Had he done so, it would have been curious to watch the growth of an entirely new set of associations around the name Chadband. I think he was strong enough to have redeemed the name.
 i He was unmarried-said that he did not believe in the hereditary principles as applied to jokes. Ills real reason fol not marrying was, of course, the dis ease of which he died. He worked ex- ceedingly hard and, as he knew, to rc purpose. He would not own that ht took pleasure in his work. No" he said, It's like smoking-I get nc pleasure from it, but I should miss it il I gave it up" He took enormous pain: with his work, finished it as thoroughly as though it were to constitute his ap
 peal to the world on the following day l He kept the final copy of everything ht , approved, but his instructions wer, that it was all to be burned as soon a: possible after his death.
 5 He Is dead and his work is destroyed and it seems quite odd that most people ? cannot possibly care To those wh, ? knew the man and the work it is tn, ! uTiucinai event pf tE1a vyaely -Rarr7