Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-09
were more precious to me than the applause

were more precious to me than the applause
And in a diary, now preserved in the
Forster collection. at South kensington, ne
wrote:
b,rthd iayosg 's Year a" oId. is"S::- This 'G day
last year Mary and L wandered up and
down Holborn and the streets about for
hours, looking after a little table for Hates
bedroom. which We bought at last at the
very first brokers' which we had looked
into. and which We had passed half a dozen
times, because / didn't like to ask the price.
] took her out to Brompton at night, as We
had no place for her to sleep in the two
again next day to keep house for me. and
stopped nearly the rest of the month. 1
shall never be SO happy. again as In those
chambers three stories high; never, II l roll
to keep empty If 1 could afford it"
AS We mount the stone stairs (there are
agone) that led to the chambers, our left
hands on the well known brass banister, 1T
needs little effort of mind-fiight to see the
figures coming and going as they came and
went in those young days. We see the
young man with the brown hair and the
merry eyes, bounding up two or three stairs
above the girlish laughter which greets his
home coming, and we know-all the Inn
from the publishers. and the latest news.
sadly disappointing at first, of the sales OF
less father. many of whose pleasantries Of
speech and manner crept into Mr.. Micaw-
Der. as proud as the fame of Boz as if it
were wholly due to his example nj guild
ance. We see the careworn but unprac-
teal mother. and We think of Mrs. MCKEE
f sg: WE. WE see str sfyPSu Ta Carrying the Is b esca fiIss
journey up and down these stairs. and
within forty-eight hours he is lying dead.
for his place. the fancy has no room for
more than one. He is q young man who
has brought two or three drawings as ex-
- -rptA ~ Isr -1r1 TIA - asDf-1.
wick" seemingly does not think them good
enough, but We can not share the artists
disappointment. We know that he is to be
Dickens only rival and firm friend, and
that when he dies on a Christmas eve twen-
ty-eight years later the most touching of
the many tributes TO his memory will come
from the pen of the man who has just re-
jected his services. OF the many coin
cidences of life upon which Dickens loved
to dwell none surely was stranger than this
bringing together of the two men-the one
unknown, the other as yet only beginning
to be known. who were to give the litera-
ture of the longest reign its greatest luster.
If we may feel a momentary regret tina
the coincidence was not carried a little
farther, and that ''Pickwick' was not Illus
Vanity Fair" We can not, on considera-
ton. but be thankful that no encourage
ment was offered by Dickens to Thack-
cray to follow a path which might have
led him by ever so little astray from the
more serious field OF work to which his
great genius called him.
Up on the three-pair landing the outer
door Of the south set of chambers is found
on the left. 1t was at this door. no doubt,
morning soon after Charles and his wife
returned from their honeymoon, with the
shocking news that Seymour had put ar
end to his life. When the door is opened
and the pilgrim is admitted first into q
little closet of a hall and next into a little
sitting ROOM" it is borne in upon him that
these are the chambers wherein Tommy
Traddles lived. and whereat he was VISITED
by David Copperfeld. ("David Copper
field" chapter lix:) The stairs leading W
10 Traddles' chambers Were; it is true, the
stairs of Gray's Inn. but the rooms wer,
those on the three-pair floor south OF Fur
nival's Inn. The accompanying plan show:
better than any verbal description could
show the smallness Of the rooms and thu
straits to which the young housekeepel
must sometimes have been put to finl
sleeping room for her guests.
The whole set-I mean the chambers
only three rooms; but Sophy manages TO
the girls in the most wonderful way. ant
Three in that ROOM said Traddles. point
Ing. two in that.'"-c"David Copperfield.
The set has three windows overIookin,
the inn: In the, photograph of the OUTSIDE
OF No, 10 IS to be seen a row OF FIVE win
ing. OF these. the three TO the right belon,
10 the south set. and of these three the TIVE
on the right belong TO the sitting room
and the other belongs to the little CUES
chamber adjoining it. Into this little CUES
which was no doubt Mary Ho
saIths Iooni' tMo noors opened from IN
sitting room, as IL NJ one time n cupboart
had been partitioned out of il. Immediatel,
opposite the door of the sitting room, oil
the other side of the little closet OF
hail. is the entrance to the best bedroom
r. room with one window having a gloom,
view of the roofs and chimney pots. on,
quickly turns away from the dispiritin,
outlook TO glance back through the opei
doors into the little sitting room so ful
of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS cheerful-of house
hold economy. according TO Traddles: o
merry banterinss round the fire. of har,
work easily done amid such distractinl
ple~asantries as would be fatal to Thought
full efforts in any but the young and Mig
orous: of Pickwickian fancies, humoron
and pathetic. smoothed and softened b
girlish criticism before being cent forth 4
shake the world with tears and laughter
One can not think of the living human I'm
terest that crowds these little rooms with
out feeling the keenest regret that they ar