The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-09-21

our devs bed suldonly made his
bow before u7.
Tho last sentence read ~ an
American audience Was NJ the riose
Of The tr4l. after Pickwick had been
beaten aud feed 10y the jury, when
Sam W,ll.I's father suddenly ap-
pears and utters bis indignant pro
test at the way the tral had been
carried on, dosing with the mourn
ful r,ftaIu, 80. Sammy. sammy. w
wornt there hall bl ?' As u ckcre
uttered those W0 d , be bowed ! "
aud retired His audience rose
bodily, waving and cheering and
calling for "a specch.n Tney coDtin-
ued 10 call until ihe novelist reap
peared aud the audience seated them
selves. Ny friend Pdtton had told
me there would be a determined ef.
fort to call him out aud had pre-.
pared myself with pencil and paper,
aud believe ! succeeded in getting
Dickens's Farewell to America"
word for word. If 1t has ever been
correctly published before, do not
know 1t. Ii WAS as follows
Ladies and Gentlemen The shad-
ow Of one word has impended over me
all this evening and the time has come
when that shadow must fall. IL Is but
a short word, but such things are not
measured by their length and two
shorter word express the whole round
If human existence When l read David
Copperheld here last Thursday evening
[ felt there was more than usual signl.
fcance for me in Mr. Pegg tvs declara.
tion My future life lies over the sea;
and wlen closed my book just now, |
kecnly ftlf that was about 10 establish
an alibi which would have satisfied
the elder Mr.. Weller himself Laugh
ter
The relations that have arisen between
Is IN this hall, relations at least Gus
tanned on my side by earnest devotion
f myself u my task, aud sustained
IN yours by the klndest symp thy and
enc engagement are now 70 be broken
r.e-v-e-r But | entreat you TO be-
leva thar IN passing out ot my sight
you VIII not pas ont II by mind.
[ shall often recall you. equally by my
winter fireside and in the green English
Summer weather-neyer as a public
audience always rather as a host Of per-
-onal friends always with g-l-a-t-i-
t-u.d-e, t-e.n-d-e r-n e.s-s and re-
gard.
Ladies and gentlemen, bid you
farewell God bless You and
God bless the land in which | leave
you
Ga reaching my room | found Pat.
ton rehearsiug Dickenss farewell to
our chum, both of them having just
arrived from Steinway Hall. With
The a.d of Patton's remarkable mem
ory and my own hasty notes ard as
sisted by Atkins, | sat down and
wrote out the speech with which the
distinguished novelist passed from
the American platform.
The next morning we hunted
through the New York papers aud
found several versions Of 1t, but none
of them we're perfect, and sll of them
had some egregiOus errors, pointed
out to me by several others with
whom | conversed on the subject.
For these reasons, | am Inclined to
believe that the version which | have
given is the only correct one extant.
1t may be of interest to know that
Dickens was accustomed to cOnfne
himself strictly to the program of his
readings, as previously announced.
The only other instance, where he
departed from this custom and added
q speech, was at his final reading in
Boston, a few days before. Hence
we had right to consider that we
were highly favored.
Altogether | considered my ven-
ture success. | had paid for my
ticket and copy of the readings, and
h I'd made a clear profit of 5000. In
addition, had the memory of an