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

a great welcome OF waving haudker'
chiefs aud clapplng hands, ttom az
fne an audience as ! eyer saw.
My first impression Of Dickens wai
disappointing. HIS dress was dudlst
IN the extreme. He had miucing
sort Of walk, a fyPplsh air, and be
low his low-cut vest aud big shirt
front, studded aud frlled and furbe
Laughed, there swung on each side a
big glarlng watch chain with ac-
companyirg sjewclry. | confess !
was dlsgusted that an American au
dlence should 60 into ecstasics over
/ him.
But the moment be began TO speak,
noticed ne had an interesting
countenance. Ia fact, as the read
lug continued aud he took US through
he pathos OF "Chrlstmas Carol" and
the fun Of PlckwIck's trial, | thought
that the most interesting thing 10
that night, long 10 be remembered
Was the wonderful play of his fea
/ lures, as OF a person ia animated
conversation. | do not know whetLo,
It IS so with others, but IN my reading
/ Of Dickens, ! s0metim meet Win
expressions from which ! gather lit
tie or no meaning. and 10y reading
them ever and over they grow more
and more obscure Many Of them
are doubtless IdIoms peculiarly Eng
lIsh, OF which IN average American
cannot see the force. Dickens s
rendering of his own works, his
peculiar lntonaious and above all
the constantly varying expressions OF
/ MS cOuntenance, seemed to shed a
sudden light on these meaningless
passages and to make them glow with
humor or with passion. My field
glass brought me within few feet
Of him, and found it absolutely
necessary to keep my eyes on him tC
get the full force Of what be wa.
saying II ! looked away from the
glass for a moment, was liable to
SEQ the front RANKS of the audienc,
couvulsed with laughter oyer some
thing that did not IN the least com
prehend. So that nine minutes out
OF every ten | sat watching hin
through my glass.
Next to the expression of Dickens s
features, | was attracted by his voice
He had a peculiar upward Infection
especially in humorous passages
where most readers would have let
the voice fall. He would pass in an
instant from the hard growl of the
merciless ScroOge to the lisping limp
ing utterances Of Crstchit; and, 10
fact, the expression of counterance
and voice in these two characters re
main to this day as distinct in my
memory as that of any individual
ever knew. He had a way of closing
some of his descriptive sentences
with a jerk, that | can compare tC
the school boys game of "crack the
whip" His fnal words, though dis.
tnct, would rush out somewhat a:
the small boy at the end of the
"cracker," st the supreme mo-
ment, flies across the play ground
Accompanying these lively sentences
would be some remarkably quick
and expressive gesture. AS a rule
however, he gestured very little, un
less the sudden changes in the ex
preston of his face and the play oi
his features might be called such.
Dickens did not always follow
his abridged reading as published
II would frequently throw in an ad
jective or expletive on the spur of The
moment, and the new word seemed tC
please him as much as it did his audi
ence. He did not alwsy follow Wet
ster or Worcester in his pronuncia
tions remember particularly tina
he called his infsntlle hero Tiny
Tim" pronOunciDg the vowel in boil
words short.
To me, the most enhancing thinl
of that wonderful night was his ren
dering of the Christmas Dinner. HI
enthusiastic description of the ever!
day talk of the Cratchit family, th'
mixture of poverty and good nature
of cOntentment amid the most grind
ing economy. was superb. The eli
max was reached during the carving
of the goose, when he initiated tn
little cripple Tiny Tim," en-
Enthusiastically pounding on the tabl
with his knife and fork, as he utiere,
in the most chlldlike of voices his in
fantIle Hoorsy."
All this simply means that Dicken
was an actor. He knew his owl
characters, and he knew how the.
ought to be represented. One mo
ment he was the rotund and jOlll
Fezzlwig, and another he initiated
Topper's lady-love to perfection
: The testimony and general be,rinI
of the three witnesses in court, Mrs
Cluppinl, Nathaniel Winkle and San
Weller, were as varied and distinc
as they could possibly have been il
any tribunal of our land. The ole
Judge was pictured to our minds f
a drled.up weszend-faced bit of hu
} manity, and | could but recall t
! nv mind Chief Justice Taney q
Washington, as had seen him OF
the bench dressed in his gown, fe'
months before he was retired on &C
} count of old age. When at criti
cal period of Pickwick's trial, Dick
ems impersonated the immense i'm
portance of Sergeant Buzfuz, as b
! called to the witness stand "Samue
Weller" the great audience brok
into a prolonged cheer. Had tina
! lively individual suddenly appeare'
on the platform in his own flesh an
LlJod, his welcome could not hav
been hearlier than it was when i'm
/ n.rsnnated by his distinpu she