The times., 1900-12-28
The Dickens Christmas.

A New York writer named Stephen
| Fiske, in an article printed in THE Smart
| Set,'' offers the interesting and even
amusing proposition that the celebration
of Christmas. as now praeticed in this
country and England, is not. as generally
supposed, an imported article from the
mother country, but was a native Amer
ican affair of Dutch derivation which
| Charles Dickens heard of during the sum
| mer of 1912, when he was in the United
States, and took home with him as a
strictly transatlantic rovelty Mr. Fiske
does not go quite SO far In set terms, but
that is his meaning. We will endeavor to
keep a straight face while discuss ng the
question.
Mr.. Fiske asserts that popular interest
in Christmas as festival was not shown
in England until after the appearance of
! the Christmas stories for which Dickens
is justly famous. none of which was writ
ten until after his return from America
where he had been impressed by the OBJ
servance of the day as described to him
by American acquaintance. He must
have heard says Fiske, "of the annual
holiday that we inherited from our Dutch
ancestors. and developed and improved
with the greatest of family festivals; for
after his visit to this continent Dickens
was in regard to Christmas changed and
altogether different man."
1t is proper to say that Mr. Fiske is
old or forgetful or else is a romancer
upon serious subjects. only to be classei
with Ananias. Munchausen, and our own
Philippine Otis. He is good enough to ad-
NIT that, in the "Pickwick Papers" which
Dickens wrote in 1896, there Is a passing
reference TO Christmas. but Christmas
itself, as he came to portray it later. is
entirely ignored" Like many another
critic, there is internal evidence in this
statement that Fiske has never read the
book upon which he bases his comments
Charles Dickens never in his life wrcte
anything about Christmas, considered as
a sacred, iovial, and universally loved and
observed family festival, approaching in
completeness its description in Pickwick
Fiske says he was not a man OF imagina-
tion, but a reporter. If that view be cor
rect, then, In the story of Pickwick's
Christmas visit TO Dingley Dell, we have
the most satisfactory testimony to the
fact that the day as we now know and eel
ebrate it, had been identically observed
in England immemorialIy. Let US quote
from "Pickwick Papers Chapter XVIII:
Christmas was close at hand in all his bluff
and hearty honesty; it the OF hos
pitality, merriment. and open -heartedness: the
old year was preparing, like an ancient Philoso-
pher, 10 call his friends around him, and amidst
the sound OF feasting and revelry to pass gently
and calmly away. Gay and merry the time
and gay and merry at least four Of the
numerous hearts that were gladdened by its com
ing"
Now let the reader peruse the succeed
ing sentences and say il they suggest an
occasion in which the British public of
1896 had mo popular interest"
"And numerous indeed are the hearts to which
Christmas brings brief Of happiness and
enjoyment. Ho~ many families whose members
have been dispersed and scattered far and wide
in the restless struggles OF life then reunited
and meet once again in that happy state of com
psnionship and mutual good will which is a
source OF such pure and unaoyed delight and
Incompatible with the cares and sorrows
of the world, that the religious belief of the
most civilized nations, and the rude traditions
Of the toughest sayages, alike number it among
the first Joys Of a future condition OF existence
provided for the blest and happy How many old
recollectioiis, and how many cSrmfnt sympathies
does Christmas time awaken.
I've write these words now, many miles dis
tant from the spot at which, year after year.
met that day mryry and a Joyous circle
Many OF the hearts that throbbed gayly then
have ceased 10 beat; many Of the looks that sisne
brightly then have ceased to glow; the hands
sc cisSped have grown cold; the eyes we sought