The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-12-27
A DINNER FOR FOUR.
DICKENS WAS THE GUEST AND THE
BUTT OF THE PARTY.

BUTT OF THE PARTY.
Fhe Author Compelled to Listen to
Quotations From His "Amerfcan
Notes." Which His Entertainers All
Carried In Their Pockets.
az recollect little dinner for four that
was given in 1868 ut the old Delmonico
place in Fourteenth street, New York."
| said one Of the veterans among Washing
ton clubmen. Il was not participant IN
that dinner, being not much more than
lad ut the time, but with three other
young chaps of my own age l watched
| and overheard the fun from a nearby
table
Charles Dickens was the central figure
! In this feed for four. 1t wEs after he had
| made his second lecturing tour OF the
United States. You will recall how he rip
ped this country up the back in his
| American aotes,' published after he had
| made us his first visit in 1872 and how
| cheap he felt over that book for the re-
| mainder of his life. He felt particularly
cheap when he caine back to us i'll 1858,
and we poured cOas Of fire upon his head
by giving him splendid reception. He
declared privately at that time that his
American Notes and the digs ut the
United States contained i'll Martin Chuz-
zewit' had been the merrst very youth
full fruthing at the mouth, to employ his
own words, and at big dinner given to
him by the newspaper men on his return
TO New York from his last lccturing tour
he calamity and. believe, sincerely took
back everything he had ever written
about this country and made an especial
u-;+h hia hpt
speech of apology which he made on this
occasion should forever be included as an
appendix to the American Notes and
Martin Chuzzlewit.' He found things
very different here In 1868 from what he
had found them In 1872, of course, but
for all that there can be no doubt that
Dickens was extremely sore upon himself
for ever having held this country up to
ridicule in the incisive, mastery but I'M
lust manner with which he performed
that job.
"Well, this little dinner for four that
started to tell you about was purely in
formal affair, and 1t was given to Dick
ems by three famous New York wits
Lawrence Jerome, more afectionately
known to his friends as Larry; the bril-
liant Charley Osborne and the finest wit
Of generation thut is gone, William Ira
vers, the raconteur. Dickens knew these
three men well, and he was very fond Of
them nll He reveled in little dinner
like this. He was n heavy eater and
much heavier drinker, and he loved to sit
around the right kind of a table sur
rounded by bright men until all hours.
jerome, Travcrs and Osborne qui2zed
and chnffed Dickens numerically from
the moment that they sat down, and
ii. how
got together and hurled broadsides of
good natured guying at the great novelist.
Dickens took it all like a major. lie
could stand a guying better than any
Engliahman, great or little. that / ever
met. Most of them are liable to get sore
and surly under such circumstances.
Dickens, fgurativels speaking, placed
both hands up and took it all in good part
and roured over their sallies with obvious
enjoyment.
"Thcy were attacking him about his
American Notes. This dinner took place
not long after his apology for that book
to the press folk, and so the three knew
that they had him; that he had to take it
as they gave it to him.
"For instance, Dickens started to tell
them what q delightful place he had
found certain western city to be. The
suffering Travers suddenly pulled copy
of American Notes out of his pocket,
ruffied over the leaves and found the page
and began to read in his hating, sing
song fashion the awful lambasting that
Dickens had given that selfsame city in
his book about the United States. Dick
ems hid his face with mis- napkin and then
ducked his head under the table like a
schoolboy.
after awhile, when Dickens probably
thought the roasting was all over, be 7
started In to tell them what a superb
place Washington promised to be i'll the
course of the next fifty years. He was
becoming quite eloquent on this topic
when Larry Jerome pulled out of his
pocket his own copy of American Notes.
brought along for the occasion. and began
to read with an indescrbablv humorous
drawl the extraordinary stuff that Dick ;
ems had written about the capital in 1872.
Dickens shook his head sadly and made
deprccatory gestures with his hands, but
1t was no use. Jerome went right on
reading aloud the part in which Dickens
declared Washington to be sort of mo-
rass, n city of magnificent intentions i'll
stead of q city of magnificent distances,
and SO on, until the novelist bowed his !
1.-The three Charters all of a sudden be-
came serious. and Dickens. who had Il
tendency to become grandiloquent as the
wine went round. fell in with this mOud
Of theirs. glad probably to believe th;:t he
was to be guyed NO more. He driftrd into
some rather fine topic. | forget what it
was. and in something less than no time
he was discoursing like any Cicero or De
mosthenes, while the three wits prptrHI-
ed to hang upon his utterances with open
mouths.
"Then when Dickens had reached go
nornus period Charley Osborne suddenly
reached into his coat pocket. pulled out
his own private copy of American Notes.
turned to page where the leaf was turn
ed down, solemnly rose in his place and
motioned for silence and began to read
with splendid mimicry of the voice and
gestures of n tragedan from Dickens de-
scription of the falls of Niagara. You
will remember that while that's pretty
good piece of writing it's considerably
overdone, as Dickens himself confessed
afterward. It's high falutin, what you'd
call 'dem'd fine writin'.'
"Well, the effect was very funny. o.
borne and Travers and Jerome rumplcd
I'D their hair and pretended to be in
ecstacics over The beauties of the drScrip-
ton us poured forth in Osborne's deep,
resonant bass, and they scowlcd horribly
at Dickens when the novelist leaned back
In his scat and howled with mirth. He
was purple from laughter.
1.-THE four were still having a deuce CT
q time when Dickens manager appeared
and literally dragged the novelist to fulfill
his lecturing engagement that evening.
Washington Star.
seventeenth Century Sheen.