Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-09-25
A Happy Friendship.

the March Hare and the Mad Tes
Party When "You are old. Father
William" and How doth the little busy
bee read only one way, and when there
was no Mock Turtles story. no Lobster
Quadrille, and the Red Queen and the
Duchess and Tweedledum and Tweedle-
dee and not vet been made to live for
the pleasure of children, large and smallg
fancy that every one who loves the
| Alice books must pity those unfortunate
children who lived before they were
written, and who thus missed so much
that makes the reading hours of child
hood bright today.
In the great quadrangle or court of
Christ Church college, in Oxford Eng
| land, many stirring event has taken
place, and many a distinguished man
has lived and died OF all these. no
event Is of greater interest to American
children than the writing of Alice in
| Wonderland, and no person of greater
| interest than its author, the Rev. Charles
Dodgson, whom we know better under
has pen-name. Lewis Carroll" In this
same quadrangle, which every one in
| Oxford calls the "Tom Quad" from the
| bell named Great Tom, which hangs in
the Gateway tower, lived the real Alice,
a sweet, merry little Oxford girl, one of
Lewis CAROLS earliest and best child
| friends
Nothing in the dignitied appearance of
| the quadrangle suggests the grotesque
creations and the merry fancies of these
wonderful nonsense books. All doorways
open into homes of grave professors and
students. In the northwest angle the
author of Alice found his home in 1862
u few years after he had graduated from
| Christ church, and had come to be
lecturer on mathematics in the college.
He seems to have been very quiet
orderly, reserved young man, fond of
long walks off in the country by him
self; fond of books and study; shy and
retiring with grown people, except those
that he knew very well; but happy and
free and merry with all children. whom
he tenderly loved. He was the oldest in
big family of eleven children of whom
he was very fond as they were of him.
He made friends with children as long
as he lived, and was never too tired or
too busy to entertain them
A little oxford girl-but she is now
lady, and you can see the roof of her
beautiful home in the quadrangle -who
was one OF Lewis CAROLS best friends.
and whom he called Dear Bee" says.
If you went to see Mr. Dodgson in the
morning you would find him, pen in
hand, hard at work on neat packets care
| fully arranged around him on the table /:
hut the pen would be instantly laid aside.
and the most cheerful of smiles would
welcome you in for a chat as long as
YOU liked to stay"
| | s11unnso 4ha4 no obsIs1,a,, ,.-o,. H., 81,
more delightful playfellow than did
these little friends. \ story is told of
a famous general who went to call at a
house in the Quad and was ushered into
a room where no one seemed to be pres
ent, but great eommotion was going on
under the table. The general, who loved
a romp with his own children. got on
all tours and rushed under the table
where he found TO his great surprise
Rev. Charles Dodgson surrounded by the
| children of the family.
! But of all the little friends whom
Lewis Carroll loved, none were dearer
than the daughters of Dean Liddell:
I.orina, Alice and Edith. They lived on
the same side of the quadrangle with
| him, but at the opposite corner; that is,
they lived at the east end of the north
walk and he lived at the west end, 50
that they could run along the flags and
visit him and have a cozy time. even on
a rainy day. Their father was dean OF
the cathedral, and one of the authors
Of the great Greek dictionary which
! your Older brother knows very we'll. no
/ doubt The deanery is a beautiful old
home with ivy and trees and fine gar
! den at the back and this was the home
| OF Alice. She was not the Oldest but
the second daughter, and in the verses at
| the beginning of the Wonderland book
she is called "Seeunda" tsecondl I.o-
Tina, the eldest, is called "Prima" (Rrst1
and little Edith, the youngest, is called
| "Jertia" (third). For these three dear
! children, Lewis Carroll had a never
| ending fund of stories which he told
| them at all sorts of times-in his study
| in the garden, while walking in the coun-
| try or rowing on the river which runs
at the foot of the college grounds. And
| one of the greatest treats that the sis
tiers could possibly have wa to go boat
| ing up the river to Nuneham or Godstow
with Lewis Carroll, have tea on the
banks and come home leisurely in the
| early evening, to Christ church, their
| host entertaining them all the way with
delightful fairy stories.
Alice in Wonderland" was one Of
these stories, begun as they rowed along
| che river ON Fourth of July and i'm the
year 1862, when our country was in the
midst Of the great civil war. Lewis
| Carroll himself did not seem to think
the story a wonderful one. In his diary
| for that day he wrote:
i made an expedition up the river to
| GodstOw with the three Liddells; we had
tea on the banks there and did not
reach Christ church till half past eight. +"
| Later on, he added to this: "On which
occasion ! told them the fairy tale Of
| 'Alice's Adventures Underground which
I undertook to write ont for Alice
You can imagine how eagerly the chill.
dren listened while the adventures of the
| White Rabbit, the story Of the Mouse
and the Lory, The Caucusrace and all
the rest Of the tale were told in the
gentle, quiet fashion in which Mr. Dodg-
son always spoke and rather slowly,
4 uerhafs h4cattas ~ tendency IN alta m