The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-11-22
Dickens Wrote of Kansas Woman
and Her Babe.
She Reads With Interest Sons
Statements.
HER JOURNEY ALONE
Described by English Novelist on
American Trip.
Describes Disappointment That
Baby Must Be Weakened.

Cherryvale, Kan, Ncv. 22-AIrs. Ira
3. Smith and Oliver G. Garrison of
CherryVa1e are watching with interest
the accounts Of the visit of Alfred Ten
nyson Dickens, son of the distinguish
ed novelist, to this country. Ii is be-
cause they are grandchildren of Wo-
man who inspired the great English
writer to ore of the fine chapters in his
notes of his American travels.
Charles Dickens was journeying to
st. Louis. down the Ohio on steam
boat, SO years ago, when he watched a
eunry-faced little mother grooming to
boy baby The little mother was Mrs
Daniel Garrison and her sen was chris
tened c. Richard Garrison. He and his
brother, C. K. Garrison, were killed in
November, 1887, while inspecting mine
their father owned at Webb City Mo
As they were descending into the shaft
the rope broke and both fell 100 feet.
Their Grandmother a Passenger.
Daniel E. Garrison. father of Richard,
built the Missouri Pacific railroa- from
Jefferson City, Mo-, to LeavenWorth,
Kan. and was the builder of the Ohio
& Mississippi railroad In his narrative
OF the boat trip. Dickens wrote:
There was a little woman on board
with little baby, and both little Wo-
man and little baby were cheerful. good
looking, bright-eyed and fair to see
The little woman had been passing a
long time with her sick mother in New
York and during her absence from home
in st. LOUIS her baby was born in her
mothers house She had not seen her
husband (to whom she was now return
ing) in u months. She had left him
a month or two after their marriage.
Well, to be sure, there never was a
little woman so full of hope and tender
ness and love and anxiety as this little
woman and all day long as she wondered !
whether He would be at the wharf. |
and whether He" had received her let |
ter. and whether, if she sent the baby |
ashore by somebody else, He" would |
know it, meeting it in the street, which, |
seeing that he had never set eyes upon |
abstract but was probable enough to the [
young mother.
Captain leased Her.
sShe was such an artIess little creature, /
and was in such a sunny, beaming, hope
full state, and let out all this matter,
clinging close about her heart so freely
that all the other ladies entered into the
spirit of it as much as She and the cap
was wonderous sly, 1 promise GU. in
curing every time we met at table. as in
forgetfulness 50 neither she expected any
body to meet her at St. Louis, and
whether she would want to go ashore the
night we reached it (but he supposed she
wouldn'D and citing many dry jokes of
that nature
The novelist tells of comments by wo-
men on the steamboat. and of how dis
she had to put baby to bed twenty miles
away from the destination and of the
to the city and the landing.
The search for the husband by the pas
senger is described, and continue
='W When. in the midst of US all
heaven knows how she got there-was
he little woman. clinging with both arms
lght around the neck of fine. good
looking, sturdy young fellow, And in a
moment afterWard there she was again.
actually clapping her little hands for joy
1oor of her little cabin, to look at the
baby as he lay asleep"