Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-07-06
DESCENDANTS AT DINNER
Tells Assemblage of Banquet in Nov.
elist's Honor Forty Years Ago.
ENGLISH COTTAGE PASSING
Old Ones Falling Into Ruins and
New Ones Not Being Built.
Homes Are Scarce.
Special Correspondence OF The star.

LONDON. July I. 1912
Whitelaw Reid. the United States ann
bassador. recalled some interesting Incl
dents OF the visit to America OF Charles
Dickens at dinner given by the Bog
Club in celebration of the centenary OF
the birth OF the great novelist. The din
ner was presided over by the Bishop Of
London and the company included the
surviving children. grandchildren and
other relatives OF Dickens.
AS so often happens at functions OF
the kind in England. the United States
Ambassador was the chief speaker. After
paying a tribute to Dickens. who. ne
said. was recognized In America almost
as soon as in his own country, Mr..
Reid mentioned that he was one OF
small number who remembered and par
ticipated in the farewell banquet to
Charles Dickens in the old 1ith street
Delmonico's. in New York. at the close
of his second visit to America. in April.
| 1868.
1t was a banquet said Mr.. Reid.
| mot only to a great novelist, who had
written many things about our people
| too near the truth to be popular at the
| time. but also to a graet editor in his
own country. from great editors in the
| country which he visited; and 1t was pre-
| sided over by the greatest of them. an
| editor of immortal memory In the his
| tory OF the country which he served in
i its gravest crisis and In its grandest
achievement, Horace Greeley.
Dickens at Greeley's Right.
AT his right sat Charles Dickens. and
| next to the guest sat spotless chevaiier
in the warfare of opinion that preceded
the civil war-George William Curtis,
man of letters worthy to be associated
with Mr.. Dickens. and an orator worthy
| to speak on the same platform. There
| was long list of representative MEM
/ bers of the profession. and all cordial
| and eager to make the honored guest
feel welcome and at home--as eager as
/ If Jefferson Brick had never been paint
ed from the life from the occupant OF .
1 New York editorial Office
Referring to the disregard. in the alb
sence OF international copyright. OF
Dickens moral right to the receipts from
the sale Of his books, Mr.. Reid asked:
Does any one happen to remember the
precise terms Of the British copyright ac-
count with Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe
for novel that was read here almost as
widely as some Of Mr.. Dickens and was
credited with almost Dis great an effect
| on the progress OF the world-a work
and sold in all lands? Can we see the
settlement OF the English copyright for
the works of a poet named Henry Wads-
worth Longfeilow. who sold here as
similar account for the contributions to
Jour common noble English literature by
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irv-
ing. Ralph Waldo Emerson. James Rus
sell Lowell, or John Lathrop Motley?'
Forget Mutual Shortcomings.
The ambassador thought it wiser to
forget these mutual shortcomings and re-
call instead the spirit in which Dickens
dealt with them at that banquet at Del
monico's forty years ago. and his prom
Use to have reproduced in every subse-
quent edition OF Martin Chuzzlewit" and
of the american Notes the words he
| used on that occasional pledge most
honorably kept by his family and pub
| fishers to this day. The spirit seems to
me still OF good omen for both England
| and America:
LIT would be better for this globe to
be riven by an earthquake. fired by a
doned to the arctic fox and bear than 1t
| should present the spectacle of these two
great nations. each of whom has, in its
/ own way and hour. striven so hard and
| ing arrayed the one against the o:her."
Cottage Life Is Passing.
Cottage life. which used to be a pic.
turesque feature of rural England. PROM
ises to become a thing of the past. The
cottages are falling into ruins and no
new ones are being built. This condition
is also having a serious effect on mar
rage in the rural districts. Bridal cou-
pies of the working classes cannot find
homes and the overcrowding has become
SO bad that slum conditions are repro
duced in the country, where space should
be ample for all residential requirements.
1t is said that the owners of the land
are declining to build on the ground that
the newly enacted land taxes make the
future Of the holdings precarious.
In Essex there are parishes where no
marriages have taken place for fifteen
years. In other places a rural exodus is
taking place on account of the condem-
nation and collapse Of the old cottages.
In the neighborhood of a small holding
district OF Berkshire several couples were
recently forced to take lodgings in the
workhouse for want Of cottage accom-.
mediation.