The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-02-21

4 apology for being much too long, a.
| the writer had no time to condense II
! Not a line. not word must h,
: cut" he replied: Il will give the Hen.
l rietta plenty,o of searoom." He gave
, the story eight out of the sixteer
pages of AN the Year Round" ant
told me that it had sold thousands OF
, extra copies
He published serials by other pop
J, ular novelists-Willlie Collins, Charles
Reade, Edmund Yates. Anthony Troll
I lope-and paid for them most liber-
ally.
The Dickens manuscripts were writ
ten in blue nix. and this became fad
/ of what used to he called "the Dick
ems school of writer's Though he
i never mentioned his immortal char
acters, and turned the conversation
i Immediately If Pecksnff or Sam Wei
Ter or Mr., Dombey happened to be
quoted | ventured to ask him if he
enjoyed his creations as much as his
readers did. certainly" he said IL
always have the first laugh and the
first cry."
Having thus preached forbidden
subject, Dickens was induced to show
of his novels and to explain his meth
i cd of composition. There were no
lnterlineations, afterthoughts. changes
of expression, as in Balzac's manu-
scripts. If word or phrase were
i altered the change was made after,
not above, the first text nor on The
margin. He said that when he had
selected and named n hero. he would
jot down memoranda about him
shall he be rCh?' "'rhe property in
chancery"' IAN old aunt or UNI
cle?' In this. as in everything else
he was very methodical But his
works show no trace of these aids to
| imagination.
Cad S Hill was only an appanage
of the large. adjoining estate of the
| Earl of Darnley but it carried with it
| the title of Lord of the Manor. Of
| which Dickens was secretly proud.
and the office of Justice of the Peace.
!, But he refused repeated invitations
to submerge himself like Disraeli, in
| the peerage. The title of which he
was most proud was "Chief." as alb
! breviation of "Editor-in-C Chief and
! he was thus addressed by all his in
| Inmates.
He would not talk of his own Gre
ations, but he frequently referred to
! those OF other authors. on a visit to
Darnley Hall we noticed among the
family portraits dating from the CRU
saders. that of a golden haired boy,
dressed in black velvet. and lo
perfect duplicate of that boy. the
likeness reproduced after generations
| inf h.,
welcome us. What a story that
would make for Charles Reade!" ex-
claimed Dickens enthusiastically: 81
shall tell him about it
Upon a miniature scale. but with
ample means, Dickens maintained at
Gad's Hill the estate of an old Eng
| fish country house. Miss Georgina
| Hogarth, his sister-n-law, was his
| housekeeper. He had AN excellent
chef. The dinners were very elabor-
ate, with seven courses and a differ
ent wine with each course. Almost
| every day there were distinguished
guests, coming from all parts of the
world, and often the entire conversa-
ton was in French, which Dickens
spoke as fuently as his friend Fech-
| ter Choosing the wines for the din
| ner was an afternoon festival. Seated
astride "a barrel, in the cool cellar
| carved from the chalk rock, Dickens
| told a good story with every bottle
| selected and fairly revelled in boyish
humor. The intense vitality of his
novels glowed through his PERSONAL
lty.
After dinner the guests were in
| tn IN ct 1,n nf oh,
that Miss Hogarth had prepared in
| the central hall. Then there was
whist or billiads, which Dickens
turned into a comedy by a constantly
comic commentary upon the play and
players. He grumbled to himself
well! Bad players always win!' or
ut is very easy to play when one
holds all the trumps."
| On my first visit he remarked airilY,
81 suppose that the aristocratic GUS
tom of leaving all the winnings on
the table for the servants has been
adopted in America"
Don't mind him" Miss Hogarth
interposed; HE is always like that"
The housekeeping at Gad's Hill was
managed so perfectly that. except at
dinner, | never saw servant there.
Miss Hogarth as methodical as Dick
ems himself, seemed to do everything.
In London one morning | received
the following note:
u "Shipmate. ahoy How am ! to
entertain an American who neither
eats, drinks, smokes. chews nor
| swears? Please to man the lifeboat
and come at once. G. D."
| Arriving at Gad's Hill, | found Mr..
I George Washington Childs of Phila-
u delphia, beaming with contentment
! and requiring no other amuseme mt
than the pleasure of being with Dick
ems At dinner Mr.. Childs ate little
| and drank nothing but water, and
Dickens syly pretending to shudder
i with horror every time his own glass
was filled. Persisting that Mr. Childs
| must be amused, Mr.. Dickens asked
| him to play a game Of billiards Mr.
/ Chlds did not play billiards, and
! Dickens proposed "a grand interua-
! tional pool tournament, his son
| Charles representing England. with
much rgument-"Custom Of the
| country" and so On---and much per