El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-07-06
COTTAGE life
ON WAHE IN
ENGLAND
In Parts of England There
Have Been No Marriages
in Is Years.
REID PAYS TRIBUTE
TO CHARLES DICKENS


London. Eng, July cottage life,
which used to be a picturesque feature
of rural England, promises TO become
a thing of the past. The cottages are
falling into ruins and no new ones
are beinr- built This condition is also
having a serious effect on marriage in
the rural districts. Bridal couples OF
the working classes cannot lind 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 re-
quirements. It 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 prec rlous-
No Marriages in IL Years.
In Essex there are parishes where no
marriages have taken place for 10
years. In other places a rural exodus
is taking place on account OF the con-
demnation and collapse of the old cot
tages In the neighbOrhOOd of small
holding district of Berkshire several
couples were recently forced to take
lodgings in the WOrl1hOuse for want OF
cottage accOmmO daton.
Reid Recalls Dickens Incident.
Whitelaw Reid, the United states
ambassador, recalled some interesting
incidents Of the visit to America OF
Charles Dickens at a dinner given by
the Boz club-in celebration of the cen
tenary Of the birth of the great nov
elist The dinner was presided over
by the bishop of London and the com
pany 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 tribute TO Dickens, who
he said was recognized in America al
most as soon as in his own country.
Mr. Reid mentioned that he was one or
a small number who remembered and
participated in the farewell banquet to
Charles Dickens in the old 14th street
Delmonico's in New York at the close
of his second visit to America in
April 1868.
The Banquet to Dickens
at 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 great editor IN
his own country, from great editors in
the country which he visited; and it
was presided over by the greatest OF
them an editor Of immortal memory IN
the history of the country which ne
served in its graveSt crisis and IN It's
erandest achievement Horace Greeley.
At his right sat Charl Dickens ana
next to the guest sat .. spotless cheVa-
lfer in the warfare of opinion that pre-
ceded the civil war-GeOrge William
Curtis a man of letters worthy to be
associated with Mr.. Dickens. and an
orator worthy to speak on the same
platform. There was a long list OF
representative members of the profes-
sion, and all cordial aid ger to make
the hOnOred guest feel welcome and at
home-as eager as II JeiIeFson bT I.SA
had never been painted from the lie
from the occupant Of New York edl-
torial office.
Referring to the disregard, in the.
absence of international copyright. OF
Dickens moral right to the receipts
from the sale of his books, Mr.. Reid
asked: Does anyone happen to remem-
Der the precise terms Of the British
copyright account with Mrs Harriet
Beecher Stowe, for a novel that was
read here almost as widely as some OF
Mr. Dickens and was credited with
almost as great. an effect on the pro-
gress of the world work that was
translated into all languages and sold
in all lands? Can we see the settle
ment of the English copyright for the
works of a poet named Henry Wads-
worth Longfellow, who sold mere as
widely as Alfred TennySon; or OF the
similar account for the Contributions
to our common noble English literature
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, washington
Irving Ralph Waldo Emerson, James
Russell Lowell or John Lathrop Mot
ley"
Pleads for Peace Between Nations
The ambassador thought II wiser "
forget these mutual shortcomings ana
recall instead the spirit in which Dick
ems dealt with them at that banquet at
Delmonico's 40 years ago, and his
promise to have reproduced in every
subsequent edition of Martin Chuzzle-
wit and of the American Notes the
words he used on that occasion-.a
pledge most hOnOrably kept by his
family and publishers to this day. The
spirit seems TO me still of good omen
for both England and America:
cit would be better for this globe to
be riven by an earthquake. fired by
comet overrun by an iceberg, and
abandoned to the Arctic fox and bear.
than it should present the spectacle OF
those two great nations, each of whom
has, in its own way and hour, strlven
so hard and successfully for freedom,
ever again being arrayed the one
against the other"