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

| anotner great novelist, Disraeu, thel
| Premier off Great Britain. and toll,
| him this story, He replied prompt,
| and emphatically. There is nothine
in the kingdom that Mr., Dickens car
not have il AheI wants it. Tell him tt
| forward a formal request to be ap.
| pointed custodian of Rochester Castle
| and he shah receive his commission
| from Her Gracious Majesty. who Will
| be as pleased rs 1 am to accede t.
| his wishes
Thus. within a year. the dream OF
Rochester Castle would have been re-
allied had not Dickens died untimely
Gad's Hill is a small. stone parson-
age. sweet with flowers. To the left
of the central hall--which was hung
with scenes painted by Stansfield for
amateur performanceS--were the re-
ception and dining rooms. On the
right We're the library and billiard
room. On a side door was the notice
This leads to the kitchen; please
Keep closed"
Placards, labels and signs We're
pecuiarites of the house. In the
sleeping rooms We're benches letter
ed In black, For trunk For port
manteou" Dickens laughed as he ex-
planned, Yes; everything that can he
labeled is labeled. | used to be the
most careless of men, and had to cure
myself as my work increased. Now
l am martinez. Breakfast at .
sharp; dinner at sharp otherwise
this is Liberty HALL"
The room best known to the public
is the library, because of the picture
by Luke Fildes, called THE Vacant
Chair" which has brought tears to
many eyes. But, so far as Dickens
was concerned, that chair had always
been vacant. 1t was for the accom-
mediation of guests. He never used it,
except to write most casual notes.
How could | write works in Ii
brary," he exclaimed, with all those
volumes glaring at me and nuttering,
What! Another "
The books on the lowest shelf of
the library We're dummies, with titles
selected by such London humorists as
Albert Smith, Mark Lemon, Edmund
Yates and Andrew Halliday. Lives
OF the Poets was so thin that there
was scarcely room for the title on the
back. Five Minutes in India, By an
Englishman," was in five portly vol
umes. Eggs on Bacon caricatured
Coke on Littleton." Dickens re-
called the authors of all the dummies
and would roll on the floor with glee
as he told about them.
His important writing was done in
large bedroom upstairs or in a
chalet on the opposite side of the
road, connected with Gads Hill bv a
tunnel cut through the chalk soil, so
that Dickens might pass to and fro
without encountering the scores of
admirers who stopped before his
mouse daily to catch a glimpse of
their idol.
The chalet was presented to him by
Charles Fechter, the famous French
actor, who saw it at the Paris exposi-
ton. 1t arrived at Gad's Hill in sec
tons, carefully numbered and boxed.
Dickens had the boxes strewn care
lessly over the lawn and, when Fech-
ter arrived, asked him anxiously,
why have YOU sent me this lumber? %
Cell! cried Fechter, "but / have
been swindled! They told me they
would send you a Swiss chalet to write
in"
| never knew any visitor to be adj
mitted to this chalet. In it Dickens
was as secluded as at hospice on the
Alps. There was no special view to
distract his attention from his work
only the meadows. the woods of Darn
ley park and the changing sky. He
had four regular working hours. and
no day laborer was more punctual.
His vacations were his lecturing tours
In the centenary notices too little
has been said of the fact that Dickens
was always journalist; first as a re-
porter on the True Sun" and the
Morning Chronicle;" then as editor
OF the Daily News" and of House
hold Words" and to the end of his
life as editor and proprietor of "All
the Year Round He was not a mere
figurehead His editorial duties were
performed most consc' entiously and
alas! for its rarity!--most sympa-
thetically He read all the proofs and
would write upon them, SHOULD not
this revelation be reserved until
nearer the close of the story?" "Have
omitted this as superfluous" "Rettor
put this into dialogue form" When
he changed the heading of an article
upon Baby Show at Woolwich, IA
'Woolwich Infants" he wrote. "Mora
taking" His check was alwa,e
mailed on the day of publication and
was FOR more money than the exact
price per word or page.
On an anniversary of the Henri
eta Yacht Race he asked an Ameri-
can correspondent for a more init
mate account of the voyage than the
report in the London Times, saving.
Tell us how it felt to be alone on
the ocean in December; what you did
to pass the time on such little craft,
etc. The article was sent with an