Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-02-13
CHARLES DICKENS.
Centenary Sketch of the Greatest Eng
lish Author.

4
Today, February 7th, is the one
hundreth anniversary Of Charles
Dickens, "the last, and perhaps
the greatest Of mythologists." The
day is being celebrated in ev-
cry nation that speaks the Ian.
guage in which he wrought, and ir
scores Of others who see their Dickens
but darkly through the glass Of trans
lations.
The elimination of this centennia
, celebration will be the presentation tc
the heirs of the great author Of FUND
collected by means Of selling Dickens
centennial stamps. This movement had
it's genesis in England and was taker
up in the United States and othel
countries. Its sponsors were such
men as Lord Alverstone lord CHIEF
justice of England; Lord Roseberry
prime minister; Andrew Lang
Hall Caine and H. Rider Haggard. II
was presented to the world by such
publicity agents as Gilbert X. Chester
lOl dHu "iiudii DS MIL Soh'
Every lover Of Dickens was asked
to buy a penny stamp, meaning the
English penny, or cents, to be affixed
to the fly leaf of each volume Of Dick
ems in his possession. The fund thus
raised was to be presented to the Dick
ems heirs to serve as some compensa-
ton for the fact that millions Of vol
umes of his novels were printed in
countries other than England itself
from which the author received no re-
turn on account of the absence Of in
ternational copyright laws and the lax
enforcement Of the law in England
The movement probably arose from
the fact that some Of the heirs OF
Dickens had been granted old age
pensions because of their poverty. How
many stamps were sold and how much
money was realized does not yet ap-
pear.
While 1t is undoubtedly true that
the absence of an international copy
right law deprived Dickens during his
lifetime, and his heirs after his death,
Of a great amount Of money, for no
authors books have had q wider sale
it Is also true that few writer's have
realized as much money as did Dick
ems from his writings and public read
ings.
When he died he left a fortune OF
thon ho1 nd
in his last American tour. in 1867 and
1868, he made a net profit Of more
than 100000. Book piracy was not
an exclusive American crime. Wash
ington Irving, Bret Harte and Mark
Twain were pirated in England, just
as Dickens was pirated in the United
States, and there have been some gen.
uine admirers Of Dickens who have not
warmed up to the stamp collection.
The lecture tour Of Alfred Tenny-
son Dickens, son of the novelist, In
this country, unhappily ended by his
sudden death in New York, showed
|conclusively that Americans were not
insensible to their great obligation to
the novelist. One cannot help won
dering how a similar movement orig
mating in this country, based on the
centennial of Bret Harte in 1889, would
be received in England. English peo-
Pile assume a superior virtue in de-
claring that they have been more ap-
preciative Of Bret Harte's high literary
ability than have his compatriots, but
1t is none the less true that British
publishers pirated his books and it is
also true that Bret Harte did not lam
poon and bitterly caricature the Eng
1ioh
English biographers, with their in
|stinct for refined social stratification,
say that Dickens sprang from the low
er middle classes, and some Of the
greatest English critics have bitterly
complained that the author never was
able to shake off his middle class at
mosphere. Even to this day scholarly
Englishmen refer with amazement to
the fact that Dickens had the monu-
mental effrontery to demand that his
sons be educated at Elton along with
the sons Of gentlemen. 1t was many,
many years before 1t was good form
for an Englishman to read Dickens
and it Is barely possible that an i'm
considering all circumstances, Dickens
was better treated by Americans than
he was by his own people.
He has been called "the last Of the
mythologists" because he created char
|acters that stepped out Of the printed
page and became living and breathing
persons in the minds of all the Eng
disappearing people, even those who
have not read the books. Wilkins Mi
cawber, a caricature of Dickens own
father, Is person as much as is
Shakespeare's Hamlet or Homer's
Helen, and as Hamlet and Helen are
known to those who have never read
Shakespeare or Homer, so Micawber
and Uriah Heep and Sairey Camp and
Jerry Cruncher and Pecksniff and
are known to those who have never
read Dickens.
Lord Roseberry added to Lord Bea-
consfield's statement that England is
an island washed by a melancholy
ocean," the assertion that 1t Is canopied
by a sunless sky. Laughter Is not
indigenous to British SOIL Therefore
the greater the public debt to Charles
Dickens, the man who broke through
the wells of the caste system In his
native country, introduced all circles
Of society to each other, and invented
laughter in England.
When Dickens was "a years old he
created Mr.. Pickwick, and from that
day to this. Pickwick and the Wellers
and Alfred Jingle and the Fat Boy and
the others of that crew have been MAX
ing people laugh-hearty laughs for
Weller, satirical laughs for Jingle
kindly laughs for Pickwick and a
world wide smile at human frailty
that is represented in the dictionaries
by the word "Pickwickian."
Dickens first American tour was
made in 1912. when he was only 80
years old. He made speeches in fa-
vor of the international copyright, as
his books were already being pirated
here. Apparently Dickens was more
outraged by the absence Of caste In
America than by it's presence in Eng
land, which he so keenly ridiculed. He
was offended when he was entertained
too lavishly by the wealthy, and was
offended when he was praised toe
heartily by the poor. He did not like
America nor any of its institutions
and when he went home he printed
American Notes." and followed II