Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-07
impression.
Characters Number 1000.

1t is for things of this sort that Dick
ems is being toasted and celebrated and
loved today. Before the eyes of his
friends will pass the forms of the near
ly 1900 people that Dickens created,
from the time he made the world laugh
with the Pickwick Papers, at the age of
tWenty-four. to the time he dropped his
pen and left unfinished the Mystery of
Edwin brood forty-two years ago. Pick
wick and his friends are now as famous
as any written personalities, and with
them come the others, Oliver Twist that
poor little boy created to show the
abuses of the poor laws and workhouse
system of England, steps UP today and
asks Tor more Dickens wrote the
story to draw lesson of purest good
from the vilest evil. Bill Sykes lives as
the embodiment of human brutality, and
Nancy Sykes as the british devotion to
a man like Bill.
There will be great arguments where
men and women gather today to talk
about Charles Dickens, and within the
Dickens camp Will be interior dissensions,
Sood-natured but earnest, the question
being which was Dickens best work. In
these discussions the name of the "Old
Curiosity Shop will be in the mouths of
many, for it was this great work that
turned many hearts to the writer and
Won him many friends. From its pages
step the figure of Little Nell, that dear
close beside her walks the weak old
grandfather. frail in frame and weak in
his resolutions So much is there to say
for this story that a thousand pages
would scarcely hold it all, as that many
pages scarcely held the GREATNESS in
terest of the book itself So many little
things about the book pointed out Dick
ems as a master of his art. as the big
things pointed him out as a wonderful
painter Of ideas.
Character Pictures Clear.
The greatness of Dickens along certain
lines could be exploited by the single
little pin point incident of the odd Goblin
and Short, who step into the stage Of the
Curiosity Shop, say but a few words and
are gone. but who is there that forgets
them? Who could ever forget Quilp as
horrible a nightmare as was ever drawn
with mans pen? And yet does Charles
Dickens say he is horrible or depraved?
No. But in his pictures of the man, he
is as clearly drawn as if etched upon
steel. That is part Of Dickens art.
The htrnor of Dick Swiveller and the
humor and pathos of the Marchioness
are but bits of this mans power to make
a world laugh. Barnaby Rudge talks to
Grip, the raven, today, and never was
there crazy man endowed with philoso-
ply like this same Barnaby.
And then comes Tiny Tim-at the very
of all whose hearts have not already be-
come as f1inty as that of Scrooge. He
comes with Bob Cratchitt, who laughs
and sings and slides home on that cold
Christmas eve as il he worked for the
most generous man alive. And here is
where Dickens could have made himself
famous If he had never written another
line Here is where be became the friend
OF Christmas. In the carol he wrote to
show what Christmas Is he set the
world on fire With glow that has never
died away. 1t has been, said OF the
Christmas carol that it probably en-
gendered as many acts of kindness as
any other written thing.
Old Quarrel Renewed.
Sairey Camp and Betsy Prig quarrel
again today over the authenticity Of Mrs.
Harris remarks. Rare Sairey. it is she
who helps makes Dickens the worlds
greatest humorist. To find bit OF col
or or a single laughable figure the read
er can dip blindfolded into Martin
Chuzzlewit" and In every chapter find
a handful of 1--we things to study. to
! laugh over and to remember. And all
these things were written for a pur-
pose, although this purpose in this
modern day is lost sight of in the mas
ter writer's art. Dip Into the book at
random and pull out DR.. Ginery Dun
kle, with his squeaking voice, or to find
how Dickens cloaked character with
q name which rhymed with the mans
nature choose the despicable case of Mr.
Lewsome, black of soul and nauseous of
name. :
And who doesn't roar with laughter to-
day over Cap'n Cutie or spit out the
| name Of James Carker or feel heart
throb for little Paul Iombey and Flor
enca2 NyhA doesn't want gef In, and