Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1951-07-08
When Dickens Was Here
Impressions of the Celebrated Novelist
On His Visits to the Nations Capitol
By John CIoqett Proctor

can remember Charles Dickens
when he came to the District of
Columbia on his last visit here in
1868. And there are none to re-
call his first visit in 1912, nearly
10 years before the first Evening
Star was published, and when the
National Intelligencer was Wash
ington's principal newspaper.
Fuller's Hotel was on the site
now occupied by the New Willard
Hotel, where a tavern was kept
as far back as 1918 by Joshua
Tennison. In 1924 the name was
changed to Mansion House, when
it was conducted by John Stroth-
er. Later Basil Williamson be-
came the proprietor. and it be-
came known as Williamson's
Mansion House. Frederick Bar
nard succeeded Williamson. Then
came Azariah Fuller about 1888.
He was still the proprietor when
the distinguished Englishman
made his first visit to this city.
Since then, more than CEN
fury ago, things have changed in
this neighborhood considerably, as
one might naturally suspect, and
what Mr.. Dickens then said about
it would seem like a fairy tale il
it were not so true. This is his de-
scription:
The hotel in which we live is
a long row of small houses 'front.'
ing on the street and opening at
the back upon a common yard. in
which hangs a great triangle.
Whenever a servant is wanted
somebody beats on this triangle
from one stroke up to seven, &C
cording to the number # the
house in which his presence is
required, and as all the servants
are always being wanted. and
none of them ever come. this en-
1ivening engine is in full per-
Torrance the whole day through.
In the Hotel Yord
Clothes are drying in the same
yard; female slaves, with cotton
handkerchiefs twisted round their
heads, are running to and fro on
hotel business; black walters cross
and recross with dishes in their
hands; two great dogs are playing
upon mound of loose bricks in
the center of the little square; a
pig is turning up his stomach to-
the sun and grunting that's COM
Portable and neither the men,
nor the dogs, nor the pig, nor any
created creature takes the small
est notice of the triangle, which is
tingling madly all the time.
II walk to the front window and
look across the road upon a long,
struggling row of houses. one story
high. terminating, nearly opposite
but little to the left, in a melan-
choly piece of waste ground with
frowzy grass, which looks like a
small piece of country that has
taken to drinking and has quite
lost itself. Standing anyhow and
all wrong upon this open space,
like something meteoric that has
fallen down from the moon. is AM
odd. lop- sided, one-eyed kind of
wooden building that looks like a
church, with a flagstaff as long as
itself sticking out of a steeple
something larger than a tea chest.
Under the window is a small
stand of coaches. whose slave
drivers are summing themselves on
the steps of our door and talking
idly together. The three most OBJ
trusive houses near at hand are
the three meanest. On one-a
shop. which never has anything
in the window and never has the
door opens painted in large
characters, The City Lunch At
another, which looks like a back
way to somewhere else but is an
independent building in itself,
oysters are procurable in every
style. At the third, which is al
FCly, NC1y 44GO4C UdA4O1 S4lOPs Pd11lO
are fixed to order; or, in other
words, pantaloons are made to
measure. And that is our street in
Washington"
The Very Little Toiior's Shop |
Mr.. Dickens, of course, omitted
names as unimportant, but the
city directory of 1843 tells us that
the very little tailor's shop" re-
ferred to was conducted by j. G !
Griffith. and he was important
enough. by the way, to carry an
advertisement in the directory in.
which he turned the trick on the,
author by capitalizing his express
sion. AT the Very Little Tailor'sI
Shop" which the advertisement
contained.
Dickens visited the Capitol
nearly every day; is outspoken in