Year: 1865

Readers of "Dsvid CopPerfsld" will re


member Dickens lively description of
newspaper reportsr's struggles with the
stenogrsphie system of shorthand report
ing, which was SO incOmprehensible in It's
details and so difficult to master that the
luckless learner was driven to the verge of
distraction by the severity of his lsbors.
This passage and its allusion to the life of
a Newspaper reporter has generally been
regarded as bit of autobiography; and
this conclusion is verified by Dickens re-
cent speech at the newspaper Press Fund
dinner in London, st which he presided.


The Newspaper Press Fund is "a new in
stitution in London, founded two years
sgo, for protective and charitable purposes
It's second celebration took place on the
goth Of May. Mr.. Dickens made the
opening speech, in which, after abiding
to the power exercised by free press
he gave the following pleasant reminis-
eences Of his own life IS q reporter:


al went into the gallery of the House Of
Commons as 8 parliamentary reporter
when was boy not eighteen, and 1 left
i'll can hardly believe the inexorable
truth-nigh thirty years ago; and have
pursued the calling Of q reporter under
circumstances of which many of my brelh-
rem at home in England here, many of
my brethrsn's successors, can form no ad-
equste conception. 1 have often transcribed
for the printer from my shorthand notes
important public speeches in which the
stricIest sccursy was required, and mis-
take in which would Lave been to
young man severely compromising,
written on the palm Of my hand
by the light of dark lantern 10 q post
chsise and four gslloping through q wild
country, all through the dead of the night,
at the then surprising rate of fifteen miles
an hour.


"The very last time I was at Bxter I
strOlled into the castle yard there to identi-
fy for the amusement OF q friend, the spot
on which 1 once took as we used 70 call
it, an election speech of my noble friend
Lord Russell in the midst Of lively fight
maintained by all the vsgsbonds in that
divisi. n of the country, and under such
peldng rain that l remember two good
natured colleagues, who chsnced to be at
leisure, held pocket handkerchief over
my notebook, after the manner of state
canopy in an ecclesiastical procession.
Laughter


1 have worn my knees by writing on
them on the old back row of the old
gallery of the old House Of Commons;
and have worn my feet by standing 10
write in prepOsterous pen IN the old
House of Lords where we used to be
huddled like so many sheep lsughterl
kept in waiting till the wool-shek might
want resulting. A laugh Returning
home from excited political meetings 10
the country to the waiting press in Lon
don, I do verify believe have been upset
in almost every description of vehicle
known in this country. A laugh 1
have been, in my time, belated on miry
by-roads, towards the small hours, forty
or fifty miles from London, in 8 ricketty
csrrisge, with exhausted horses and drunk
en- postboys, and have got back in time be-
fore publication to be received with never
forgotten compliments by MIR. Black in the
brosdest of scotch, coming from the
brosdest of hearts eves knew. Hear,
hear.


aLadies and gentlemen I mention these
trivial things as an assurance to you that
1 never have forgotten the fascina-
tion of that old pursuit. Cheers. The
pleasure that used to feel in the rapidity
and dexterity of its exercise has never fad
ed out of my breast. Whatever little cum
ming of hand or head I took to II, or ac-
quired in it, I have so retained IS that
fully believe I could resume it TO morrow.
TCheers To this present year of my life,
when l sit in this nall, or where not, hear
ing dull speech-the phenomenon does
occur-T Laughter II sometimes beguile the
tedium of the moment by mentally follow
log the speaker in the old, old way; and
sometimes, if you can bsisve me, l even
fnd my hand going on the table-clotA.
T Laughter Accept these little truths IS
a confirmation of what 1 know, a. con-
Armaiion of my interest in this old calling.
Accept them as a proof that my feeling
for the vocation of my youth is not 8 SEN
timent taken up tonight to be thrown
away tomorrow Cbear, hear but faith
full sympathy, which is part of myse f
TCheers. 1 verify believe, am sure,
that it mad never quilted my old calling
1 should have been foremost and jealous
in the interest of this institution, believing
it to be sound, s wholesome, and good
one. Ladies and gentleman, 1 am TO pro
pose to you to drink Prosperity to the


Nawsnan9r Press Fund IN