CHARLES DICKENS 
 IN AMERICA 
 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013474519 
 
CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 From a Painting made by Francis Alexander in Boston in 1842 
 
Charles Dickens 
 in America 
 
 COMPILED AND EDITED BY 
 
 WILLIAM GLYDE WILKINS 
 
 WITH 41 ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ltd. 
 
 1911 
 
 -JO 
 
■'' '♦ s **■ *p 3fc v* 
 
 NS, . 
 
 Richard Clay & Son*, Limited, 
 
 ukunswick street, stamford street; 5. f, 
 
 and bungay, suffolk. 
 
TO MY FELLOW-MEMBERS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE, DICKENS FELLOWSHIP 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 The writer, on reading American Notes and Dickens's 
 letters from America in the volumes of h^s collected 
 letters and his letters to Forster, printed in the latter's 
 Life of Charles Dickens, has always been struck with 
 two things : his very severe criticism of the American 
 newspapers in 1842, and his bitterness on the subject 
 of International Copyright. In order to satisfy himself 
 as to the justness of Dickens's opinions at the time 
 the book and letters were written, he has collected 
 extracts from the newspapers of nearly every city which 
 the Author visited during his first trip to the United 
 States. These were so interesting, as giving the Press- 
 writers' accounts of the visit, and their opinions of the 
 Author personally, that the collection was further ex- 
 tended to include anything that could be found in print, 
 by American writers, relating to the visit — some written 
 during the time of the visit and some later. 
 
 Mr. Philip Hone, who was one of the committee which 
 entertained Dickens in New York, kept a diary from 1828 
 to 1850, which was published in 1889 by Bodd, Mead"& 
 Co., New York ; and " Four Months with Charles Dickens 
 during his First Visit to America : By his Secretary," 
 published in the Atlantic Monthly shortly after Dickens's 
 death — both contain much interesting matter relating 
 to Dickens's first visit. One or two private diaries have 
 been discovered containing references to Dickens which 
 have never been published. All this material, much of 
 which has been buried in the files of old newspapers for 
 nearly seventy years, and in other places for a shorter 
 time, has proved so interesting to the writer that he has 
 ventured to arrange it in the order in which Dickens 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 made his first American tour; and he hopes those who 
 have read Dickens's own account of the trip will be 
 equally interested in reading another account written by 
 American writers. He has allowed these American 
 writers to tell the story, with a few words here and there 
 of his own to make the account a connected one. He 
 has also collected a large number of contemporary 
 engravings of the places mentioned in American Notes, 
 and of hotels in which he lodged, which he believes 
 are of equal interest with the text, many of which are 
 reproduced. 
 
 The readers can draw their own conclusions as to the 
 justice of Dickens's opinions and criticisms of the Press 
 and people of the United States in 1842. 
 
 The account of the dinner given to Dickens by the 
 Press of the United States, in New York in 1868, has 
 also been included, as it contains so many beautiful 
 tributes to the author by such famous editors and writers 
 of the time as Horace Greeley, George William Curtis, 
 Henry J. Raymond, William Henry Hurlbert and 
 others, most of whom have passed away. These speeches 
 have never been printed except in the newspapers imme- 
 diately after the dinner, and the writer believes they 
 should be preserved in more permanent and accessible 
 form, which is the reason for their being included in 
 this book. 
 
 WILLIAM GLYDE WILKINS. 
 
 Pittsburgh (Pa.), U.S.A., 
 August, 191 1. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAT. PAGE 
 
 I INTRODUCTORY I 
 
 II BOSTON 7 
 
 III ! THE BOSTON DINNER 1 9 
 
 IV WORCESTER, HARTFORD AND NEW HAVEN 88 
 
 V NEW YORK 104 
 
 VI THE DINNER AT THE CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK. . 122 
 VII PHILADELPHIA 1 52 
 
 VIII WASHINGTON 164 
 
 IX RICHMOND, BALTIMORE AND HARRISBURG . . 177 
 
 X PITTSBURGH, CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE AND CAIRO . 200 
 
 XI ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 215 
 
 XII THE RETURN TRIP — ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK . . 226 
 
 XIII INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 237 
 
 XIV THE PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO's . . . 258 
 
 APPENDIX I 303 
 
 APPENDIX II . . 309 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 To /ace page 
 
 Charles dickens ..... Frontispiece 
 (From a painting by Francis Alexander, 1842) 
 
 TREMONT HOUSE, BOSTON 1 6 
 
 CUSTOM HOUSE AND DOCK, BOSTON 1 6 
 
 MERRIMACK MILLS AND BOARDING-HOUSES, LOWELL . . 18 
 
 MILL HOSPITAL, LOWELL, MASS! 1 8 
 
 JOSIAH QUINCY 22 
 
 J. DAVIS, GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1842 ... 88 
 
 GOVERNOR DAVIS'S HOUSE, WORCESTER, MASS. . . .90 
 
 ROOM IN GOVERNOR DAVIS'S HOUSE IN WHICH DICKENS 
 
 SLEPT, 1842 ..... ... 90 
 
 VIEW ON THE CONNECTICUT RIVER, 1839 .... 96 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN 96 
 
 CITY HOTEL, HARTFORD 102 
 
 NEW HAVEN, FROM PERRY HILL . ... 102 
 
 NEW YORK BAY . no 
 
 CARLTON HOTEL, NEW YORK HO 
 
 CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK, WHERE THE " DICKENS DINNER " 
 
 WAS GIVEN 124 
 
 PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK, WHERE " BOZ BALL" TOOK 
 
 PLACE 
 
 WASHINGTON IRVING . 
 
 . 124 
 13° 
 
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 To fate page 
 
 UNITED STATES HOTEL, PHILADELPHIA . . . . 1 58 
 
 PENITENTIARY, PHILADELPHIA 158 
 
 WASHINGTON FROM THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE . . .168 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE FROM THE RIVER . . 1 68 
 
 JOHN TYLER, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1 842 . 172 
 
 RICHMOND, VA. 1 78 
 
 EXCHANGE HOTEL, RICHMOND, VA 1 78 
 
 BALTIMORE 192 
 
 BARNUM'S HOTEL, BALTIMORE 192 
 
 OLD CAPITOL OF PENNSYLVANIA, HARRISBURG . . .196 
 
 THE BOLTON HOTEL (FORMERLY EXCHANGE), HARRISBURG, 
 
 PA., WHERE DICKENS STAYED IN 1 842 . . . 196 
 
 PITTSBURGH, PA., 1843 2°° 
 
 STEAMER "MESSENGER," ON WHICH DICKENS TRAVELLED 
 
 FROM PITTSBURGH TO CINCINNATI .... 204 
 
 CINCINNATI LANDING 206 
 
 BROADWAY HOTEL, CINCINNATI 206 
 
 VIEW ON THE OHIO RIVER BETWEEN CINCINNATI AND 
 
 LOUISVILLE 2IO 
 
 LOUISVILLE 2IO 
 
 VIEW OF CAIRO, 1856 214 
 
 HIGH WATER, CAIRO, 1 844 214 
 
 ST. LOUIS 2l8 
 
 PLANTER'S HOUSE, ST. LOUIS 2l8 
 
 MANSION HOUSE, BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS, WHERE DICKENS 
 
 STAYED IN 1842 . .... 224 
 NEIL HOUSE, COLUMBUS, OHIO, 1 844 . . .224 
 
CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 There can be no doubt in the minds of those who 
 have read The Life of Charles Dickens, by his friend 
 Forster, as to what was the prime object of the author's 
 second visit to the United States in 1868. It was, to 
 paraphrase Shakespeare, "to put money in his purse"; 
 in fact, he frankly wrote Forster, who disapproved of the 
 project, "Have no fear that anything will induce me 
 to make the experiment if I do not see the most forcible 
 reason for believing that what I could get by it, added 
 to what I have got, would leave me with a sufficient 
 future." 
 
 No fault can be found with him for this reason, as 
 Dickens had a large family, his living expenses were 
 heavy, and he desired to be able to leave his children 
 provided for after his death. 
 
 Just what were the reasons which prompted his first 
 visit in 1842 are not sb well known. There were to be 
 no readings, and the journey was a tedious, uncomfort- 
 able and expensive one to make in those days. Some' 
 have thought that the object of the trip was to procure the 
 subject matter for his American Notes, published after 
 his return. This, however, was not the principal reason, 
 but was simply the means which he took to provide the 
 necessary funds for his expenses, and, in fact, he had 
 made arrangements with Chapman & Hall for the pub- 
 lication of the book before he left England. Others 
 have thought that the object of the trip was to inaugurate 
 
2 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 a campaign for international copyright, but Forster has 
 said that Dickens went to America with no intention of 
 starting the question in any way, and Dickens himself 
 has denied that this was the object. What was then_the 
 real object ? This question is best answered by a quota- 
 tion from a paper in the Journal of the Illinois State 
 Historical Society, by Dr. J. F. Snyder, entitled, 
 "Charles Dickens in Illinois." Dr. Snyder writes — 
 
 "To see Cairo was really the main object of his 
 journey to America. In 1837 one Darius B. Holbrook, 
 a shrewd Boston Yankee, organized the Cairo City and 
 Canal Company, a scheme as audaciously illusive as 
 the John Laws Bubble in 1718; and going to Europe he 
 plastered the walls everywhere with flaming lithographs 
 of a grand city at the junction of the Mississippi and 
 Ohio rivers — in fact, as mythical as the fabled Quivira 
 of Coronado's search. In London was the banking 
 house of John Wright & Co., the same that in 1839 
 confidenced the Illinois Fund Commissioners, Gov. 
 Reynolds, Senator Young, General Rawlings and 
 Colonel Oakley, into depositing with them $1,000,000 
 of Illinois Bonds, resulting in a loss to the State of half 
 their value. Through John Wright & Company, Hol- 
 brook actually sold bonds of his Cairo Company to the 
 amount of $2,000,000. Among his numerous victims 
 was Mr. Dickens, who, it is asserted, invested in them 
 a large part of his slender means." 
 
 It will be noticed that this occurred while Dickens 
 was writing The Pickwick Papers, and Dickens may at 
 that time have had in mind the trip to America and his 
 American Notes, for, in chapter xliv, Tony Weller 
 says to Sam, " Have a passage taken ready for 'Merrika 
 . . . and then let him come back and write a book about 
 the 'Merrikans as'll pay all his expenses and more, if he 
 blows 'em up enough." 
 
 It may be that Dickens had forgotten the advice of 
 Mr. Weller, and it may be only a coincidence that he 
 took the advice and went to 'Merrika, and that he wrote, 
 not one, but two books referring to that country, but he 
 certainly did in these two books, in the opinion of many 
 Americans, "blow 'em up enough." 
 
WNTKUDUCTORY 3 
 
 Many of those whose feelings were personally hurt, 
 and who thought he had not treated America and 
 Americans fairly, were those who were members of self- 
 appointed reception and entertainment committees, and 
 whose vanity had prompted them to hope that when the 
 author returned home and wrote his book especial 
 mention would be made of them, and that the reception 
 or banquet which they had helped to arrange in his 
 honour would be the one affair which he might single 
 out as the most important one of his trip. In this they 
 were disappointed, for Dickens did not mention these 
 affairs at all, as the American Notes consists almost 
 entirely of descriptions and criticisms of such public 
 institutions as blind asylums, prisons and slavery, with 
 brief references to some of the cities visited. 
 
 Every one who has read American Notes and Martin 
 Chuzzlewit knows what Dickens's opinions were of 
 America, American newspapers and the American 
 people in 1842, the year in which he first visited the 
 United States. It seemed to the writer, in view of the 
 revival of interest in the author and his writings, due 
 to the fact that 1912 is the centenary of his birth, that 
 it might be interesting to learn what were the views of 
 the press and people of the United States in 1842 as 
 to the author himself. With this idea in mind the 
 writer has obtained extracts relating to Dickens from 
 newspapers in various cities which he visited in that 
 year. Some of these are editorials and others are evi- 
 dently written by reporters or news-writers who could 
 make their mark with some of the so-called yellow news- 
 papers of the present day. As to the latter, as will be 
 seen later, we can hardly blame Dickens for what he 
 says in his American Notes regarding the American 
 Press of that period. The only fault we can find with 
 him is that he did not differentiate sufficiently between 
 the good and the bad, and that with few exceptions he 
 puts all the American newspapers in the class now 
 called "yellow." 
 
 Perhaps one of the reasons Dickens had for disliking 
 the American newspaper was that some of their 
 descriptions of his personality and his attire offended 
 
 B 2 
 
4 i CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 his vanity. It is no great disparagement of him to say, 
 what every one now concedes, that Dickens was vain 
 of his appearance and that he was fond of gay waist- 
 coats, massive gold watch-chains, large scarf-pins and 
 his wavy locks. It is an axiom that the more vain a 
 man is, the less he wants to be told of his vanity. 
 
 While Dickens was not favourably impressed with the 
 Press of the United States, he wrote in the highest terms 
 of most of the hotels at which he stopped, as the follow- 
 ing extracts from American Notes will show. Of the 
 Richmond Hotel (The Exchange) he wrote, "A very 
 large and elegant establishment, and we were as 
 well entertained as travellers need desire to be ; " of 
 the hotel at Baltimore, "The most complete of all the 
 hotels of which I have had any experience in the 
 United States, and they were not a few, is Barnum's in 
 that city, where the English traveller will find curtains 
 to his bed for the first and last time in America ; " of the 
 Harrisburg Hotel (Buehler's), "We were soon estab- 
 lished in a very snug hotel, which, though smaller and 
 far less splendid than many we put up at, is raised 
 above them all by having for its landlord the most 
 obliging, considerate and gentlemanly person I have 
 ever had to deal with ; " of the Pittsburgh Hotel (Ex- 
 change), "A most excellent hotel, and we were most 
 admirably served ; " of the hotel at Louisville, " We 
 slept at the Gait House, a splendid hotel, and we were 
 as handsomely lodged as though we had been in Paris, 
 rather than hundreds of miles beyond the Alleghanies ; " 
 of the Planter's House at St. Louis, "An excellent 
 house, and the proprietors have most beautiful notions 
 of providing the creature comforts." 
 
 A comparison of Dickens's letters to Forster, as given 
 in the latter's Life of Charles Dickens, with his American 
 Notes will show that Dickens's opinion of America and 
 the American people seems to have undergone consider- 
 able modification between the time of writing his first 
 letters and the book. The first letters generally are very 
 much more moderate in tone than his later letters and 
 the book, but whether the author really modified his 
 opinions by reason of the opposition to an international 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 copyright law by some of the American public, prin- 
 cipally the publishers who had been reproducing his 
 works, and his financial loss in Cairo (Eden) bonds, or 
 whether he believed that criticisms rather than praise of 
 the institutions of the United States would be more 
 acceptable for English consumption or not, is a ques- 
 tion. The writer can hardly believe that this great 
 author would prostitute his pen in such a manner, and 
 prefers to believe that the loss of the money he had 
 invested in "Eden" had soured his pen. 
 
 As will be seen by the newspaper accounts of the 
 dinners and receptions given in Dickens's honour, no 
 foreigner, be he statesman, warrior or prince, was ever, 
 up to that time, given such a hearty welcome, or such 
 paeans of praise as this thirty-year-old author; in fact, 
 some of the praise was so fulsome that it is a wonder 
 it did not pall upon its recipient, used as he was to the 
 adulations of his own countrymen. In a letter to his 
 friend Mr. Thomas Mitten, dated January 31, he 
 summed up in the following words exactly what his 
 own ideas were of the welcome and treatment he had 
 received up to that time — 
 
 "I can give you no conception of my welcome. There 
 never was a King or Emperor upon the earth so cheered 
 and followed by crowds, and entertained at splendid 
 balls and dinners and waited upon by public bodies of 
 all kinds. I have had one from the far West, a journey 
 of two thousand miles ! If I go out in a carriage, the 
 crowd surrounds it and escorts me home ; if I go to the 
 theatre, the whole house (crowded to the roof) rises as 
 one man, and the timbers ring again. You cannot 
 imagine what it is. I have five public dinners on hand 
 at this moment, and invitations from every town and 
 village and city in the United States." 
 
 It is a wonder it did not completely turn his head, 
 and it is not surprising that some of the newspapers 
 and some of the people thought that perhaps they might 
 be overdoing it. 
 
 In a chapter written for American Notes, entitled 
 
6 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "Introductory and Necessary to be Read," and which, 
 by the advice of Forster, was not printed in the book, 
 Dickens wrote — 
 
 "Neither does it contain, nor have I intended that it 
 should contain, any lengthened and minute account of 
 my personal reception in the United States ; not because 
 I am, or ever was, insensible to that spontaneous effusion 
 of affection and generosity of heart, in a most affectionate 
 and generous-hearted people; but because I conceive 
 that it would ill become me to flourish matter necessarily 
 involving so much of my own praises in the eyes of my 
 unhappy readers." 
 
 While Dickens did not give in American Notes his 
 own opinions regarding his personal reception in the 
 United States, he did express himself very freely in his 
 letters to Forster, and it is interesting to compare his 
 own account with those that are given in this book. 
 These accounts are all by American writers of the time, 
 most of them being by newspaper writers, and some of 
 them taken from private diaries, which, when written, 
 were not intended for publication, so that, taken together, 
 they give a pretty good idea of the impressions made 
 by Dickens on the Press and people of the United States. 
 These accounts cover his personal doings and experi- 
 ences in the United States for nearly every day, from 
 the time he landed in Boston on Saturday, January 22, 
 till he embarked at New York on Tuesday, June 7, after 
 a journey lasting nearly five months, and covering, 
 including the United States and Canada, about 5000 
 miles. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 The first information given to the American public 
 that Charles Dickens intended visiting the United States 
 was through a letter dated September 28, 1841, which 
 he wrote to Mr. L. Gaylord Clark, editor of the Knicker- 
 bocker Magazine, which information Mr. Clark gave 
 to the newspapers. Dickens said in this letter — 
 
 "On the 4th of next January, if it please God, I am 
 coming with my wife on a three or four months' visit 
 to America. The British and North American packet 
 will bring me, I hope, to Boston, and enable me, in the 
 third week of the New Year, to set my foot upon the soil 
 I have trodden in my daydreams many times, and 
 whose sons (and daughters) I yearn to know and be 
 among." 
 
 Dickens evidently wrote Mr. Clark a second letter, for 
 in The Evening Post (New York), January 4, 1842, we 
 find the following — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens. — This distinguished author, accom- 
 panied by his lady, leaves England this day for the 
 United States. We learn from a letter received by 
 the last steamer, from Mr. Dickens, by our old friend 
 Mr. Clark, of the Knickerbocker, that it is his intention 
 of passing six months in the United States. After 
 spending a few days in Boston, he will visit New York, 
 where he will tarry some days. 'My design is,' he 
 writes, ' to spend but little time in those two cities, but 
 to proceed to the south as far as Charleston. Our stay 
 will be six months, during which time I must see as 
 much as can be seen in such a space of the country and 
 the people.' 
 
 7 
 
8 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "Mr. Dickens speaks of his visit with the utmost 
 enthusiasm. 'You make me very proud and happy,' 
 he writes, ' by anticipation in thinking of the number 
 of friends I shall find, but I cannot describe to you the 
 glow into which I rise, when I think of the wonders that 
 await us and all the interest I am sure I shall have in 
 your mighty land.' " 
 
 Dickens sailed from Liverpool on the Britannia on 
 January 4, and arrived in Boston eighteen days later, 
 his arrival being chronicled in one of the Boston papers 
 as follows — 
 
 "Arrival of the ' Britannia.' — The steamer Britannia 
 arrived in Boston on Saturday (Jan. 22nd) afternoon 
 last, after a rather boisterous passage of eighteen days 
 and a detention of ten hours by the fog. She brings 
 intelligence eighteen days late, having Liverpool papers 
 to the 4th instant and London to the evening of 
 the 3rd. 
 
 "Among the passengers is Charles Dickens, Esq., the 
 famous ' Boz ' of English literature ; he is accompanied 
 by his lady. Earl Mulgrave is also a passenger." 
 
 Dickens himself has told us through one of his letters 
 to Forster how he was met on the steamer as she 
 was moored to the wharf, not by newsboys but by 
 editors, and that "there was one among them, 
 though, who was really of use, a Doctor S., editor of 
 the . . . He ran off here (two miles at least) and 
 ordered rooms and dinner." The hotel where the rooms 
 were ordered was the Tremont House, and is no longer 
 standing. This hotel, which at the time of Dickens's 
 arrival, and for many years after, was considered by 
 Americans as one of the best hotels in the country, 
 did not strike him as favourably as some of the other 
 hotels which he visited later in other cities, although 
 he wrote in American Notes, "The hotel is an excel- 
 lent one." He expressed himself, however, regard- 
 ing it more freely in a letter to Forster, in which he 
 wrote — 
 
BOSTON 9 
 
 "This hotel is a trifle smaller than Finsbury Square; 
 and it is made so hot (I use the expression advisedly) 
 by means of a furnace with pipes running through the 
 passages, that we can hardly bear it. There are no 
 curtains to the beds, or to the bedroom windows. I 
 am sure there never are, hardly, all through America. 
 The bedrooms are indeed very bare of furniture. Ours 
 is hardly as large as your great room, and has a ward- 
 robe in it of painted wood, not larger (I appeal to K.) 
 than an English match-box. I slept in this room two 
 nights, quite satisfied with the belief that it was a shower 
 bath." 
 
 He also wrote in this letter — 
 
 "I have a secretary whom I take on with me. He is 
 a young man by the name of Q ; was strongly recom- 
 mended to me; is most modest, obliging, silent and 
 willing, and does his work well. He boards and lodges 
 at my expense when we travel, and his salary is ten 
 dollars per month, about two pounds five of our English 
 money." 
 
 The young man whom Dickens calls "Q" was a 
 young artist of Salem, by the name of George W. 
 Putnam, who at the time of Dickens's arrival was 
 then in Boston as a pupil of Mr. Francis Alexander, 
 a well-known and highly-esteemed artist of that city. 
 In 1870, shortly after Dickens's death, Mr. Putnam 
 wrote a couple of papers which were published in the 
 Atlantic Monthly, entitled, "Four Months with Charles 
 Dickens, during his First Visit to America, by his 
 Secretary." 
 
 It will be noticed that the " Secretary " does not sign 
 the papers by his name, which is probably accounted 
 for by the fact that in American Notes Dickens only 
 mentions him as "my Boston friend." The following 
 extract from these Atlantic Monthly papers is interest- 
 ing, telling, as it does, how " Q " came to be made 
 Mr. Dickens's secretary, and how the Alexander portrait 
 of Dickens came to be painted land how the Dexter bust 
 was modelled. 
 
10 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "Early in the winter of 1841 it had been announced 
 that Charles Dickens would shortly visit this country, 
 and Mr. Alexander wrote to him at London, inviting 
 him to sit for his picture on his arrival. The next 
 steamer brought a prompt answer from Mr. Dickens, 
 accepting the invitation. I was quite glad of this 
 arrangement, for, having read all he had written, and 
 sharing largely in the general enthusiasm for the author 
 and his works, I looked forward with pleasure to the 
 honour of an introduction, through my friend 
 Alexander. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens had appointed ten o'clock on the 
 Tuesday morning succeeding his arrival, for his first 
 sitting to Alexander. The artist's rooms were at No. 41 
 Tremont Row, not far from the Tremont House. The 
 newspapers had announced the fact, and, long before 
 the appointed hour, a crowd of people were around the 
 hotel and arranged along the sidewalk to see him pass. 
 The doorway and stairs leading to the painter's studio 
 were thronged with ladies and gentlemen, eagerly await- 
 ing his appearance, and as he passed, they were to the 
 last degree silent and respectful. It was no vulgar 
 curiosity to see a great and famous man, but an earnest, 
 intelligent and commendable desire to look upon the 
 author whose writings — already enlisted in the great 
 cause of humanity — had won their dear respect, and 
 endeared him to their hearts. He pleasantly acknow- 
 ledged the compliment their presence paid him, bowing 
 slightly as he passed, his bright, dark eyes glancing 
 through and through the crowd, searching every face, 
 and reading character with wonderful quickness, while 
 the arch smiles played over his handsome face. 
 
 "On arriving at the anteroom Mr. Dickens found a 
 large number of the personal friends of the artist await- 
 ing the honour of an introduction, and he passed from 
 group to group in a most kind and pleasant way. It 
 was here that I received my own introduction, and I 
 remember that after Mr. Dickens had passed around the 
 room, he came again to me and exchanged some pleasant 
 words about my name, slightly referring to the American 
 hero of the Revolution who had borne it. 
 
BOSTON 11 
 
 "The crowd waited till the sitting was over, and saw 
 him back again to the Tremont; and this was repeated 
 every morning while he was sitting for his picture. 
 
 "The engravings in his books which had then been 
 issued either in England or America were very little like 
 him. Alexander chose an attitude highly original, but 
 very characteristic. Dickens is represented at his table 
 writing. His left hand rests upon the paper. The pen 
 in his right hand seems to have been stopped for a 
 moment, while he looks up at you as if you had just 
 addressed him. His long brown hair, slightly curling, 
 sweeps his shoulder, the bright eyes glance, and that 
 inexpressible look of kindly mirth plays around his 
 mouth and shows itself in the arched brow. Alexander 
 caught much of that singular lighting up of the face, 
 which Dickens had, beyond any one I ever saw, and 
 the picture is very like the original, and will convey 
 to those who wish to know how ' Boz ' looked at thirty 
 years of age, an excellent idea of the man. 
 
 "I saw the picture daily as it progressed, and, being 
 in the artist's room on the Thursday following the first 
 sitting, Mr. Alexander told me that he had ' just made 
 a disposal of my services.' I did not know what he 
 meant. He then told me that Mr. Dickens and his wife 
 had been at his house that forenoon, and Mr. Dickens 
 said — 
 
 " ' Mr. Alexander, I have been in the country but a 
 few days, and my table is already heaped high with 
 unanswered letters ! I have a great number of engage- 
 ments already. I did not expect a correspondence like 
 this, and I must have a secretary. Can you find me 
 one ? ' And Mr. Alexander at once mentioned me. I 
 felt very diffident in regard to it, for I did not feel 
 qualified for such a position, with such a man, however 
 great the pleasure I knew I should derive from it. But 
 my friend would take no excuses, insisted that I was 
 the man for the place, and while we were talking a note 
 came from Mr. Dickens, requesting that he would bring 
 me to the Tremont House. So I went with Mr. 
 Alexander, and was received with great cordiality and 
 kindness by Mr. Dickens and his wife, and made an 
 
12 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 appointment to commence my duties on the following 
 morning. 
 
 "On Friday morning I was there at nine o'clock, the 
 time appointed. Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had their meals 
 in their own rooms and the table was spread for break- 
 fast. Soon they came in and, after a cheerful greeting, 
 I took my place at a side table and wrote as he ate 
 breakfast, and meanwhile conversed with Mrs. Dickens, 
 opened his letters and dictated the answers to me. 
 
 "In one corner of the room, Dexter the sculptor was 
 earnestly at work modelling a bust of Mr. Dickens. 
 Several others of the most eminent artists of our country 
 had urgently requested Mr. Dickens to sit to them for 
 his picture and bust, but, having consented to do so to 
 Alexander and Dexter, he was obliged to refuse all 
 others for want of time. 
 
 "While Mr. Dickens ate his breakfast, read his letters 
 and dictated the answers, Dexter was watching with the 
 utmost earnestness the play of every feature, and com- 
 paring his model with the original. Often during the 
 meal he would come to Dickens with a solemn, business- 
 like air, stoop down and look at him sideways, pass 
 around and take a look at the other side of his face and 
 then go back to his model and work away for a few 
 minutes ; then come again and take another look and go 
 back to his model ; soon he would come again with his 
 calipers and measure Dickens's nose, and go and try it 
 on the nose of the model ; then come again with the 
 calipers and try the width of the temples, or the distance 
 from the nose to the chin, and back again to his work, 
 eagerly shaping and correcting his model. The whole 
 soul of the artist was engaged in his task, and the result 
 was a splendid bust of the great author. Mr. Dickens 
 was highly pleased with it, and repeatedly alluded to it 
 during his stay, as a very successful work of art." 
 
 One friend and admirer whom Dickens made during 
 this first visit to the United States, and who later became 
 his American publisher and friend, and whose friendship 
 lasted till the day of Dickens's death, was Mr. James T. 
 Fields, of the firm of Ticknor & Fields, proprietors of 
 
BOSTON 13 
 
 the "Old Corner Bookstore," now no longer standing. 
 Mr. Fields, in Yesterdays with Authors, wrote — 
 
 "How well I recall the bleak winter evening in 1842 
 when I first saw the handsome glowing face of the 
 young man who was even then famous over half of the 
 globe. He came bounding into the Tremont House, 
 fresh from the steamer that had brought him to our 
 shores, and his cheery voice rang through the hall, as 
 he gave a quick glance at the new scenes opening upon 
 him in a strange land at a Transatlantic hotel. ' Here 
 we are ! ' he shouted, as the lights burst upon the merry 
 party just entering the hotel, and several gentlemen 
 came forward to meet him. Ah ! How happy and 
 buoyant he was then ! Young, handsome, almost wor- 
 shipped for his genius, belted round by such troops 
 of friends as rarely ever man had, coming to a new 
 country to make new conquests of fame and honour — 
 surely it was a sight long to be remembered and never 
 wholly to be forgotten ! " 
 
 Fields wrote further .concerning Dickens's first night 
 in Boston — 
 
 " About midnight on that eventful landing, ' Boz ' 
 — everybody called him ' Boz ' in those days — having 
 finished his supper, came down into the office of the 
 hotel, and joining the young Earl of M(ulgrave), his 
 fellow voyager, sallied out for his first look at Boston 
 Streets. It was a stinging night and the moon was 
 at its full. Every object stood out sharp and glittering, 
 and ' Boz,' muffled up in a shaggy fur coat, ran over 
 the shining frozen snow, wisely keeping the middle of 
 the street, for the most part. We boys followed 
 cautiously behind, but near enough not to lose any of 
 the fun. Of course the two gentlemen soon lost their 
 way on emerging into Washington from Tremont 
 Street. Dickens kept up one continual shout of up- 
 roarious laughter as he went rapidly forward, reading 
 the signs on the shops and observing the architecture 
 of the new country into which he had dropped as if 
 from the clouds. When the two arrived opposite the 
 
14 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 ' Old South Church ' Dickens screamed. To this day 
 I cannot tell why. Was it because of its fancied 
 resemblance to St. Paul's or the Abbey? I declare 
 firmly, the mystery of that shout is still a mystery to 
 me." 
 
 In the Boston Transcript of Monday, January 24, 
 there appeared the following — 
 
 "We are requested to state that Charles Dickens will 
 be at the Tremont Theatre this evening. The desire to 
 see this popular young author will, no doubt, attract 
 a large audience. We had an hour's conversation with 
 him last evening, and found him one of the most frank, 
 sociable, noble-hearted gentlemen we ever met with, 
 perfectly free from any haughtiness or apparent self- 
 importance. In fact, he is just such a person as we 
 had supposed him to be, judging from his writings, 
 which have acquired a popularity unprecedented in this 
 country. His lady, too, is most beautiful and accom- 
 plished, and appears worthy to be the partner of her 
 distinguished husband." 
 
 The New York Tribune, commenting on this notice, 
 perhaps from a feeling of jealousy, due to the fact that 
 Dickens had landed at Boston, rather than at the "Com- 
 mercial Emporium," said in their issue of January 26 — 
 
 "Charles Dickens, our country's well-beloved visitor, 
 will remain at Boston about a fortnight and then pro- 
 ceed southward. He will, of course, give us a call of 
 two or three weeks here in the commercial emporium, 
 if he is not beslavered and lionized into loathing us. 
 We hope to get a look at him, but begin to despair of 
 it, if he is to be disgusted with such licorice doses as 
 the Boston Transcript is giving him." 
 
 A Boston correspondent of the New York Com- 
 mercial wrote^- 
 
 "I conversed with Dickens about half-an-hour. He 
 was exceedingly affable — totally free from any haughti- 
 ness or self-importance — but full of life and sociability." 
 
BOSTON 15 
 
 The Tribune, commenting on this opinion of the 
 Boston correspondent, said — 
 
 "Such compliments to the author of Pickwick and 
 Master Humphrey's Clock! We would give a trifle for 
 a casual remark thereon from the Junior Mr. Weller. 
 For our country's sake, we trust these darkeyisms will 
 not drive Boz home again on the Britannia. Spare 
 him till he is fairly rid of his seasickness, and let him 
 have a chance to see us Yankees as we are — some 
 ninnies among us, of course, for it takes all sorts of 
 people to make a world — but the great mass of us are 
 heartily glad to see him, are disinclined to bore him, and 
 not all surprised to find him a gentleman 1 " 
 
 It will be seen from many of the newspaper extracts, 
 and extracts from private diaries given later on, that 
 there was a suspicion lurking in the minds of not a 
 few that perhaps they were overdoing it, in the manner 
 in which Boz was being lionized, and this suspicion 
 became a certainty in the opinions of many, after they 
 had read American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit. 
 
 On Monday, January 24, the second day after his 
 arrival in Boston, Dickens made a trip to Springfield 
 to visit the State Legislature, a fact which he does not 
 mention in American Notes. The Springfield news- 
 papers, so far as can now be ascertained, made no 
 mention of it. The New York Express, January 29, 
 however, has the following brief mention of the visit — 
 
 " Visit from Boz. — Charles Dickens, Esq., paid a 
 visit to the Massachusetts Legislature on Monday the 
 24th, in company with T. C. Grattan, Esq., the Earl 
 of Mulgrave and two others. Mr. Dickens was intro- 
 duced to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Mr. 
 Bigelow, who accompanied him through the different 
 parts of the Capitol. His appearance in the Senate 
 Chamber created quite a sensation among the members. 
 He was introduced there to Mr. Quincy, the President 
 of the Senate, and expressed himself as much pleased 
 with the visit." 
 
 While the Springfield papers made no mention of 
 the visit, there is still living in Springfield an old man, 
 
16 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 who was a boy at the time, who says he remembers 
 the occasion and that Dickens made a speech to the 
 senators. 
 
 Shortly after Dickens's arrival, he received a letter 
 from a Dr. R. H. Collyer, a lecturer on animal 
 magnetism, or mesmerism, asking him to attend his 
 lecture in Boston and investigate the subject and witness 
 his experiments. Dickens wrote the doctor a letter 
 which is interesting as showing that he had investigated 
 the subject and was a believer in it. 
 
 " Tremont House, January 27, 1842. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 "If we can possibly arrange it, I shall be much 
 interested in seeing your cases, when you come to 
 Boston. With regard to my opinion on the subject of 
 mesmerism, I have no hesitation in saying that I have 
 closely watched Dr. Elliottson's experiments from the 
 first — that I have the utmost reliance in his honour, 
 character and ability, and would trust my life in his 
 hands at any time — and that after what I have seen with 
 my own eyes, and observed with my own senses, I 
 should be untrue to myself if I shrunk for a moment 
 from saying that I am a believer, and that I became so 
 against all my preconceived opinions and impressions. 
 
 "Faithfully yours, 
 
 "Charles Dickens. 
 
 "To Dr. Collyer." 
 
 That Dickens was not only a believer in mesmerism, 
 but also an amateur practitioner, is proved by one of 
 his letters to Forster, in which he relates how in Pitts- 
 burgh he practised on Mrs. Dickens, and how "in six 
 minutes, I magnetized her into hysterics, and then into 
 the magnetic sleep ... I can wake her with perfect 
 ease, but I confess (not being prepared for anything so 
 sudden and complete) I was on the first occasion rather 
 alarmed." 
 
 A thorough search of the Boston newspapers fails 
 to disclose any account of how Dickens spent his time 
 between his visit to the Legislature and the dinner which 
 
TREMONT HOUSE, BOSTON 
 
 CUSTOM HOUSE AND DOCK, BOSTON 
 
 Where Dickens landed in 1842 
 
 16 
 
BOSTON 17 
 
 took place at Papinti's Restaurant on February i, but 
 we know from American Notes that he visited most 
 of the public institutions in and around the city. 
 
 The dinner was such a great success, and the tributes 
 paid to Dickens are so eloquent and so lengthy, that a 
 chapter will be devoted to that event. 
 
 We find, in the Boston Evening Transcript, February 
 5, the following — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens visited Lowell on Thursday the 3rd, 
 and examined the several manufacturing establishments 
 in that city. Yesterday he paid a visit to our venerable 
 alma mater — Harvard University. He will leave town 
 this afternoon for Worcester in company with Governor 
 Davis, where he will remain until Monday, when he 
 will proceed to Springfield, thence to Hartford, where 
 he has accepted an invitation to a dinner to be given 
 there on Tuesday." 
 
 While the above item in the Evening Transcript is 
 the only one that has been discovered in the Boston 
 newspapers, two of the Lowell newspapers contained 
 brief notices of the visit. The Courier of February 5 
 contained the following — 
 
 " Boz in Lowell.— This celebrated writer visited Lowell 
 on Thursday. He came on the one o'clock train of cars, 
 in company with Mr. Grattan, the British Consul, and 
 several other gentlemen, and left on the five o'clock train. 
 Consequently his stay has been very short, and thou- 
 sands of his friends in the city had not an opportunity 
 to see him. 
 
 "He was received at the dep6t by Mr. Samuel 
 Lawrence, whose guest he continued while in the city. 
 We understand that he visited several of the mills with 
 Mr. Lawrence, and expressed himself as highly gratified 
 with his visit. We hope that ere he returns to England 
 he will visit the city again, and thus give his numerous 
 friends here an opportunity of taking him by the hand." 
 
 The very highly complimentary manner in which 
 Dickens described the conditions which he found in the 
 mills of Lowell, and the manner in which the operatives 
 
18 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 in them lived and dressed, and of their literary con- 
 tributions to the Lowell Offering, shows that he not 
 only expressed his gratification with the visit while in 
 Lowell, but also expressed it in his own written account. 
 The editor of the Lowell Advertiser seems to have 
 been offended because Dickens did not favour him with 
 a personal visit, and thus expressed his feelings — 
 
 "Boz was in this city last week. The reason we did 
 not mention it was because he passed our office without 
 calling. He didn't call on the Courier or the people 
 either. How in the name of reason can he expect puffs 
 and popular applause ? " 
 
 Dickens visited the mill hospital and wrote of it in 
 very high terms of commendation. The hospital is still 
 in existence, and is supported by contributions from the 
 mill owners. 
 
MERRIMACK MILLS AND BOARDING-HOUSES, LOWELL 
 
 MILL HOSPITAL, LOWELL, MASS. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE BOSTON DINNER 
 
 At the time of Dickens's first visit to the United States, 
 Mr. Pickwick and Sam Weller, Oliver Twist and Fagin, 
 Barnaby Rudge and Dolly Varden, Little Nell and 
 grandfather, and Nicholas Nickleby and Smike, were 
 as. well known in the United States as in England, and 
 their creator was as great a favourite of his American 
 readers as he was of their English cousins. 
 
 It was no wonder, then, when in the latter part of 1841 
 the news came to Boston that " Boz " was soon to visit 
 America, and that Boston was to be the first city in the 
 United States to be favoured by his presence, that some 
 of the young , men of that city decided that the event 
 should be celebrated in a manner to make it memorable. 
 With that end in view a committee was appointed to 
 invite the young and distinguished author to a dinner 
 to be given in his honour, and the following letter was 
 sent to him before his departure from England — 
 
 "To Charles Dickens, Esq. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 "The Young Men of Boston, in common with 
 the whole American people, hail with delight the news 
 of your intended visit to the New World. They send 
 you a cordial greeting across the sea, and before you 
 leave England, they hasten in imagination, but with 
 heartfelt earnestness, to take you by the hand, and to 
 welcome you to America. You will come into a strange 
 land, but not among strangers; for you have long been 
 a welcome guest at our firesides, and there is not a home 
 in our country which has not been made happier by 
 c 2 19 
 
20 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 your presence. We do not address you as a son of our 
 fatherland, for ' genius has no country ' ; we claim your 
 literary reputation as the property of the human race; 
 but it is more especially for your qualities as a man 
 that we admire and love you; for while we are aston- 
 ished at a power of observation in you which detects 
 novelty in the most familiar things — a fertility of inven- 
 tion which is inexhaustible, and a truth to nature which 
 stamps fictitious characters with the individuality of real 
 life — our hearts are also irresistibly drawn towards you 
 by that richness of humour which never fails to charm, 
 and more than all, by that sympathy with universal 
 man (the concomitant only of the highest genius), which 
 prompted you to utter the noble sentiment, that ' you 
 were anxious to show that virtue may be found in the 
 by-ways of the world; that it is not incompatible with 
 poverty, or even rags; and that you wished to distil 
 out, if you could, from evil things the soul of goodness 
 which the Creator has put in them.' 
 
 "Actuated by these sentiments towards you, a num- 
 ber of the Young Men of Boston, at a meeting held on 
 the evening of the 27th of November, appointed the 
 undersigned a Committee to invite you to a public 
 dinner, or more private entertainment, to take place in 
 honour of your arrival, at such a time and in such a 
 manner as may be most agreeable to yourself; and we 
 all earnestly hope that an invitation which we give 
 with our whole hearts, you will find it compatible with 
 the object of your visit to accept. 
 
 "With sentiments of the truest regard and respect, 
 
 "We are Y'r Ob't Serv'ts, 
 
 "Geo. Minns. 
 "Chas. H. Mills. 
 "James R. Lowell. 
 "Henry Gardner. 
 "Samuel Parkman, Jr." 
 
 Upon Mr. Dickens's arrival on January 22, 1842, the 
 committee visited him, and the evening of February 1 
 was fixed upon by the guest as the time that would be 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 21 
 
 agreeable to him for the event. Shortly after his arrival 
 Dickens wrote his friend and future biographer, Forster, 
 saying — 
 
 "There is to be a public dinner to me here in Boston 
 next Tuesday, and great dissatisfaction has been given 
 to the many by the high price (three pounds sterling 
 each) of the tickets." 
 
 The following are the committees which had the dinner 
 in charge — 
 
 President, Josiah Quincy, Jr. ; Vice-Presidents : Dr. 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes, George S. Hillard, Edward G. 
 Loring, and J. Thomas Stevenson. 
 
 The Committee of Arrangements consisted of : E. H. 
 Eldridge, W. W. Tucker, S. A. Appleton, H. Lee, Jr., 
 and S. E. Guild. 
 
 The members of the Invitation Committee were : 
 George T. Bigelow, Nathan Hale, Jr., Jonathan Fay 
 Barrett, Frederick W. Crocker, and William Wetmore 
 Story. 
 
 A glance at the personnel of these committees may 
 not be uninteresting at the present. Josiah Quincy, Jr., 
 the president, was the grandson of the Josiah Quincy who 
 was a famous Boston lawyer and patriot, very prominent 
 at the opening of the Revolutionary War. He was the 
 son of Josiah Quincy, Sr., who, at the time of the 
 dinner, was the venerable President of Harvard College, 
 and was himself then President of the Massachusetts 
 State Senate, and later Mayor of Boston. 
 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the genial "Autocrat 
 of the Breakfast Table," was thirty-three years of age 
 and had not yet become famous as the author of "The 
 Wonderful One Hoss Shay," and at the time of the 
 dinner was a practising physician in Boston. 
 
 George Stillman Hillard was thirty-three years of age 
 and was a prominent lawyer of Boston, and was later 
 the author of a Life of General McClellan and a Life of 
 George Ticknor. 
 
 Edward G. Loring was a prominent attorney, and 
 fater Judge of Probate. In 1854 ne was United States 
 Commissioner, and as such he attained great notoriety 
 
22 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 from the fact that, as Commissioner under the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, he remanded Anthony Burns, an escaped 
 slave, back to his master, Charles F. Suttle, a Virginian 
 slaveholder. 
 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr., appeared as attorney for the 
 escaped slave, but unsuccessfully. The decision caused 
 a riot and an attack on the courthouse, but without 
 result, as Burns was conveyed back to Virginia in a 
 U.S. revenue cutter. 
 
 James Russell Lowell, who was one of the com- 
 mittee which extended the invitation to Dickens, was 
 only twenty-two years of age, and it was only four years 
 since his graduation from Harvard College; but he 
 was even at that age making a reputation as a poet. 
 He had studied law and been admitted to the bar, but 
 had just decided to abandon the profession of law and 
 lead a literary life. No one at that time would ever 
 have prophesied that this young man would later shine 
 as the United States Minister at the Courts of Madrid 
 and St. James. 
 
 George Tyler Bigelow, who was in his thirty-second 
 year, was a young lawyer of Boston, and in 1847, at 
 thirty-seven years of age, was Judge of the Court of 
 Common Pleas, in 1850 was Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of Massachusetts, and in i860 Chief Justice. 
 
 Nathan Hale, Jr., was an elder brother of the Rev. 
 Edward Everett Hale, the celebrated Boston preacher 
 and author. He was educated as a lawyer, but for the 
 greater part of his life was an editor, being at this time 
 the editor of the Boston Miscellany, to which James 
 Russell Lowell was then a contributor. 
 
 Jonathan Fay Barrett was a young lawyer of Con- 
 cord, but of strong literary tastes and very active as a 
 Whig politician. 
 
 William Wetmore Story, the famous American 
 sculptor, long resident in Rome, was only twenty-two 
 years of age and was then a practising lawyer in Boston, 
 where he remained till 1848, at which time he went to 
 Italy. He was, previous to this time, the writer of 
 several books on legal subjects as well as some volumes 
 
JOSIAH QUINCY 
 President, Massachusetts State Senate, 1842 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 23 
 
 of prose and poetry. He was a classmate at Harvard 
 of Lowell and Nathan Hale. 
 
 Amongst the prominent guests were Josiah Quincy, 
 Sr. ; Washington Allston, the poet and artist ; George 
 Bancroft, the historian ; Richard Henry Dana, Jr., the 
 author of Two Years before the Mast; and many others 
 eminent in the fields of literature, art and the law. It 
 was probably as representative a body of eminent men 
 as could well have been gathered together to welcome 
 the young author, who was then only thirty years of 
 age. 
 
 The following account of the dinner is reprinted from 
 the Boston Advertiser — 
 
 Mr. Dickens was received by a committee of the 
 young men who invited him, and immediately on his 
 arrival at the appointed hour of five, a full band in the 
 gallery of the hall commenced playing "Washington's 
 March." The invited guests, with the president and 
 vice-president of the day, and a part of the subscribers, 
 were in one of the drawing-rooms, and the other was 
 well filled with the rest of the subscribers. The doors 
 of the room last mentioned were first opened, and the 
 subscribers took their places at their pleasure at the 
 tables arranged in the hall, in such a way that no one 
 had his back to the invited guests. As soon as all had 
 found places, and order had followed the confusion 
 necessarily attending the quick moving of a hundred 
 and fifty persons, the band struck up "God save the 
 Queen," and the doors of the other drawing-room being 
 opened, the guests, and the president and vice-pre- 
 sidents, entered, and were shown to the seats reserved 
 for them. 
 
 Before the covers were removed, the Rev. Dr. Park- 
 man asked a blessing on the occasion, in a manner at 
 once solemn and appropriate. 
 
 The dinner then proceeded through various courses, 
 till, at the appearance of the dessert, the president rose, 
 and addressed the company in the following manner — 
 
 Gentlemen, — The occasion that calls us together is 
 
24 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 almost unprecedented in the annals of literature. A 
 young man has crossed the ocean with no hereditary 
 title, no military laurels, no princely fortune, and yet his 
 approach is hailed with pleasure by every age and con- 
 dition, and on his arrival he is welcomed as a long- 
 known and highly-valued friend. How shall we account 
 for this reception ? Must we not at the first glance con- 
 clude with Falstaff, " If the rascal have not given me 
 medicines, to make me love him, I'll be hanged : it could 
 not be else — I have drunk medicines." 
 
 But when reflection leads us to the causes of this 
 universal sentiment, we cannot but be struck by the 
 power which mind exercises over mind, even while we 
 are individually separated by time, space and other 
 conditions of our present being. Why should we not 
 welcome him as a friend? Have we not walked with 
 him in every scene of varied life ? Have we not together 
 investigated, with Mr. Pickwick, the theory of Tittle- 
 bats? Have we not ridden together to the "Markis o' 
 Granby," with old Weller on the box, and his son 
 Samuel on the dickey ? Have we not been rook-shooting 
 with Mr. Winkle, and courting with Mr. Tupman ? 
 Have we not played cribbage with "The Marchioness" 
 and quaffed the rosy with Dick Swiveller? Tell us not 
 of animal magnetism ! We, and thousands of our 
 countrymen, have for years been eating and talking, 
 riding and walking, dancing and sliding, drinking and 
 sleeping, with our distinguished guest, and he never 
 knew" of the existence r of one of us. Is it wonderful that 
 we are delighted to see him, and to return in a measure 
 his unbounded hospitalities ? Boz a stranger ! Well 
 may we again exclaim, with Sir John Falstaff, "D'ye 
 think we didn't know ye ? — We knew ye as well as him 
 that made ye." 
 
 But a jovial fellow is not always the dearest friend ; 
 and although the pleasure of his society would always 
 recommend the great progenitor of Dick Swiveller, ," the 
 perpetual grand of the glorious Apollers," in a scene 
 like this, yet the respect of grave doctors and of fair 
 ladies prove that there are higher qualities than those of 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 25 
 
 a pleasant companion to recommend and attach them to 
 our distinguished guest. What is the charm that unites 
 so many suffrages ? It is that in the lightest hours, and 
 in the most degraded scenes which he has portrayed, 
 there has been a reforming object and moral tone, not 
 formally thrust forth in the canvas, but infused into the 
 spirit of the picture, with those natural touches whose 
 contemplation never tires. 
 
 With what power of delineation have the abuses of 
 his institutions been portrayed? How have the poor- 
 house, the jail, the police courts of justice, passed before 
 his magic mirror, and displayed to us the petty tyranrty 
 of the low-minded official, from the magnificent Mr. 
 Bumble, and the hard-hearted Mr. Roker, to the author- 
 itative Justice Fang — the positive Judge Stareleigh ! As 
 we contemplate them, how strongly have we realized 
 the time-worn evils of some of the systems they revealed 
 to our eyesight, sharpened to detect the deficiencies and 
 malpractices under our own. 
 
 The genius of chivalry, which had walked with such 
 power among men, was exorcised by the pen of Cer- 
 vantes. He did but clothe it with the name and images 
 of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful squire, 
 and ridicule destroyed what argument could not reach. 
 
 This power belongs in an eminent degree to some 
 of the personifications of our guest. A short time ago 
 it was discovered that a petty tyrant had abused the 
 children who had been committed to his care. No long 
 and elaborate discussion was needed to arouse the public 
 mind. He was pronounced a perfect Squeers, and 
 eloquence could go no further. Happy is he who can 
 add a pleasure to the house of childhood — but far 
 happier he who, by fixing the attention of the world on 
 their secret sufferings, can protect or deliver them from 
 their power. 
 
 But it is not only as a portrayer of public wrongs 
 that we are indebted to our friend. What reflecting 
 mind can contemplate some of these characters without 
 being made more kind-hearted and charitable ? Descend 
 with him into the very sink of vice — contemplate the 
 
26 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 mistress of the robber — the victim of a murderer — dis- 
 graced without — polluted within — and yet, when, in 
 better moments, her natural kindness breaks through 
 the cloud, when she tells you that no word of counsel, 
 no tone of moral teaching, ever fell upon her ear, when 
 she looks forward from a life of misery to a death by 
 suicide — you cannot but feel that there is no condition 
 so degraded as not to be visited by gleams of a higher 
 nature, and rejoice that He alone will judge the sin who 
 knows also the temptation. Again, how strongly are 
 the happiness of virtue and the misery of vice con- 
 trasted. The morning scene of Sir Mulberry Hawk 
 and his pupil brings out in strong relief the night 
 scene of Kit Nubbles and his mother. The one in 
 affluence and splendour, trying to find an easier position 
 for his aching head, surrounded with means and trophies 
 of debauchery, and "thinking there would be nothing 
 so snug and comfortable as to die at once." The other 
 in the poorest room, earning a precarious subsistence 
 by her labours at the wash-tub — ugly and ignorant and 
 vulgar, surrounded by poverty, with one child in the 
 cradle, and the other in the clothes basket, "whose great 
 round eyes emphatically declared that he never meant 
 to go to sleep any more, and thus opened a cheerful 
 prospect to his relations and friends," and yet in this 
 situation, with only the comfort that cleanliness and 
 order could impart — kindness of heart and the deter- 
 mination to be talkative and agreeable throw a halo 
 round the scene, and as we contemplate it we cannot but 
 feel that Kit Nubbles has attained to the summit of 
 philosophy, when he discovered "there was nothing in 
 the way in which he was made that called upon him to 
 be a snivelling, solemn, whispering chap — sneaking 
 about as if he could not help it, and expressing himself 
 in a most unpleasant snuffle — but that it was as natural 
 for him to laugh as for a sheep to bleat, a pig to grunt, 
 or a bird to sing." Or take another example, when 
 wealth is attained, though by different means and for 
 different purposes. Ralph Nickleby and Arthur Gride 
 are industrious and successful; like the vulture, they 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 27 
 
 are ever soaring over the field that they may pounce on 
 the weak and unprotected. Their constant employment 
 is grinding the poor, and preying upon the rich. What 
 is the result ? Their homes are cold and cheerless, the 
 blessing of him that is ready to perish comes not to 
 them, and they live in wretchedness to die in misery. 
 What a contrast have we in the glorious old twins — 
 Brother Charles and Brother Ned. They have never 
 been to school, they eat with their knives (as the Yankees 
 are said to do), and yet what an elucidation do they 
 present of the truth that it is better to give than to 
 receive ! They acquire their wealth in the honourable 
 pursuits of business. They expend it to promote the 
 happiness of every one within their sphere, and their 
 cheerful days and tranquil nights show that wealth is a 
 blessing or a curse, as it ministers to the higher or lower 
 propensities of our nature. 
 
 " He that hath light within his own clear breast, 
 May sit i' the centre and enjoy bright day; 
 But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, 
 Benighted walks under the mid-day sun ; 
 Himself in his own dungeon." 
 
 Such men are powerful preachers of the truth, that 
 universal benevolence is the true panacea of life; and 
 although it was a pleasant fiction of Brother Charles 
 that "Tim Linkinwater was born a hundred and fifty 
 years old, and was gradually coming down to five-and- 
 twenty," yet he who cultivates such a sentiment will, as 
 years roll by, attain more and more to the spirit of a 
 little child; and the hour will come when that principle 
 shall conduct the possessor to immortal happiness and 
 eternal youth. 
 
 If, then, our guest is called upon to state what are 
 
 "The drugs, the charms, 
 The conjuration and the mighty magic, 
 He's won our daughters with" — 
 
 well might he reply that, in endeavouring to relieve the 
 oppressed, to elevate the poor, and to instruct and edify 
 
28 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 those of a happier condition, he had only "held the 
 mirror up to nature." To "show virtue her own form — 
 scorn her own image." That "this was the only witch- 
 craft he used " ; and, did he need proof of this, there 
 are many fair girls on both sides of the water who, 
 though they might not repeat the whole of Desdemona's 
 speech to a married man, yet could they tell him — 
 
 " That if he had a friend, that loved her. 
 He should but teach him how to tell his stories, 
 And that would win her." 
 
 I would, gentlemen, it were in my power to present, 
 as on the mirror in the Arabian tale, the various scenes 
 in our extended country, where the master-mind of our 
 guest is at this moment acting. In the empty school- 
 room, the boy at his evening task has dropped his 
 grammar, that he may roam with Oliver or Nell. The 
 traveller has forgotten the fumes of the crowded steam- 
 boat, and is far off with our guest, among the green 
 valleys and hoary hills of old England. The trapper, 
 beyond the rocky mountains, has left his lonely tent, 
 and is unroofing the houses in London with the more 
 than Mephistopheles at my elbow. And, perhaps, in 
 some well-lighted hall, the unbidden tear steals from 
 the father's eye, as the exquisite sketch of the poor 
 school-master and his little scholar brings back the form 
 of tha"t gifted boy whose "little hand" worked its 
 wonders under his guidance, and who, in the dawning 
 of intellect and warm affections, was summoned from 
 the school-room and the play-room for ever. Or to some 
 bereaved mother the tender sympathies and womanly 
 devotion, the touching purity of little Nell, may call 
 up the form where dwelt that harmonious soul which, 
 uniting in itself God's best gifts, for a short space shed 
 its celestial light upon her household, and then vanish- 
 ing, "turned all hope into memory." 
 
 But it is not to scenes like these that I would now 
 recall you. I would that my voice could reach the ear 
 of every admirer of our guest throughout the land, that 
 with us they might welcome him on this, his first public 
 appearance to our shores. Like the rushing of many 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 29 
 
 waters, the response would come to us from the bleak 
 hills of Canada, from the savannahs of the South, from 
 the prairies of the West, uniting in an "earthquake 
 voice " in the cheers with which we welcome Charles 
 Dickens to this new world. 
 Mr. Quincy concluded with the following toast — 
 Health, happiness, and a hearty welcome to Charles 
 Dickens. 
 
 This toast was received with a burst of applause, 
 and the cheering which greeted Mr. Dickens was loud 
 and long; as soon as it ceased he responded with the 
 following address, which he spoke earnestly, and with 
 apparent feeling — 
 
 Gentlemen, — If you had given this splendid enter- 
 tainment to any one else in the whole wide world — if I 
 were here to-night to exult in the triumph of my dearest 
 friend — if I stood here upon my defence, to repel any 
 unjust attack — to appeal as a stranger to your generosity 
 and kindness as the freest people on the earth — I could, 
 putting some restraint upon myself, stand among you 
 as self-possessed and unmoved as I should be alone, in 
 my own room in England. 
 
 But when I have* the echoes of your cordial greet- 
 ing ringing in my ears — when I see your kind faces 
 beaming a welcome so warm and earnest as never man 
 had, I feel — it is my nature — so vanquished and sub- 
 dued that I have hardly fortitude enough to thank you. 
 If your president, instead of pouring forth that delight- 
 ful mixture of humour and pathos, which you have just 
 heard with so much delight, had been but a caustic, 
 ill-natured man — if he had only been a dull one — if I 
 could only have doubted or distrusted him or you — I 
 should have had my wits at my ringers' ends, and, 
 using them, could have held you at arm's length. But 
 you have given me no such opportunity; you take 
 advantage of me in the tenderest point; you give me no 
 chance of playing at company or holding you at a dis- 
 tance, but flock about me like a host of brothers, and 
 make this place like home. Indeed, gentlemen, indeed, 
 
30 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 if it be natural and allowable for each of us, on his own 
 hearth, to express his thoughts in the most homely 
 fashion, and to appear in his plainest garb, I have a 
 fair claim upon you to let me do so to-night, for you 
 have made my house an Aladdin's palace. .You fold 
 so tenderly within your breasts that common household 
 lamp in which my feeble .fire is all enshrined, and at 
 which my flickering torch is lighted up, that straight 
 my household gods take wing and are transported here. 
 And whereas it is written of that fairy structure that it 
 never moved without two shocks — one when it rose, and 
 one when it settled down — I can say of mine that, how- 
 ever sharp a tug it took to pluck it from its native 
 ground, it struck at once an easy, and a deep and 
 lasting root into this soil; and loved it as its own. I 
 can say more of it, and say with truth, that long before 
 it moved, or had a chance of moving, its master — per- 
 haps from some secret sympathy between its timbers 
 and a certain stately tree that has its being hereabout, 
 and spreads its broad branches far and wide — dreamed 
 by day and night, for years, of setting foot upon this 
 shore, and breathing this pure air. And, trust me, 
 gentlemen, that, if I had wandered here, unknowing 
 and unknown, I would — if I know my own heart — have 
 come with all my sympathies clustering as richly about 
 this land and people — with all my sense of justice as 
 keenly alive to their high claims on every man who 
 loves God's image—with all my energies as fully bent 
 on judging for myself, and speaking out, and telling in 
 my sphere the truth, as I do now, when you rain down 
 your welcome on my head. 
 
 Your president has alluded to those writings which 
 have been my occupation for some years past; and you 
 have received his allusions in a manner which assures 
 me — if I needed any such assurance — that we are old 
 friends in the spirit, and have been in close communion 
 for a long time. 
 
 It is not easy for a man to speak of his own books. 
 I dare say that few persons have been more interested 
 in mine than I ; and if it be a general principle in nature 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 31 
 
 that a lover's love is blind, and that a mother's love is 
 blind; I believe that it may be said of an author's 
 attachment to the creatures of his own imagination that 
 it is a perfect model of constancy and devotion and is 
 the blindest of all. But the objects and purposes I have 
 had in view are very plain and simple and may be easily 
 told. I have always had, and always shall have, an 
 earnest and true desire to contribute, as far as in me 
 lies, to the common stock of healthful cheerfulness and 
 enjoyment. I have always had, and always shall have, 
 an invincible repugnance to the mole-eyed philosophy 
 which loved the darkness and winks and scowls in the 
 light. I believe that virtue shows quite as well in rags 
 and patches as she does in purple and fine linen. I 
 believe that she and every beautiful object in external 
 nature claim some sympathy in the breast of the poorest 
 man who breaks his scanty loaf of bread. I believe that 
 she goes barefoot as well as shod. I believe that she 
 dwells rather oftener in alleys and by-ways than she 
 does in courts and palaces; and that it is good, and 
 pleasant, and profitable, to track her out and follow 
 her. I believe that to lay one's hand upon some of 
 those rejected ones whom the world has too long for- 
 gotten, and too often misused, and to say to the proudest 
 and most thoughtless : these creatures have the same 
 elements and capacities of goodness as yourselves; 
 they are moulded in the same form and made of the 
 same clay; and though ten times worse than you, may, 
 in having retained anything of their original nature 
 amidst the trials and distresses of their condition, be 
 really ten times better — I believe that to do this is to 
 pursue a worthy and not useless avocation. Gentlemen, 
 that you think so too, your fervent greeting sufficiently 
 assures me. That this feeling is alive in the old world 
 as well as in the new, no man should know better than 
 I — I, who have found such wide and ready sympathy 
 in my own dear land. That in expressing it we are but 
 treading in the steps of those great master spirits who 
 have gone before, we know by reference to all the bright 
 examples in our literature, from Shakespeare downward. 
 
82 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 There is one other point connected with the labours 
 (if I may call them so) that you hold in such generous 
 esteem, to which I cannot help adverting. I cannot 
 help expressing the delight, the more than happiness, it 
 was to me to find so strong an interest awakened, on 
 this side of the water, in favour of that little heroine of 
 mine, to whom your president has made allusion, who 
 died in her youth. I had letters about that child in 
 England, from the dwellers in log-houses among the 
 morasses, and swamps, and densest forests, and deepest 
 solitudes, of the Far West. Many a sturdy hand, hard 
 with the axe and spade, and browned with the summer's 
 sun, has taken up the pen and written to me a little 
 history of domestic joy or sorrow, always coupled, I 
 am proud to say, with interest in that little tale, or some 
 comfort or happiness derived from it; and the writer 
 has always addressed me, not as a writer of books for 
 sale, resident some four or five thousand miles away, 
 but as a friend to whom he might freely impart the joys 
 and sorrows of his own fireside. Many a mother — I 
 could reckon them, now, by dozens, not by units — has 
 done the like, and has told me how she lost a child at 
 such a time, and where she lay buried, and how good 
 she was, and how, in this or that respect, she resembled 
 Nell. I do assure you that no circumstance of my 
 life has given me one hundredth part of the gratification 
 I have derived from this source. I was wavering at the 
 time whether or not to wind up my clock, and come 
 and see this country; and this decided me. I felt as if 
 it were a positive duty, as if I were bound to pack up 
 my clothes and come and see my friends. And even 
 now, I have such an odd sensation in connection with 
 these things that you have no chance of spoiling me. 
 I feel as though we were agreeing — as indeed we are, if 
 we substitute for fictitious names the classes from which 
 they are drawn — about third parties in whom we had a 
 common interest. At every new act of kindness on your 
 part, I say it to myself — that's for Oliver — I should not 
 wonder if that were meant for Smike — I have no doubt 
 that is intended for Nell; and so I become a much 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 83 
 
 happier, certainly, but a more sober and retiring man, 
 than ever I was before. 
 
 Gentlemen ! talking of my friends in America brings 
 me back naturally and of course to you. Coming 
 back to you, and being thereby reminded of the pleasure 
 we have in store in hearing the gentlemen who sit 
 about me, I arrive by the easiest, though not by the 
 shortest course in the world, at the end of what I have 
 to say. But before I sit down, there is one topic on 
 which I am desirous to lay particular stress. It has, 
 or should have, a strong interest for us all, since to its 
 literature every country must look for one great means 
 of refining and improving its people, and one great 
 source of national pride and honour. You have in 
 America great writers — great writers who will live in 
 all time, and are as familiar to our lips as household 
 words. Deriving (which they all do in a greater or 
 less degree, in their several walks) their inspiration 
 from the stupendous country that gave them birth, they 
 diffuse a better knowledge of it, and a high love for it, 
 all over the civilized world. I take leave to say, in the 
 presence of some of those gentlemen, that I hope the 
 time is not far distant when they, in America, will 
 receive of right some substantial profit and return in 
 England from their labours ; and when we, in England, 
 shall receive some substantial profit and return in 
 America from ours. Pray do not misunderstand me. 
 Securing to myself from day to day the means of an 
 honourable subsistence, I would rather have the affec- 
 tionate regard of my fellow-men than I would have 
 heaps and mines of gold. But the two things do not 
 seem to me incompatible. They cannot be, for nothing 
 good is incompatible with justice. There must be an 
 international arrangement in this respect; England has 
 done her part; and I am confident that the time is not 
 far distant when America will do hers. It becomes the 
 character of a great country : first, because it is justice ; 
 secondly, because without it you never can have, and 
 keep, a literature of your own. 
 
 Gentlemen, I thank you with feelings of gratitude, 
 
34 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 such as are not often awakened, and can never be 
 expressed. As I understand it to be the pleasant custom 
 here to finish with a toast, I would beg to give you — 
 
 America and England—and may they never have any 
 division but the Atlantic between them ! 
 
 It was some time ere the applause and cheering 
 which followed this speech subsided; as soon as silence 
 was obtained, the president said — 
 
 It had been said that painters, in portraying pictures 
 of ideal female beauty, unconsciously sketched the 
 features of her who was the dearest to their hearts. 
 If this was as true of the novelist as the painter, how 
 greatly are the admirers of the lovely creations of our 
 friend's genius indebted to her who holds this relation 
 to him ! With his permission, therefore, he proposed— 
 
 The health of the lady of our distinguished guest — 
 If she were the model of the pure and elevated females 
 of his works, it might be well said that she was the better 
 half even of Charles Dickens. 
 
 The toast was drunk with nine cheers, the company 
 all standing. 
 
 The president said he would propose one toast more, 
 and for a response to it he should look to the other end 
 of the table. He then gave — 
 
 The Old World and the New — In the beautiful 
 language of our guest, there is one broad sky over all ; 
 and whether it be blue or cloudy, there is the same 
 heaven beyond it. 
 
 Edward G. Loring, Esq., one of the vice-presidents, 
 responded to this sentiment as follows — 
 
 Mr. President, — Your sentiment refers directly to 
 what the sentiment of our guest, your welcome to him, 
 and his English response, must have pressed on the 
 minds of all of us — the peculiar bonds of union between 
 England and America. There is no one here who would 
 wish them fewer or weaker than they are — a common 
 parentage, a common literature, and common national 
 interests ; and yet, stronger and broader. One common 
 parentage is surely much ; yet the relationship of nations 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 35 
 
 has never proved the strongest of national bonds, nor 
 withstood the trials of conflicting interests, or the 
 rivalry for wealth or power; a common literature is 
 indeed much more, and New England is not the place 
 in our land where it will be first undervalued. Since 
 common scholarship began here — and that was the day 
 and hour the passengers of the Mayflower landed on 
 Plymouth Rock — since then it has been our earnest 
 New England thanksgiving that we had our birth- 
 right in English literature, that "the well of English 
 undefiled" was within the lines of our heritage, and 
 that we had an inalienable right to draw of its waters, 
 even under the suspicion that we tinged them as we 
 drew. It is the blessing we have prized more than any 
 other, and by which we have profited more than any 
 other — that we could open the huge Volume of English 
 learning, illumined more brightly than missal ever 
 shone, that genius had blazoned for a foreign people in 
 a foreign land, and read its glorious text in the full and 
 ready apprehension of our own vernacular; but this is 
 now not peculiar to us — the scholarship of every country 
 has attained it, and the degree of union that it gives. 
 Scholars fraternize everywhere, and the Republic of 
 Letters is as broad as the limits of civilization ; but there 
 is yet another broader and stronger bond than parentage 
 or literature, which binds not merely the scholars of 
 England and America, not merely two nations as such, 
 in their national capacities and relations and interests 
 — but which binds together the people of the nations of 
 England and America as one people, and binds them 
 all the closer as by its own force it excludes the people 
 of all other nations from the alliance. 
 
 The people of other nations are separated from each 
 other, and have been so, and must remain so, in spite of 
 all the affinities with which circumstances and civiliza- 
 tion have combined to unite them ; these are stronger in 
 modern Europe to-day than between any nations the 
 world has seen — yet of these nations the people of each 
 are as distinct from the people of every other as if they 
 belonged to different epochs of time. This is not 
 
 D2 
 
36 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 because of any difference in their degree of civilization 
 — in mental or moral culture — in the schools of their 
 learning, or their systems of philosophy — or in the forms 
 and usages of their social life ; in these they are alike — 
 so much alike, that the same classes in the different 
 nations differ less than different classes in the same 
 nation. It is not because their political relations are 
 hostile, for peace is in all their borders ; and the wisdom 
 of the statesman is tasked to interweave their political 
 interests. It is not the difference of their forms of 
 government — for in these they resemble each other more 
 than America resembles her mother country; it is not 
 the geographical barriers that separate them from each 
 other — between them no ocean rolls — between many of 
 them neither mountains rise nor rivers run — inhabiting 
 the same continent, the same plain — with a local division 
 so slight that the small grass which fixes its root in 
 one state hangs its blade in the other — with a boundary 
 line as purely mathematical as that of our New England 
 farms, which run from a tree to a stake and stones — 
 yet the people on each side of this line are a distinct 
 people — the governments may league in peace and war 
 — their scholars may consort in literary fellowship, but 
 the people never touch — they are distinct, and are kept 
 distinct, by their different spoken language. This bars 
 their intercourse, and shuts up in each all homelike 
 thoughts and feelings and "their dear familiar words" 
 — they find on each other's tongue the shibboleth of 
 alienation; their different languages mark the line of 
 their insulation, and though that line may be as slight 
 as invisible, yet it is as impassable as the magic circle 
 of a fairy dance — that leaves no impress on the evening 
 dew, yet separates the different beings of different 
 worlds. 
 
 So will it be for ever. The difference of language 
 of the nations shall make their people strangers as it 
 has from the beginning. That beginning is recorded 
 in holy writ — the judgment of the plain of Shinar, when 
 Babel fell, has overspread the earth — all time has con- 
 firmed it, and the generations of every nation in its 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 37 
 
 variant tongue has repeated it — against it no circum- 
 stance or human contrivance has prevailed anything — 
 arts and arms, civilization and conquests, have changed 
 everything else, but of this judgment not one letter is 
 altered — as it was first writ it is now read. Call that 
 record a history or a metaphor, yet the fall of Babel 
 typifies the most pregnant event that marks the course 
 of man; of that event the people of England and 
 America are alone untouched; of Babel's tower not a 
 brick fell between them ; from the decree which sundered 
 all other people they alone are exempted, and that decree 
 is their authority, their necessity, to go on together in 
 their great courses, with ideas, thoughts and sentiments 
 in common ; and made common by their common utter- 
 ance. Using not only the same books, but the same 
 spoken words ; listening to the same preaching from the 
 desk, to the same teachings of philosophy, to the same 
 discussion of moral and political principles; using the 
 same inventions of art, the same developments of 
 science; applying the same rules of right or wrong to 
 the management of their daily affairs ; having the same 
 conventional forms and usages of life, the same table 
 talk, parlour conversation and nursery prattle — all things 
 that go most certainly to fix mental and moral habits, 
 and make first individual and then national character; 
 the people of England and the people of America must 
 be for ever one people — and this is the result of their 
 common spoken language. 
 
 This is, sir, a part of what the young men of Boston 
 claim this common spoken language has done for 
 them, and the question comes to their own minds, what 
 have they done for that? Here it is not for them to 
 say; they must repress the impulse to point to their 
 fellow-citizens who are their guests to-day. But, sir, 
 there is one thing they may do, one act of the young 
 men of Boston to which they may refer — for it was the 
 act of their forefathers, when they were the young men 
 of Boston — they founded in their new wilderness 
 Harvard College, and made it its great duty to 
 guard the purity of our English speech. Sir, if we have 
 
88 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 not profited in that respect by her teachings, it is our 
 own fault; but there is one lesson of hers that we have 
 learned by heart, and would repeat now when we meet 
 her at our own festival — it is, "To give honour to those 
 who in their high office do honour to her." 
 
 When the immense cheering occasioned by this 
 sentiment had subsided, President Quincy, of Harvard 
 University, presented himself before the company, and 
 was received with enthusiastic greeting. He replied to 
 the compliment paid to himself and old Harvard in the 
 following terms — 
 
 It is not fair, gentlemen, not quite fair. When I 
 received your invitation, I had many doubts concerning 
 accepting it. I saw very plainly that, if I did, by some 
 hook or crook I should be set up for a speech; and I 
 now feel disposed to give myself the same advice which 
 was once given by Swift. "Sir," said a man to Swift, 
 "I am about to set up for a wit." "Sir," said Swift to 
 the man, "you had better sit down again." 
 
 I thought indeed, gentlemen, that I had laid an 
 anchor to the windward, and that I was not to be assailed 
 by either toast or sentiment; that none of that intel- 
 lectual machinery was applied to me by which it is usual, 
 on such occasions as these, to rasp speeches out of dry 
 and reluctant natures. Why, gentlemen, I belong to 
 a past age. It is no more reasonable to expect a man 
 of threescore years and ten to make a good after-dinner 
 speech than it is to expect he would dance well a horn- 
 pipe. Nature is against it. A great many particulars 
 enter into the composition of a good after-dinner 
 speech which it is scarcely possible for an old man 
 to command. Such a speech should at once be witty 
 and wise. It should have sentiment and fancy. There 
 should be a sprinkling of salt — the pure attic; and a 
 large infusion of the essence of roses, provided it be 
 distilled from those which grow on the side of Par- 
 nassus. There should be a layer of utile and a layer 
 of dulce alternately. Sound sense should be at the 
 bottom, and at the top as much sugar work and fancy 
 flummery as the occasion will bear. Now it is next to 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 39 
 
 impossible for a man of my age to collect all these 
 materials at a moment's warning. Besides, there are 
 two essential things in which he is necessarily deficient 
 — memory and fancy. To an old man, Memory is an 
 arrant jade ; eternally playing him tricks ; and like most 
 of her sex, not at all delicate in letting him know what 
 a preference she has for young men. An old man's 
 fancy can neither run nor walk ; much less can it fly, for 
 in its wings there is neither quill nor pin-feather. Be- 
 sides, gentlemen, it is a rule that, when a man's son 
 has set up in trade, and is carrying it on pretty success- 
 fully, it is full time for his father to quit business. 
 Otherwise unpleasant comparisons may occur. It might 
 be said, possibly, that "the father beats the son," which 
 would look unkind and unparental. Or it might be 
 said, which in this case is more likely, that "the son 
 beats the father," which all will agree is quite cruel 
 and unnatural. 
 
 The fear of being called up for a speech was not 
 my only difficulty, gentlemen, in accepting your invita- 
 tion. I reasoned with myself, something in this way. 
 Here is a young man come across the Atlantic, who, 
 ever since he was a man, has been harvesting laurels, 
 and here he is, with his hands full and his head covered 
 with them, and the young men of Boston, with a. laud- 
 able disposition to do justice to merit, have resolved 
 to place a small twig of Yankee laurel among the great 
 collection he has brought with him from Europe. All 
 this is well, and very proper. But what have I to do 
 with it? I am not a young man. Shall I not be out 
 of place? So I was in great difficulty; for, to tell you 
 the truth, I had an intense desire to be present on the 
 occasion. In this dilemma I said to a judicious friend 
 of mine, " The young men have invited me to the dinner 
 they are to give to Mr. Dickens; do you advise me to 
 go?" "By no means," said my friend; "you will be 
 out of your place, and in their way. Why, you will 
 prevent the young men from cracking their jokes." 
 Now, gentlemen, observe when you will, and you will 
 find that, when a man asks advice, and the advice given 
 
40 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 thwarts his inclination, instead of acquiescing,' he always 
 falls to arguing. And so I did on this occasion. 
 "Why," I replied, "if the jokes they crack are good 
 jokes, I should like to be at their cracking ; but if there 
 should be a disposition in any of them to make bad 
 jokes " — a thing, by the way, they never learnt from the 
 writings of the gentleman they desire to honour, for in 
 all his works not a bad joke is to be found — "in such 
 case, should my presence prevent them, it would be 
 useful." So, drawing a reason in favour of accepting 
 the invitation from the very argument adduced against 
 it, I resolved to follow my inclination ; threw my 
 judicious friend's advice to the winds, and accepted the 
 invitation. 
 
 But my difficulties were not all over, then. Some 
 time elapsed between my acceptance and the dinner, 
 during which my mind was busy with its doubts and 
 conjectures. Shall I be the oldest man in the company ? 
 Will there be any one there of my age, or near it? 
 Will there be any but young men there? At length 
 my mind settled down into an intense desire to know 
 how this meeting would be composed; and whether it 
 would be composed wholly of young men. I felt, 
 gentlemen, very much as — I hope what I am going to 
 say will give no offence. Remember, it is not said 
 by way of application or adaptation, but only by way of 
 illustration; I felt then, in regard to the composition 
 of this meeting, very much as Sam Weller did on 
 another occasion. You all know Sam Weller. If any 
 of you do not, I advise you to form an acquaintance 
 with him as soon as possible. He is worth knowing; 
 and quite a classical character. I felt, I say, concern- 
 ing the composition of this meeting, as Sam Weller 
 did, when invited to dine on a veal pie. "Why," said 
 Sam, "I like the invitation much. A weal pie is a nice 
 thing, a werry nice thing; but then I should like to 
 know, beforehand, how it is composed, and whether 
 there is likely to be found there anything besides — 
 kittens." 
 
 Gentlemen (continued Mr. Quincy, glancing with 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 41 
 
 a serious aspect at the reporters), I hope this rambling 
 speech is not to be published, but the presence of those 
 light-fingered gentry in the corner makes me fear that 
 it is. 
 
 To be serious, however, gentlemen. At my period 
 of life, and in my position in society, I ..should not have 
 felt justified in accepting your invitation had I regarded 
 it as a tribute to mere genius; had I considered it only 
 as an acknowledgment of allegiance, or as a desire to 
 do honour to that mysterious and wayward power which 
 is creative, but seldom discriminating; which catches 
 and reflects every occurring ray of fancy, utterly regard- 
 less whether it be useful or noxious ; which we are often 
 compelled to admire at the very moment the associations 
 it introduces into our minds fill us with shame, or pain, 
 or disgust. 
 
 In the writings of the gentleman in honour of whom 
 we have now assembled, I saw, indeed, enough of that 
 mysterious and wayward power to satisfy the cravings 
 of that ambition, but I saw also something higher and 
 better than genius. A tone uniformly moral, a purpose 
 always excellent, thoughts deep and brilliant, yet ever 
 transparent with purity; so that it may be truly said 
 of this author, that in all the numerous pages which 
 constitute his writings, there is not one through which 
 the most delicate female mind may not pass " in maiden 
 meditation, fancy free." 
 
 These are substantial glories. It speaks well for 
 the age, when a young man can thus write and be 
 popular., It speaks for it more and better, when its 
 young men are willing and anxious to applaud and 
 do honour to the author of such writings. 
 
 Gentlemen, I will detain you no longer, but conclude 
 by giving you a toast, if my treacherous memory will 
 so far serve me. I will give you — 
 
 Genius— in (Here, however, the venerable 
 
 president's memory did desert him, and after a brief 
 interval spent in vain attempts to summon her to his 
 aid, he looked pleasantly around, and said) — 
 
 Gentlemen, a good memory is a great thing, and 
 
42 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 I will give you all a piece of advice which it may be 
 useful to you to remember. When you are not certain 
 that you can keep a thing in your mind, be sure to keep 
 it in your pocket. He then, enforcing his example, 
 drew from his own pocket a scrap of paper, and 
 read — 
 
 Genius — In its legitimate use, uniting wit with purity ; 
 instructing the high in their duties to the low; and by 
 improving the morals, elevating the social condition 
 of man. 
 
 During the delivery of his speech, Mr. Quincy was 
 frequently interrupted with bursts of laughter and 
 applause, and the happy sally with which he got over 
 his concluding difficulty set the company in a roar, 
 which continued until the president of the evening, Mr. 
 Quincy, Jr., arose and said that as the president of 
 Harvard University had introduced to them Sam Weller, 
 he would take the liberty to read to them one of the 
 sayings of that distinguished personage — 
 
 "If ever I wanted anything of my father (said Sam) 
 I always asked for it in a werry 'spectful and obliging 
 manner. If he didn't give it me, I took it, for fear I 
 should be led to do anything wrong through not 
 having it." 
 
 The president then called on one of the vice-presi- 
 dents at the lower end of the hall, and Geo. S. Hillard, 
 Esq., responded as follows — 
 
 Mr. President, — Our meeting together this evening 
 is one of the agreeable results of the sympathy estab- 
 lished between two great and distant nations by a 
 common language and common literature. We are 
 paying our cheerful tribute of gratitude and admiration 
 to one who, though heretofore a stranger to us in person, 
 has made his image a familiar presence in innumerable 
 hearts, who has brightened the sunshine of many a 
 happy, and cheered the gloom of many a desponding 
 breast, whose works have been companions to the soli- 
 tary and a cordial in the sick man's chamber, and whose 
 natural pathos and thoughtful humour, flowing from a 
 genius as healthy as it is inventive, have drawn more 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 43 
 
 closely the ties which bind man to his brother man, and 
 have given us a new sense of the wickedness of injustice, 
 the deformity of selfishness, the beauty of self-sacrifice, 
 the dignity of humble virtue, and the strength of that 
 love which is found in "huts where poor men lie." The 
 new harvest of applause which is gathered by the gifted 
 minds of England, in a country separated from their 
 own by three thousand miles of ocean, is a privilege 
 peculiar to them, and one to which no author, however 
 rich in golden opinions won at home, can feel himself 
 indifferent. No brow can be so thickly shaded with 
 indigenous laurels as not to wear, with emotion, those 
 which are the growth of a foreign soil. There is no 
 homage so true and unquestionable as that which the 
 stranger offers. At home, the popularity of an author 
 may, during his own life, at least, be greatly increased 
 by circumstances not at all affecting the intrinsic value 
 of his writings. The caprice of fashion, the accident of 
 high rank or distinguished social position, the zeal of 
 a literary faction or a political party, may invest some 
 "Cynthia of the minute" with a brief notoriety, which 
 resembles true fame only as the meteor does the star. 
 But popularity of this kind is of too flimsy and delicate 
 a texture to bear transportation. It is only merit of a 
 solid and durable fabric which can survive a voyage 
 across the Atlantic. It has been said, with as much 
 truth as point, that a foreign nation is a sort of con- 
 temporaneous posterity. Its judgment resembles the 
 calm, unbiassed voice of future ages. It has no in- 
 fusion of personal feeling; it is a serene and unimpas- 
 sioned verdict, neither won by favour nor withheld from 
 prejudice. The admiration which comes from afar off 
 is valuable in the direct ratio of its distance, as there 
 is the same degree of assurance that it springs from no 
 secondary cause, but is a spontaneous and unbought 
 tribute. An English author might see with compara- 
 tive unconcern his book upon a drawing-room table in 
 London, but should he chance to meet a well-thumbed 
 copy of it in a log-house beyond our Western mountains, 
 would not his heart swell with pride at the thought of 
 
44 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 the wide space through which his name was diffused, 
 and his influence felt, and would not his lips almost 
 unconsciously utterly the expression of the wandering 
 Trojan — 
 
 " Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ? " 
 
 It is also probably true that, in our country, English 
 authors find their warmest and most impassioned ad- 
 mirers. It is as true of the mind as of the eye, that 
 distance lends enchantment to the view. There are no 
 hues so soft and delicate with which the imagination 
 invests that which is unseen or faintly discerned. Re- 
 moteness in space has the same idealizing effect as 
 remoteness of time. The voice that comes to us from 
 the dim distance is like that which comes to us from 
 the dim past. We know, but we do not feel, the interval 
 which separates Shakespeare from Scott, Milton from 
 Wordsworth, Hume from Hallam. We know them only 
 by those airy creations of the brain which speak to us 
 through the printed page. Solitude, and silence too, 
 are the nurses of deep and strong feeling. That imagin- 
 ative element which exalts the love of Dante for 
 Beatrice, and of Burns for his "Mary in Heaven," 
 deepens the fervour of admiration with which the pale, 
 enthusiastic scholar, in some lonely farmhouse in New 
 England, hangs over a favourite author who, though 
 perhaps a living contemporary, is recognized only as 
 an absolute essence of genius, wisdom or truth. The 
 minds of men whom we see face to face appear to 
 shine upon us darkly through the infirmities of a mortal 
 frame. Their faculties are touched by weariness or 
 pain, or some humiliating weakness or unhandsome 
 passion thrusts its eclipsing shadow between us and 
 the light of their genius. Not so with those to whom 
 they speak only through the medium of books. In these 
 we see the products of those golden hours, when all that 
 was low is elevated, when all that was dark is illumined, 
 and all that was earthly is transfigured. Books have no 
 touch of personal infirmity — theirs is undying bloom, 
 immortal youth, perennial fragrance. Age cannot 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 45 
 
 wrinkle, disease cannot blight, death cannot pierce 
 them. The personal image of the author is quite as 
 likely to be a hindrance as a help to his book. The 
 actor who played with Shakespeare in his own Hamlet 
 probably did but imperfect justice to that wonderful 
 play, and the next-door neighbour of a popular author 
 will be very likely to read his books with a carping, 
 censorious spirit, unknown to him who has seen his 
 visage only in his mind. 
 
 Mr. President, I dwell with pleasure on the considera- 
 tions to which an occasion like this gives birth. It is 
 good for us to be here. Whatever has a tendency to 
 make two great nations forget those things in which 
 they differ, and remember those only in which they have 
 a common interest, is a benefit to them both. Whatever 
 makes the hearts of two countries beat in unison, makes 
 them more enamoured of harmony, more sensitive to 
 discord. Honour to the men of genius, who made two 
 hemispheres thrill to the same electric touch ; who at the 
 same time, and with the same potent spell, are ruling 
 the hearts of men in the mountains of Scotland, the 
 forests of Canada, the hillsides of New England, the 
 prairies of Illinois and the burning plains of India. 
 Their influence, so far as it extends, is a peaceful and a 
 humanizing one. When you have instructed two men 
 with the same wisdom, and charmed them with the same 
 wit, you have established between them a bond of 
 sympathy, however slight, and made it so much the 
 more difficult to set them at variance. When I re- 
 member the history of England, how much she has done 
 for law, liberty, virtue and religion — for all that beauti- 
 fies and dignifies life — when I recollect how much that 
 is most valuable and characteristic in our own institu- 
 tions is borrowed from her — when I recall our obliga- 
 tions to her matchless literature, I feel a throb of grati- 
 tude that "Chatham's language is my mother-tongue," 
 and my heart warms to the land of my fathers. I 
 embrace with peculiar satisfaction every consideration 
 that tends to give us a unity of spirit in the bond of 
 peace — to make us blind to each other's faults, and kind 
 
46 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 to each other's virtues. I feel all the force of the fine 
 lines of one whom we have the honour to receive as a 
 guest this evening — 
 
 "Though ages long have passed 
 Since our fathers left their home, 
 Their pilot in the blast, 
 O'er untravelled seas to roam, 
 Yet lives the blood of England in our veins ; 
 And shall we not proclaim 
 That blood of honest fame, 
 Which no tyranny can tame 
 By its chains? 
 
 "While the manners, while the arts 
 That mould a nation's soul, 
 Still cling around our hearts, — 
 Between, let ocean roll, 
 Our joint communion breaking with the sun ; 
 Yet still from either beach 
 The voice of blood shall reach, 
 More audible than speech — 
 We are one." 
 
 It is now sixty-seven years since the rapid growth of 
 our country was sketched by Mr. Burke, in the course 
 of his speech on conciliation with America, in a passage 
 whose picturesque beauty has made it one of the 
 commonplaces of literature, in which he represents the 
 angel of Lord Bathurst drawing up the curtain of 
 futurity, unfolding the rising glories of England, and 
 pointing out to him America, a little speck scarce visible 
 in the mass of the national interest, yet which was 
 destined before he tasted of death to show itself equal 
 to the whole of that commerce which then attracted the 
 admiration of the world. There are many now living 
 whose lives extend over the whole of this period — and 
 during that space, what memorable changes have taken 
 place in the relations of the two countries ! Let us 
 imagine the angel of that illustrious orator and states- 
 man, when the last words of that profound and beautiful 
 speech were dying upon the air, withdrawing him from 
 the congratulations of his friends, and unfolding to him 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 47 
 
 the future progress of that country, whose growth up to 
 that period he had so felicitously sketched : " There is 
 that America, whose interests you have so well under- 
 stood and so e'oquently maintained, which, at this 
 moment, is taking measures to withdraw from the pro- 
 tection and defy the power of the mother country. But 
 mourn not that this bright jewel is destined to fall from 
 your country's crown. It is in obedience to the same 
 law of Providence which sends the full-fledged bird 
 from the nest, and the man from his father's house. 
 Man shall not be able to sever what the immutable laws 
 of Providence have joined together. The chafing chains 
 of colonial dependence shall be exchanged for ties light 
 as air, yet strong as steel. The peaceful and profitable 
 interchange of commerce — the same language — a 
 common literature — similar laws and kindred institutions 
 shall bind you together with cords which neither cold- 
 blooded policy, nor grasping selfishness, nor fratricidal 
 war shall be able to snap. Discoveries in science and 
 improvements in art shall be constantly contracting the 
 ocean which separates you, and the genius of steam 
 shall link your shores, together with a chain of iron and 
 flame. A new heritage of glory shall await your men 
 of genius in those now unpeopled solitudes. The grand 
 and lovely creations of your myriad-minded Shakespeare 
 — the majestic line of Milton — the stately energy of 
 Dryden and the compact elegance of Pope shall form 
 and train the minds of uncounted multitudes yet slum- 
 bering in the womb of the future. Her gifted and 
 educated sons shall come over to your shores with a 
 feeling akin to that which sends the Mussulman to 
 Mecca. Your St. Paul's shall kindle their devotion; 
 your Westminster Abbey shall warm their patriotism; 
 your Stratford-on-Avon and Abbotsford shall awaken 
 in their bosoms a depth of emotion in which your own 
 countrymen shall hardly be able to sympathize. Extra- 
 ordinary physical advantages and the influence of genial 
 institutions shall there give to the human race a rate 
 of increase hitherto unparalleled; but the stream, how- 
 ever much it be widened and prolonged, shall retain 
 
48 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 the character of the fountain from which it first flowed. 
 Every wave of population that gains upon that vast 
 green wilderness shall bear with it the blood, the speech 
 and the books of England, and aid in transmitting to 
 the generations that come after it, her arts, her litera- 
 ture and her laws." If this had been revealed to him, 
 would it not have required all the glow of his imagina- 
 tion and all the strength of his judgment to believe it? 
 Let us who are seeing the fulfilment of the vision utter 
 the fervent prayer that no sullen clouds of coldness or 
 estrangement may ever obscure these fair relations, and 
 that the madness of man may never mar the benevolent 
 purposes of God. 
 
 Mr. Hillard concluded by giving the following toast, 
 which was drunk standing — 
 
 The gifted minds of England — Hers by birth; ours 
 by adoption. 
 
 The president said he did not know exactly who ought 
 to respond to that sentiment. They had been taught, 
 however, by their guest, that the greatest merit was often 
 found in the byways of life, and he would therefore 
 give— 
 
 The adopted authors of England, and the author of 
 " The Highways and Byways of Old Ireland." 
 
 Thomas C. Grattan, Esq., in responding to this toast, 
 said — 
 
 Mr. President, — Always ready to obey your call, 
 always happy to respond to the voice of my eloquent 
 friend at the other extremity of the table, I cheerfully 
 rise to attempt, as best I may, the task you have assigned 
 to me. Frequently, sir, as it has been my duty to 
 perform a similar task at the public festivities of Boston, 
 the pleasure was never greater, nor did ever I feel the 
 duty lighter, than on this occasion. The many causes 
 for the pleasure I need not dilate on; and as to the task, 
 it has been almost entirely anticipated, and so ably, by 
 what has been already said in praise of the literature 
 and in honour of the genius of England, that for me to 
 dwell at any length upon the theme would be no better 
 than an ambitious attempt to emulate what I might not 
 hope to equal. 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 49 
 
 And I might sit down now, sir, but that I am not 
 able to resist the temptation of the position to which you 
 have called me. I cannot avoid saying how proud I 
 feel to have been associated by you with our glorious 
 literature. I say ours, sir, emphatically, for it is ours 
 alike, whether we be American, English or Irish. No 
 matter in what country we may have been by accident 
 born; our common language, stronger than claims of 
 birth or parentage, makes that literature our common 
 inheritance, as it is the common bond of union, which 
 has brought us here to-night, and will bind us together 
 for all time. Yes, sir, let what may happen in the 
 chances of the future — let the ties of commercial interests 
 be one by one snapped asunder — let even the charms of 
 social intercourse be torn up by the roots and scattered 
 to the winds by some political tempest, it will be but 
 for a time; for the one link of that language in which 
 we all speak and write and think will be strong enough 
 to hold firm our sympathies, in the safe anchorage of 
 literature, the glory of our respective nations, and a 
 fertile field of delight to millions who labour or who 
 sport within it. 
 
 But I must not, Mr. President, indulge further in 
 these desultory remarks, beyond touching on two special 
 reasons for acknowledging the honour of being invited 
 here to-day. The first is, sir, that I was so invited as a 
 simple citizen of that great republic of letters to which 
 so many now present belong — which knows no titles, 
 admits of neither kings nor consuls — and to have been 
 naturalized in which, as one of the humblest of its 
 citizens, is the circumstance of my life to which I look 
 back with the truest and most unalloyed satisfaction. 
 Owing to my connection with literature, the pleasure of 
 witnessing this fine social tribute to one of its brightest 
 ornaments, my pride in all that does it honour is in a 
 double degree gratified by this scene — for he who 
 receives and they who offer such a tribute are alike 
 adding flowers to the wreaths hung up at the shrine of 
 literary fame, at which we are all worshippers. 
 
 My second reason, sir, for being particularly pleased 
 at being among you to-day is that it was explicitly 
 
50 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 and considerately made known to me that I was asked 
 to make one of a company of young men — and that no 
 unlucky individual beyond the age of thirty, or there- 
 abouts — a generous latitude — had any chance of being 
 admitted. Before I received this invitation, sir, I con- 
 fess that I had some serious misgivings, some vague 
 suspicions that I had actually passed the boundary-line 
 between youth and age — a boundary-line which they on 
 its wrong side are as unwilling to acknowledge as the 
 borderers on any other boundary-line whatever. And in 
 truth, sir, I found I could not long deceive myself with 
 the notion to the contrary. But I for a while fondly 
 imagined, sir, that I might possibly succeed in deceiv- 
 ing others as to the sad reality. I first thought of 
 laying some " flattering unction " to my whiskers to 
 change their rather equivocal tints. I next thought of 
 wearing a wig — by hook or by crook endeavouring to 
 make the grey one brown ; and so, by deceiving my 
 juvenile friends on this occasion, turning Papinti's Hall 
 into another "Dotheboys Hall." 
 
 But, gentlemen, I was spared the necessity of playing 
 any of those fantastic tricks by learning who was to be 
 the president of the feast. Remembering at once the 
 many lively and youthful sallies I had so often listened 
 to from his lips, and that the very head and front of 
 my offending was his as well ; and hating, all my life, 
 to fight,* and more especially to drink, under false 
 colours, I thought I should be safe in serving under 
 the banner he hung out, and that there could be no 
 shame to England, while there was sure to be so much 
 glory to America. I had, moreover, a shrewd notion 
 that spirits of various shades would be mingled here 
 to-night; and finding that I could not claim a right to 
 muster among the black ones, I thought I would be 
 content to range myself among the white. 
 
 And I am content, gentlemen — satisfied that it is 
 little matter how soon the head grows grey so long as 
 the heart keeps green, and that mixing in scenes like 
 this is the true method to preserve that verdure of the 
 feelings which makes us indifferent to the march of 
 time, and — for a long time at least — insensible to the 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 51 
 
 approach of age. My countryman, Moore, tells us, in 
 one of his exquisite songs, that 
 
 "The best of all ways 
 To lengthen our days, 
 Is to steal a few hours from the night." 
 
 I hope, Mr. President, that under your victorious 
 auspices we shall carry out that maxim of true philo- 
 sophy to a large practical extent on this occasion; and 
 I may perhaps be allowed to add, by way of parody or 
 of parallel — and for the special consolation of the vener- 
 able gentlemen of thirty or thereabouts — that 
 
 The best way for old men to spin out life's joys, 
 Is, as oft as they can, to crack jokes with the boys. 
 
 Mr. Grattan concluded by proposing the health of 
 Richard H. Dana, Jr., author of Two Years before 
 the Mast. 
 
 The president said that, as the gentleman had served 
 so long before the mast, the company would like to see 
 him on the quarter-deck. 
 
 On appearing in compliance with the call of the presi- 
 dent, Mr. Dana was received with repeated cheers. He 
 said that nothing could have been more' unexpected to 
 him, who was among the youngest of those present, 
 than to be called up in the manner in which he had 
 been, and at so early a period in the evening. The 
 president had made an allusion to his service before the 
 mast, but he could assure those who heard him that, 
 whatever of romance might be associated with a sailor's 
 life, in his estimation not two whole years of it could 
 be compared with one moment of the society and appro- 
 bation of the friends he saw around him. It had been 
 his fortune, he said, to travel in lands little known to 
 the geographer, but it had been the fortune of their guest 
 to travel in new worlds of thought and of imagination. 
 Tracing a parallel between the discoveries of Mr. Dickens 
 in the intellectual world, which were among the greatest 
 events of the ages to which they respectively belonged, 
 Mr. Dana said that their guest had made a new era in 
 literature; and should D'Israeli undertake a continua- 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 tion of his curiosities, the most remarkable circumstance 
 among them all would be the fact that a young man, by 
 the mere power of his genius, had in a few brief years 
 so endeared himself to the people of a land not his own 
 as to make a triumphal progress through it. Without 
 detaining the company further, except to thank them 
 for the kind manner in which they had received the com- 
 pliment which had been given to himself, Mr. Dana 
 said he would conclude by proposing — 
 
 The Columbus of modem literature — We welcome 
 h'im to the new world, who has himself opened new 
 worlds to us. 
 
 The president said that after the personal attack 
 which Mr. Grattan had made upon his hair, it was 
 hardly fair for him to make so direct a shot at his young 
 friend, Mr. Dana. It was what Sam Weller would call 
 "addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said ven they 
 not only took him from his native land, but made him 
 talk the English language arterwards." While he was 
 on the subject of Mr. Weller's sayings, he would add 
 that another extract from the works of his young friend 
 (Mr. Dickens) had been handed to him, which he would 
 read: "You've got a pretty voice, a very soft eye, and 
 a very strong memory " — " you know forty-seven songs. 
 Forty-seven's your number. Let me hear one of 'em 
 — the best. Give me a song this minute," Dr. Holmes. 
 
 The call of the President was so strongly seconded 
 by the cheers of the assembly that the gentleman pointed 
 at (Dr. O. W. Holmes) could not resist it; and, without 
 a single excuse (thus making himself an exception to 
 all the singers that have gone before him), favoured the 
 company with the following original song — 
 
 SONG {air: Gramachree) 
 
 The stars their early vigils keep, 
 
 The silent hours are near 
 When drooping eyes forget to weep — 
 
 Yet still we linger here. 
 And what — the passing churl may ask — 
 
 Can calm such wondrous power, 
 That Toil forgets his wonted task, 
 
 And Love his promised hour? 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 53 
 
 The Irish harp no longer thrills, 
 
 Or breathes a fainter tone — 
 The clarion blast from Scotland's hills, 
 
 Alas ! no more is blown ; 
 And passion's burning lip bewails 
 
 Her Harold's wasted fire, 
 Still lingering o'er the dust that veils 
 
 The Lord of England's lyre. 
 
 But grieve not o'er its broken strings, 
 
 Nor think its soul hath died, 
 While yet the lark at heaven's gate sings, 
 
 As once o'er Avon's side ; 
 While gentle summer sheds her bloom, 
 
 And dewy blossoms wave 
 Alike o'er Juliet's storied tomb 
 
 And Nelly's nameless grave. 
 
 Thou glorious island of the sea ! 
 
 Though wide the wasting flood 
 That parts our distant land from thee — 
 
 We claim thy generous blood ; 
 Nor o'er thy far horizon springs 
 
 One hallowed star of fame, 
 But kindles, like an angel's wings, 
 
 Our western skies in flame ! 
 
 The president said that they had been told by the 
 president of Harvard College that it was a very good 
 thing for a man to carry his toast in his pocket, lest his 
 memory might fail. He had so far acted upon that 
 principle as to prepare a toast which he had hoped would 
 draw a speech from His Excellency Governor Davis, but 
 he unfortunately had kept it in his pocket too long, for 
 the Governor had been compelled, on account of indis- 
 position, to retire at an early hour. The toast was — 
 
 The political pilots of Old England and of New 
 England — Though their titles may be different, they 
 observe the same luminaries in the literary, and steer 
 by the same stars in the moral, horizon. 
 
 For what they had lost in his remissness in not read- 
 ing the toast before, he said he could only console 
 them by another maxim from Sam Weller's philosophy : 
 "It's all over and can't be helped, and that's one con- 
 solation, as they always say in Turkey ven they cuts 
 the wrong man's head off." 
 
54 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 The president now gave — 
 
 Washington Allston — He who unites the genius of 
 the poet, the pencil of the painter, and the pen of the 
 novelist; his name shall glow for ever upon the eternal 
 canvas. 
 
 Mr. Allston arose immediately, and in a low but firm 
 tone, said — 
 
 Mr. President — I hope my late illness, from which 
 I have hardly recovered, will be a sufficient apology for 
 my not attempting a speech. Were I to make one it 
 would be my maiden speech, which can hardly be 
 expected from one at my time of life. I have been, 
 lately trying to bottle up some of the healthful spirits 
 of our friend Barnaby, which I had hoped would have 
 served on this occasion; but I found, to my sorrow, 
 that our friend Grip has wickedly uncorked all the 
 bottles. Since, then, I cannot make a speech, I beg 
 leave to propose a toast — 
 
 The prophetic raven — who only spoke to posterity, 
 when he cried, " Never say die, " to Barnaby Rudge. 
 
 Gentlemen, said the president, should you like to 
 hear what Sam Weller has to say in reply to the 
 speech of our friend? It is, "Werry glad to see you, 
 sir, indeed, and hope our acquaintance may be a long 
 one, as the gentleman said to the fi' pun note." 
 
 In reply to a sentiment in honour of the merchants 
 of Boston, J, Thomas Stevenson, Esq., one of the vice- 
 presidents, gave the following address — 
 
 Mr. President, — Nothing short of your direct call 
 upon me would have induced me to undertake to answer 
 for the merchants here; for I am fully aware that your 
 committee of arrangements honoured me with a seat 
 here to-night, not in expectation that I could contribute 
 to the literary treat of the evening, but from a desire on 
 their part to show a kind respect to the commercial com- 
 munity. The gentlemen composing that committee 
 know that our figures are not figures of speech — that our 
 notes are not commentaries — that our letters are not 
 belles-lettres — that our stores are not stores of know- 
 ledge — and that our folios are rich with nothing, unless 
 perhaps with legendary lore. 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 55 
 
 But as you have called upon me, I will say one word 
 in obedience alike to that call and to the feelings which 
 the present occasion provokes. 
 
 It is a subject of real congratulation that the literary 
 men of the old world are evincing a desire to acquaint 
 themselves by personal observation with the institu- 
 tions of our country, and with the habits of our 
 people. Nothing could do more to remove any unjust 
 impressions which may exist; and we may say, without 
 subjecting ourselves to the suspicion of vain-boasting, 
 that he who visits us with an open mind, and takes a 
 liberal view of all that is presented to him here, will 
 find much to interest him in the seeming contradictions 
 by which he will be surrounded. Let it be my task to 
 tell our guest of some things which he will find here. 
 
 He will find us a very inviting people. He will find 
 hosts of peculiarities to enjoy, and we will trust that he 
 may enjoy the peculiarities of the hosts which he finds. 
 
 He will find us full of paradoxes. For he will find 
 the great problem of self-government approaching its 
 solution — the great experiment of democracy, monarch- 
 like, claiming the crown for its issue. 
 
 He will find our army a militia — never in camp, yet 
 always "intent" "upon duty." 
 
 He will find the great cause of temperance advancing 
 with rapid strides, and every drunkard brandied with 
 disgrace. 
 
 He will find a judiciary respected by all, excepting 
 perhaps at the present moment those who have been in 
 the habit of standing at the bar. And if he should go 
 into one of our courts, he will find the bench occupied 
 by a "warring of wits." 
 
 He will find our medical schools vieing with the 
 pulpit in delivering us from false doctoring. He will 
 find the means of education within the reach of all, 
 through our common schools, while we are boasting all 
 the time that they are uncommon schools. 
 
 He will find the religious sentiment developing itself 
 in all its forms, from the rough madness of mormon- 
 ism to the polished insanity of transcendentalism — 
 good in all, with a prior right in none. 
 
56 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 He will find no House of Lords here ; but most of us 
 lords of houses and our commons amply stored with 
 provisions for the support of the constitution. He will 
 find all men peers and then may wonder how it is so 
 many of our dames are peerless. 
 
 He will find want purely mechanical — pinching only 
 through the instrumentality of some vice. He will find 
 no pillory here, but a great variety of stocks; and will 
 see whole states setting examples of self-sacrifice, by 
 turning a deaf ear to the demands of interest; and if he 
 go into our non-specie-paying states, he will find no 
 "coigne of vantage" there. And if it be not too far- 
 fetched, he may go to Carolina to study the rice of this 
 great empire, and thence hasten to Niagara to con- 
 template its tremendous fall. And he may be shocked 
 by the ungrammatical assurance of those of us who are 
 ' here to-night, that the present time is pastime, and that 
 we ought to parse the bottle without declining it. 
 
 These are things, sir, which every man may find. 
 But if he be one who has recalled literature from 
 mysterious wanderings in the clouds, to deal with and 
 adorn the realities of life — if he be one whose works 
 will not follow him simply because they have preceded 
 him here — if he be one who has touched the spring of 
 human action and sounded the very depths of the soul — 
 if he be one whose genuine wit has made us laugh till 
 we have cried, while his real pathos has wrung out the 
 unwilling tears until their very sources were dry — if 
 he be one who has exposed to us the enormities of 
 obscure vice, while he has cleared away the rubbish 
 from the brilliants of humble virtue, he will find here a 
 welcome and a home. 
 
 And, Mr. President, if you will allow to me only time 
 to offer a toast, he shall find how soon, in this country 
 of rapid growths, the unpractised talker can become a 
 finished speaker. 
 
 Mr. President, — I see a friend from whom I wish to 
 hear, and so will propose — 
 
 The U.S. District Attorney — The right hand of the 
 law is raised for no sinister purpose. 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 57 
 
 To this play upon his name, Franklin Dexter, Esq., 
 replied — 
 
 Mr. President, — Being but little given to utter dinner 
 speeches, I hardly know how to answer the punning 
 attack upon my name from my friend at the lower end 
 of the table. While I thank him for the kind but un- 
 merited compliment it conveys, I should feel tempted, 
 since his own name will not admit of any but an equi- 
 vocal expression of my respect, to attempt a return in 
 kind upon that of our distinguished guest, which is not 
 safe from a very bad pun, when we ask him how he has 
 been able thus to excite all this enthusiasm in a strange 
 people. But as I doubt not he has heretofore suffered 
 in that way, I forbear; and being myself a man more 
 punned against than punning, I will only take the occa- 
 sion seriously to express my participation in the general 
 joy of the whole table. 
 
 Our satisfaction at this meeting is not the mere grati- 
 fication of curiosity; though we might well be curious 
 to know one who has himself known so much of the 
 various conditions and humours of life. But, in addition 
 to the pleasure of his personal acquaintance, we have 
 that of believing that the interchange of visits between 
 the distinguished literary men of the two countries must 
 have a beneficial effect upon their most important rela- 
 tions. No class of men have so much influence over the 
 feelings and opinions of their countrymen as popular 
 authors. It is within our recent recollection that the 
 most unkind feelings towards England have been pro- 
 duced here by the wanton attacks of some of our dis- 
 tinguished authors upon the character of her whole 
 population and institutions; and it is by no means 
 certain that our political relations with her have not been 
 materially affected by so very inadequate a cause. In 
 this view it is a source of great satisfaction to see those 
 who lead the popular sentiment in the two countries 
 becoming better acquainted and more closely united; 
 and let me offer you as a toast — 
 
 The Universal Brotherhood of Literature — a pacifi- 
 cator of the nations. 
 
58 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 The president here read the following letter from the 
 author of Ferdinand and Isabella — 
 
 Bedford Street, January 21, 1842. 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I beg 'leave to acknowledge my sense of the 
 honour you have done me in inviting me to be present 
 at your proposed dinner to Mr. Dickens. Be assured 
 it would give me sincere pleasure to join with you in 
 this homage to this distinguished foreigner, whose writ- 
 ings have secured him such deserved consideration in 
 the Republic of Letters. But the irritable state of my 
 eyes, which would be sure to suffer from the excitement 
 and heat of such an occasion, compels me to forgo the 
 pleasure I should otherwise have had, of sharing in your 
 festivities. My spirit, however, will be with you — and if 
 you will allow me, I will propose the following senti- 
 ment — 
 
 The Alchymy of Genius — which can extract truth 
 from fiction, wisdom from folly, and pure morality from 
 vice itself. 
 
 With much respect, gentlemen, 
 
 Believe me, your obliged and obedient servant, 
 
 Wm. H. Prescott. 
 
 To G. T. Bigelow, Esq.; N. Hale, Jr., Esq.; Jona. 
 F. Barrett, Esq.; Fred. W. Crocker, Esq.; W. W. 
 Story, Esq., Committee of Invitation. 
 
 The president now gave the following toast — 
 The Historian of America — He who has portrayed 
 the discovery, and he who has illustrated the progress 
 of our native land. 
 
 George Bancroft, Esq., being thus alluded to, rose 
 and delivered a very eloquent and soul-stirring address, 
 in the course of which he said he recognized the young 
 men of the country as the highest tribunal before which 
 aspirants for honour could plead. They are to take our 
 places, and make up the judgment on our labours. 
 Their regard, their good opinion, their generous sym- 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 59 
 
 pathy was the best reward. He recalled rapidly the 
 names of many, who in early life gained highest dis- 
 tinction; and paid a warm tribute to the guest of the 
 day, who had put so much heart into all that he did, 
 as to make himself, while a young man, not only world 
 renowned, but world beloved. 
 
 The occasion, too, was auspicious as a tribute 
 generally to letters. To two men who had come up 
 to Paris possessed of no other power than that of writing 
 French well, France had paid the tribute of highest 
 stations; the purpose to-day was to do honour to one 
 who rested his right to public respect solely on his 
 genius, and the noble use he had made of it. 
 
 Yet, Mr. Bancroft observed, the regard manifested 
 for the guest was a homage also to the spirit of popular 
 liberty. The great tendency of modern civilization was 
 everywhere towards the increase of the power of the 
 people, the recognition of the claims of every man to 
 franchises and a share of authority. The movement in 
 the world of letters corresponded; a writer who joined 
 the rare gifts of humour, pathos and creative power, had 
 made fiction the vehicle of a defence of the rights of the 
 humblest, and by the force of his talent compelled the 
 world to follow humanity even to the poor-house, and 
 acknowledge that it could be redeemed even from the 
 haunts of infamy. 
 
 Then, too, the occasion was a symbol of a kind of 
 union among the many millions who have the English 
 for their mother-tongue. Mr. Bancroft repelled the idea 
 that England was to make its power recognized by the 
 sound of its martial airs following the sun in its course ; 
 yet he exulted in the thought that in every zone the 
 English is the united tongue of nations ripening for 
 freedom; that under every meridian its literature is the 
 delight of the gay and the solace of the sad. 
 
 Nor was this union confined to language only. Mr. 
 Bancroft pointed out the common right of America to a 
 large part of English literature. He observed how many 
 of their greatest minds had expressed the heartiest interest 
 in the New World, and had been most able defenders 
 of the principles on which our institutions are founded. 
 
60 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 In particular, allusion was made to Lord Byron. 
 The purpose he so often expressed of visiting this 
 country, the political aspect of his writings, his scoff- 
 ing at the vices of false civilization, his zeal for the 
 overthrow of abuses and the progress of reform; his 
 hearty sympathy with this country as shown in his 
 giving a place in his writings to the backwoodsman as 
 well as to Washington. 
 
 Mr. Bancroft, in conclusion, compared the enthusiasm 
 with which Byron's works had been welcomed all the 
 world over, with the tribute paid to genius now, and 
 gave — 
 
 The memory of Lord Byron — Light lie the turf on 
 the ashes of the poet who was ever the adversary of 
 tyranny over mind. 
 
 The speech and sentiment of Mr. Bancroft were 
 received with enthusiastic applause. 
 
 When silence was restored, the president inquired if 
 gentlemen remembered the excursion made by Mr. 
 Pickwick and his companions, Snodgrass and Winkle, 
 to Dingley Dell, and the particulars of that melancholy 
 ride? Presuming that they did, he would not detain 
 them with a narration of them, but would merely read 
 the pathetic words of Mr. Pickwick, in reference to the 
 horse which he could not get rid of on that occasion — 
 
 "'It's like a dream,' ejaculated Mr. Pickwick, 'a 
 hideous dream. The idea of a man's walking about all 
 day with a dreadful horse that he can't get rid of.' " 
 
 Gentlemen (continued the president), I will give you — 
 the mayor — 
 
 The horse that Mr. Pickwick could not get rid of, 
 and the mayor that nobody even wants to get rid of. 
 
 This toast called up the Hon. Jonathan Chapman, the 
 mayor, who made the following humorous reply — 
 
 More than tongue can tell, sir, even if it had ages 
 to wag in, am I obliged for the very complimentary 
 character of the sentiment you have just announced. It 
 was so disinterested — such a spontaneous, irrepressible 
 tribute on your part, to unmitigated merit on mine, that 
 from very considerably deeper down than the bottom 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 61 
 
 of my heart, I thank you. But no, sir, I am not quite 
 as green as that. The plain English, as I judge from 
 what has preceded, or, to speak more properly, the 
 familiar Latin of the whole matter is this : " Expectatur," 
 — I will not say, "oratio," for that is too pretending a 
 title, but " dissertatio in lingua vernacula a Chapman." 
 
 ,You will be disappointed, however, sir. With what- 
 ever authority another individual whose name you bear 
 might utter these cabalistic words, I recognize no such 
 authority in you. I shall attempt no dissertation, and 
 that for two of Mr. Weller senior's reasons : first, 
 because I can't, and second, because I won't. 
 
 I am aware that I am indebted to the office which I 
 hold, and not to any personal claims of my own, for 
 the privilege of participating in this beautiful scene. 
 Yes, sir, one of the beautiful amongst human things — 
 the spontaneous, heartfelt tribute of the young men of 
 one country, not to the rank and wealth, but to the 
 mingled intellect and soul of one who, though yet 
 young, has communed with and touched more hearts 
 than ages of common life would permit, and who, in 
 whatever land he may have been born, will find a 
 welcome and a home wherever there is a heart to beat, 
 or where a spark of humanity lingers. 
 
 I say that I owe to my office the privilege of being 
 here. Permit me, therefore, to draw on my office for 
 all that I have to say to-night. And let me just premise 
 that it is one of its principal duties to receive com- 
 plaints, for this is a complaining world, and the quarter 
 in which we live is by no means, an exception. 
 
 As I was seated in my chair this morning — not 
 asleep, and therefore it could not have been a dream — 
 there entered two persons, evidently strangers. The one 
 was an elderly gentleman, with a mild and beaming 
 countenance; the other much younger, and evidently 
 one of those peculiar personages, half companion, half 
 servant, whom you always find attending upon good 
 old gentlemen. Though I had never seen them before 
 in person, they seemed like old acquaintances. They 
 interested me at once, and I have no doubt they will 
 
62 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 this whole assembly, when I say that one of them was 
 no less a personage than the honourable Samuel Pick- 
 wick and the other by no means dishonourable Mr. 
 Samuel Weller. 
 
 Yes, sir, there stood in the mayor's office, in this 
 city, to-day, the great and good Mr. Pickwick — with 
 his bald head so glossy that, if he could turn his own 
 eyes upon it, he would need no looking-glass to make 
 his toilet — with the same "circular spectacles" which 
 he always wore, only that one glass had been knocked 
 out in the immense rush to embrace him immediately 
 upon his landing — clothed in those immortal tights and 
 gaiters which are proof positive of the modern transcend- 
 ental doctrine that a man is nothing without his tailor 
 — there stood, in short, that illustrious individual whom 
 no description can describe one half so well as the simple 
 epithet, "Mr. Pickwick." And just in the rear, yet so 
 nearly by his side as to seem to say, "almost your 
 equal, but not quite," stood honest, funny Samuel 
 Weller, grasping his hat so closely under his arm that 
 he seemed to be holding on upon himself — as if he 
 feared he were in a land of kidnappers. 
 
 I was about to approach these distinguished visitors, 
 when Mr. Pickwick advanced, evidently charged with 
 a speech which would brook no delay in the delivery, 
 and placing himself in his peculiar attitude, "with his 
 left hand gracefully concealed behind his coat-tails, 
 and his right gracefully raised in the air to aid his 
 flowing declamation," at once commenced. With your 
 permission, I will endeavour to repeat what he said — 
 
 "Mr. Mayor," said he, "the love of one's friend is 
 natural to man, and of one's benefactors, most par- 
 ticularly natural. You love yours, and I cannot deny 
 that I am influenced by the same tender feelings. There 
 has come to this country, and is now in your city, the 
 youthful but learned editor of the Transactions of the 
 Pickwick Club, of which I have the honour to be the 
 General Chairman, as will appear by the letters 
 G.C.M.P.C. upon my card, which I have the honour 
 to hand you. I stand in a peculiar relation to this man, 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 63 
 
 one never known before; indeed, a truly Pickwickian 
 relation, namely, that he first created me, and then I 
 made him. He is, too, the choice spirit of our cluh. 
 I love him. Mr. Winkle loves him. Mr. Tupman 
 loves him. Mr. Snodgrass loves him. All love him. 
 Indeed, we never should have consented that he should 
 visit this strange country unless some of us had been 
 secretly sent to take care of him. For we have learned 
 that you are a curious people here — that, as it has been 
 said, whom the gods love die young, so whom the 
 Americans love they utterly kill with kindness." 
 
 "Yes," interrupted Mr. Weller, unable longer to 
 repress his feelings, "it is currently reported in our 
 circles that, when the Americans fancies a stranger, 
 they makes him into weal pie, and dewours him." 
 
 "Hush, Samuel," said Mr. Pickwick; "don't use hard 
 words. Never get into a passion, particularly in foreign 
 countries, where you don't know the customs. But, 
 Mr. Mayor, this is my source of trouble, and I come 
 to complain that your people seem determined to ex- 
 tinguish our editor. I have been trying to get at him 
 for a week, but have not dared to trust my gaiters 
 amidst the crowds that surround him. I tremble when 
 I hear of two dinners in one day, and four suppers in 
 one night. I fear you have designs upon his life, nay, 
 that you mean to eat him up." 
 
 "Sir," interrupted I, "do I understand you aright? 
 Do you mean to insinuate that the American people 
 are cannibals ? Do you use your words in their common 
 sense ? " 
 
 "O no, sir," replied Mr. Pickwick, resuming his 
 blandest expression. " I respect and honour the American 
 people. I mean to say they are cannibals only in a 
 Pickwickian point of view. But, besides my personal 
 attachment, I desire this man's life to be spared, for the 
 sake of science,. and for the cause of humanity, and of 
 the club. Think not that the club has been sleeping, 
 whilst its editor has been visiting the poor-houses and 
 hovels, touching your hearts and making you better 
 men, by his truthful descriptions. We have been 
 
64 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 gathering materials, and are doing so still. Even your 
 own country may furnish some of these materials; — 
 not, however, I assure you, for the purposes of bold 
 and coarse personalities, either of praise or of censtire, — 
 but for the delicate and beautiful touches of character, 
 — those life-like and soul-stirring descriptions — those 
 pictures of humanity, which show that, behind the 
 drapery of human forms and distinctions, the true 
 element of a man is a warm and beating heart. These 
 are the purposes for which we are at work — purposes, 
 sir, for which, though I, Samuel Pickwick, say it, the 
 editor of the Pickwick Club has no superior upon the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 "I pray you therefore," said he, rising to a pitch of 
 enthusiasm which almost choked his utterance, "I pray 
 you to protect him. Let him not be overrun. Let him 
 not be devoured. Spare him to return again to the halls 
 of the club. Spare him, sir, and the blessings of 
 Winkle, Tupman, Snodgrass, Pickwick and the whole 
 race of Pickwickians, shall be on you and yours." 
 
 Having thus uttered himself, and leaving his 
 respects for you, sir, and for this assembly, he took his 
 leave. 
 
 Feeling myself most particularly honoured by this 
 interview, I give you as a sentiment — 
 
 The Hon. Samuel Pickwick, and the Pickwick Club, 
 and its editor — "May they never say die." 
 
 " And when they next do ride abroad, 
 May we be there to see." 
 
 Mr. J. T. Stevenson, in relation to the fears expressed 
 by Mr. Pickwick, as reported by the mayor, that the 
 editor of the Pickwick Papers would be extinguished 
 in America, hoped that at any rate he would not be put 
 out by anything that might take place on the present 
 occasion. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Field ("Straw") being called upon for a 
 song, he gave the following original and characteristic 
 production, to a popular air — 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 65 
 
 THE WERY LAST OBSERWATIONS OF WELLER, 
 SENIOR 
 
 Remember vot I says, Boz — 
 
 You're going to cross the sea ; 
 A blessed vay avays, Boz, 
 
 To vild Amerikey ; 
 A blessed set of savages, 
 
 As books of travels tells ; 
 No guv'ner's eye to watch you, Boz, 
 
 Nor even Samivel's. 
 
 They've 'stablished a steam line, Boz, 
 
 A wi'lent innowation ; 
 It's nothing but a trap to 'tice 
 
 Our floatirt population. 
 A set of blessed cannibals — 
 
 My warnin' I repeats — 
 For eVry vun they catches,' Boz, 
 
 Vithout ado they eats. 
 
 They'll eat you, Boz, in Boston ! and 
 They'll eat you in New York ! 
 
 Wherever caught, they'll play a bles- 
 sed game of knife and fork ! v 
 
 There's prayers in Boston now that Cu- 
 nard's biler may not burst ; 
 
 Because their savage hope it is, 
 Dear Boz, to eat you first. 
 
 They lately caught a prince, Boz, 
 
 A livin' vun, from France; 
 And all the blessed nation, Boz, 
 
 Assembles for a dance! 
 They spares him thro' the ev'nin', Boz, 
 
 But vith a hungry stare, 
 Contrives a early supper, tho', 
 
 And then they eats him there ! 
 
 Just think of all of yours, Boz, 
 
 Devoured by them already ; 
 Avoid their greedy lures, Boz, 
 
 Their appetites is steady ; 
 For years they've been a feastin', Boz 
 
 Nor paid for their repast ; 
 And von't they make a blessed feast 
 
 Ven they catches you at last ! 
 
66 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Lord! how they gobbled " Pickwick"— fate 
 
 Which "Oliver" befel ! 
 And watering mouths met " Nic " and " Smike,' 
 
 And watering eyes as well ! 
 Poor " Nell " was not too tender, Boz, 
 . Nor ugly " Quilp " too tough ; 
 And " Barnaby " — I'm blest if e'er 
 
 I thinks they'll have enough ! 
 
 I'll tell you what you does, Boz, 
 
 Since go it seems you vill ; 
 If you would not expose, Boz, 
 
 Yourself their maws to fill ; 
 Just "Marryatt" or "Trollope," Boz, 
 
 Vithin your pocket hem ; 
 For blow me if I ever thinks 
 
 They'll ever swallow them ! 
 
 This song excited peals of laughter at every line, and 
 at the conclusion there was a spontaneous outburst, 
 which proved how universal was the sentiment ex- 
 pressed in the last stanza, in relation to two of the most 
 amiable individuals who have honoured this country 
 with a visit. The president complimented the author 
 by another draft upon the sage observations of Mr. 
 Weller— 
 
 "'Ah,' said the little man, 'you're a wag, ain't 
 you?'" 
 
 " ' My eldest brother was troubled with that complaint,' 
 said Sam ; ' it may be catching ; I used to sleep with 
 him.'" 
 
 The president here read the following letter from 
 Washington Irving — 
 
 Sunnyside, January 25, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I have this moment received your letter of the 
 17th instant, which has probably been detained in New 
 York. I regret extremely that circumstances put it out 
 of my power to accept your very obliging invitation to 
 the dinner about to be given to Mr. Dickens. 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 67 
 
 Accept, gentlemen, my best thanks for this very 
 nattering mark of good-will, and believe me, 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Your obliged and humble servant, 
 
 Washington Irving. 
 
 ' Messrs. George Tyler Bigelow, Nathan Hale, Jr., 
 Jonathan Fay Barrett, Frederick W. Crocker, W. W. 
 Story, Committee of Invitation. 
 
 The following toast was then proposed — 
 
 Geoffrey Crayon — May he who has exhibited the 
 sunny side of Old England long live on the "Sunny- 
 side " of America. 
 
 The president next gave — 
 
 Richard H. Dana, Sr. — The glory of fathers is their 
 children, and the glory of children is their fathers. 
 
 Mr. Dana, in acknowledging this compliment, spoke 
 of the sacred nature of the allusions which induced him 
 to rise, and added that, like many others, he felt a degree 
 of gratitude to the distinguished guest of the evening. 
 From his writings he had derived joy, hour after hour ; 
 and even more than that, in reading many of his pas- 
 sages he had felt a sorrow that was dearer than joy. 
 He then referred to some of the lighter characteristics 
 of the productions of Mr. Dickens, and concluded by 
 humorously observing that as talking was rather dry 
 work, he would take the liberty of tendering to Mr. 
 Dickens Bob Sawyer's invitation in Bob Sawyer's words 
 — of asking him "if he would take something to drink." 
 
 The president here read the following letters from 
 Drs. Channing and Stuart — 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I thank you for your invitation to the dinner to 
 be given to Mr. Dickens. I have many sympathies with 
 you and with the gentlemen whom you represent, in 
 regard to this distinguished writer, but it will not be in 
 my power to accept your invitation. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 William E. Channing. 
 To the Committee of Invitation. 
 F 2 
 
68 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Andover, January 22, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your note of the 17th inst. reached me yesterday. 
 I thank you most sincerely for the kind invitation which 
 it contains. Most gladly would I accept it if circum- 
 stances permitted. Mr. Dickens's works have been a 
 favourite source of resort for me, when I wished to relax 
 from graver study. There is so much in them to excite 
 the imagination, to interest the feelings, and to make 
 man kinder and more beneficent to his fellow-man, that 
 I have come to entertain a high regard for the author, 
 and a lively interest in his success and future usefulness. 
 Most eagerly would I embrace any proper occasion to 
 make acquaintance with him, and to do him honour. 
 
 I doubt not that you will enjoy "the feast of reason 
 and the flow of soul." But my present engagements, 
 and the state of my health, forbid me to accept your 
 friendly proposal. In spirit I shall be present with you, 
 and with my whole soul give a most hearty welcome to 
 Mr. Dickens on his entrance into a new world. We 
 have material enough here for him to construct several 
 new edifices, perhaps some with which he may rear a 
 temple that will perpetuate his name among us. 
 
 I never write toasts, much less do I drink them. But 
 if I could be present with you, I should be greatly 
 tempted to volunteer the following — 
 
 The Star from the East, which has thrilled so many 
 hearts with joy by its radiance, and scattered light over 
 so many dark places filled with the habitation of cruelty 
 — May equal splendour attend its remaining course, and 
 its setting be in a heaven of unclouded glory ! 
 I am, gentlemen, with much respect, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Moses Stuart. 
 
 Messrs. G. T. Bigelow, N. Hale, Jr., and others. 
 
 The president gave — 
 
 The Clergy of New England — There may be among 
 them differences of faith in religion, but no difference 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 69 
 
 of feeling concerning the great interests of humanity ; — 
 and called on the Rev. Dr. Palfrey, who responded with 
 great felicity, and in the course of his remarks argued 
 in favour of the passage of laws in England and 
 America, securing to the authors of each nation the 
 profits of their works in both, and concluded with the 
 following sentiment — 
 
 Mutual justice between nations, extending to the 
 mutual protection of the fabrics of the mind. 
 
 The president, after alluding to the ingenious ex- 
 pedient practised by that most noted "sawbones," Dr. 
 Robert Sawyer, to attract the public attention when just 
 entering upon his professional life — the leaving of an 
 empty bottle at all the houses in his neighbourhood, " by 
 mistake " — gave — 
 
 The medical ■profession — They have left off the 
 practice of sending around empty bottles for their own 
 profit, and are doing all in their power to prevent other 
 people from sending round full ones for their comfort. 
 
 Dr. Bigelow being called on, responded to this toast 
 as follows — 
 
 Mr. Chairman— I confess that I do not perceive in the 
 present exigency any very urgent occasion for calling 
 in the services of the medical profession. It seems to 
 me that we are surrounded by good looks and good 
 spirits, and, as far as we may trust appearances, there 
 has been no especial lack of good appetites. And if I 
 were permitted to extend a little further my medical 
 report on the condition of the present meeting, I should 
 say that the pulse of this assembly beats with but one 
 measure, and that the tongues which have been put 
 forth on this occasion are certainly of the smoothest 
 description. 
 
 I might proceed further with my professional remarks, 
 but find myself forestalled by the chairman, who, in his 
 introductory speech, has informed the meeting that a 
 foreign practitioner has arrived among us, and that he 
 "has been giving us medicines." If it be so, sir, my 
 occupation is gone. Nevertheless, I shall not exhibit 
 any professional jealousy, nor shall I favour the pro- 
 
70 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 position which has been made this evening, to deliver 
 over the new visitor to be "eaten by cannibals." The 
 worst I wish him is that, when he is again invited to 
 dine, he may not have to "eat his own words" upon 
 quite so large a scale as he has done this evening. 
 
 The chairman has not enlightened us upon the char- 
 acter of the newly-discovered medicine, whether it be 
 poppy or mandragora, or some more potent drug. But 
 if I may risk a conjecture, he must mean a certain 
 foreign composition, which has lately been imported in 
 the form of papers, bearing the stamp and label of 
 Pickwick & Co. This is a very good medicine, sir, and 
 has many things to recommend it. In the first place, 
 it is very accessible, being placarded in all our shop 
 windows, and kept in every man's house. It is also 
 economical, for a little of it goes a long way, and it is 
 acknowledged by all to be "very filling for the price." 
 Furthermore, sir, it is very convenient, for it does not 
 require the old prudential precaution, "when taken to 
 be well shaken," for those who take it are very sure to 
 shake themselves. 
 
 But, sir, like all other agreeable stimulants, its use 
 requires caution. It is found that those who resort to it 
 are very apt to fall into an habitual indulgence. The 
 victims of this practice are not unfrequently confined 
 to their houses; they grow indifferent to objects around 
 them; the muscles of their faces are affected by spas- 
 modic movements; and, finally, they fall into convul- 
 sions. And the worst of it is, sir, that we have no 
 remedy for the evil, nor efficient means of preventing 
 it. My excellent friend at the other end of the table has 
 talked about temperance measures, but if we propose a 
 total abstinence society, nobody will sign the pledge. 
 And if we look around at those who are sipping at this 
 fountain in hopes to influence the moderate drinkers, 
 they will tell us there are no such persons to be found. 
 And when we threaten them with the serious conse- 
 quences which must follow their infatuation, they tell 
 us that, whatever the consequences may be, they are 
 certainly anything but serious- 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 71 
 
 In short, Mr. Chairman, I fear there is no such thing 
 as resisting this tide of popular sentiment. For how 
 can we expect to influence an excited multitude, with 
 scarce a sober man among them. Despairing, therefore, 
 to produce reform among so incorrigible a set, or even 
 to effect any considerable diversion in our favour, when 
 the author of the mischief has made all the diversion 
 himself, it only remains for us to succumb with as much 
 dignity as we may, and I shall only stipulate for your 
 permission to deliver a parting opinion in the form of a 
 toast. 
 
 The readers of Pickwick — Always certain to have their 
 own way, for they are always certain to be the majority. 
 
 The president said that as he had taken the liberty 
 to allude to a distinguished member of the medical pro- 
 fession, he could not incur the responsibility of neglect- 
 ing Sampson Brass, Esq., "an honourable member of 
 the legal profession — the first profession in this country, 
 sir, or in any other country, or in any of the planets that 
 shine above us at night, and are supposed to be in- 
 habited." And, speaking of the law, he said the peculiar 
 position of his friend at the lower end of the hall (Mr. 
 Loring, vice-president, who had Judge Warren on one 
 side and W. H. Gardiner, Esq., on the other) brought 
 to his mind another of Mr. Weller's observations. 
 
 "Battledore and Shuttlecock's a very good game, when 
 you ain't the shuttlecock, and two lawyers the battle- 
 dores, in which case it gets too excitin' to be pleasant." 
 
 Mr. Loring, for the purpose of calling up one of the 
 gentlemen alluded to, gave — 
 
 Our old colony — She has given us the best laws, the 
 best venison, and the best judges of both. 
 
 (We have no report of Judge Warren's remarks, except 
 the following sketch.) 
 
 Judge Warren said that he had a right to complain of 
 this personal attack upon him by the president and vice- 
 president, as he had good reason to believe that he 
 should be permitted to enjoy this occasion in peace, and 
 without being called upon to travel out of the path which 
 his profession and office prescribed to him ; but the con.- 
 
72 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 nection between law and venison was not very apparent, 
 though it was true that they were both dear, and both 
 the better when well digested; and it might be that this 
 and other resemblances had given fraternity to those 
 legal veterans John Doe and Richard Roe. 
 
 He then adverted to the difficulties which any one 
 must encounter in attempting to speak upon any subject 
 here; in discoursing upon fine arts in the presence of 
 Washington Allison ; upon novels and romance when 
 Mr. Grattan has presumed to come among us young 
 men ; upon history where Mr. Bancroft happened to be ; 
 or upon any literary and scientific topic under the eye 
 of the President of the University. He could therefore 
 content himself with the sweeping and time-honoured 
 declaration that he had made diligent preparation for a 
 speech, but had been anticipated and plagiarized by 
 those who had preceded him. 
 
 He then said that while engaged in his legal studies 
 the case of Bardell v. Pickwick (3 Dickens's Reports, 
 245, one of the best reported cases to be found in the 
 books) had not escaped his notice. He there found that 
 Mr. Justice Stareleigh was described as "a most par- 
 ticularly short judge," from which he inferred that 
 brevity was regarded as a great excellence in judges, 
 and that any great degree of length would, on this 
 occasion, lead to a repetition of the pathetic inquiry of 
 Mr. Weller, Senior, "Vy worn't there a alibi?" 
 
 He concluded by offering, as he said, a toast, which 
 had as much connection with what he had said as would 
 be expected between an impromptu speech and a 
 prepared sentiment. 
 
 The injustice of America — She denies to England the 
 right to search American ships, but insists, as among 
 her dearest privileges, upon her right of searching in 
 British books. 
 
 It having been suggested that the other battledore 
 remained, W. H. Gardiner, Esq., arose and addressed 
 the company at some length, and in an eloquent manner. 
 He spoke of the relations existing hetween America and 
 England, and denied that there was any ground to appre- 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 73 
 
 hend any rupture between the two countries. He treated 
 with scorn the gasconading of silly, vile and prejudiced 
 people on the borders of the neighbouring British pro- 
 vinces. He said that the Peel administration had taken 
 a cordial step towards an amicable termination of the 
 Boundary question, and he had no doubt it would be 
 met in the same spirit by the Webster administration. 
 He gave as a toast — 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon race — Though politically divided, 
 essentially united; its union is prized above all price, 
 save one, the price of honour. 
 
 The president gave — 
 
 The -patent Boz medicines — They ought not to be 
 administered in homoeopathic doses. 
 
 Dr. O. W. Holmes, on being called on for a toast, 
 spoke of having been anticipated in the remarks he had 
 expected to offer (as a toast to the editor of the North 
 American Review). 
 
 As he saw a gentleman near him from whom he 
 should like to hear, he would propose as a sentiment — 
 
 The Clergy — Welcome and useful wherever honest 
 men should be. It is not the steeple that makes the 
 church, the pulpit that makes the sermon, nor the cloth 
 that makes the preacher. 
 
 This toast called up the Rev. Caleb Stetson, who 
 addressed the company as follows — 
 
 Mr. President, when a man is called upon to speak 
 and has nothing to say, it may be well that he should 
 not feel himself called upon to say anything. Much 
 that I would like to say has already been better said by 
 others. I will not sit down, however, without express- 
 ing my deep joy at seeing, face to face, one with whom 
 I, in common with my fellow-citizens, have long held 
 spiritual communion. 
 
 The profession which I unworthily represent ought 
 to feel a deep interest in our guest as a fellow-labourer 
 in the cause of humanity. We cannot but regard him 
 as a great preacher of righteousness ; for he is a preacher 
 of truth, of reality. He deals not in fiction ; there is no 
 sham about him. 
 
74 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Mr. President, some philosophers are of opinion that 
 genius does not invent but discover; it penetrates the 
 veil between us and the spiritual world, and becomes 
 acquainted with glorious forms of beauty and life 
 hitherto unknown. The poet is an inspired seer, who 
 ranges over the mystic dreamland to find what exists, 
 to reveal what is hidden. 
 
 Accordingly, we find more truth in the creations of the 
 man of genius than in the details of the man of fact. 
 Poetry tells the truth, where history lies. Who does 
 not feel that there is more living reality in those persons 
 whom genius has made immortal than in the long lines 
 of kings who strut in dim procession through the pages 
 of history? Tell me not that Shakespeare's men and 
 women are "unreal mockeries," mere fictions of his 
 imagination. No, he looked quite through the world- 
 shadows which surround us into the realms of invisible 
 beings and found them there, immortal as his own genius. 
 Is Bardolph a fiction? is Poins, is Pistol, is Dame 
 Quickly a fiction ? Is not the inimitable Jack Falstaff 
 as much a reality as the President of the United States ? 
 Who at this moment doubts the actual existence of 
 Imogen, Desdemona, Jaques, or Hamlet? 
 
 And our distinguished guest, who made us all love 
 him as a friend before we saw his face, has he not intro- 
 duced us to a whole crowd of new acquaintances, which 
 are living realities as much as himself? Tell me not 
 that these people are "figments of his brain." We know 
 better. Why, sir, I have myself had a peep into the 
 interior of "Dotheboys Hall." I know Mr. Squeers 
 well. He is still at the head of a literary institution, 
 and thrives, I hear, even more than his pupils. At the 
 time of my acquaintance with him he was not married. 
 He had no Mrs. Squeers then to aid him in promoting 
 the ends of good learning by the ministration of sulphur 
 . and of birch. 
 
 I was riding with a friend one day, several months 
 ago, when a forlorn-looking boy, standing at the junc- 
 tion of two roads, inquired which of them led to Boston. 
 I pointed out the way and he turned to depart; but 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 75 
 
 something about him interested me. I said to my friend, 
 " Do you see that boy ? Do you observe the multiform, 
 many-coloured patches upon his garments, revealing the 
 work of no ordinary hand? He is a desolate orphan, 
 with none to care for him. It is, it must Be, Oliver 
 Twist. He has strayed away from Mr. Bumble's 
 dominions, beyond the reach of Mrs. Corney's provi- 
 dence." Now I loved little Oliver with an exceeding 
 affection, and I could not bear that he should wander 
 alone into the unknown tumults or vast solitudes of the 
 great city. Pure, elemental spirit as he was, without flesh 
 enough for corruption to work in, I yet feared that he 
 might fall into the hands of his persecutors, be clutched 
 by old Fagin the Jew, or be entrapped and warped from 
 his integrity by the Artful Dodger. I called the poor 
 boy to me, and inquired into his prospects. He had no 
 prospects, no parents, no friends, no home. He was 
 seeking "a living." I told him if he did not find it to 
 come to me. And he went his way. Four days later 
 he came to my house, weary, sad, disappointed. He 
 had not obtained the living. In the city he found no 
 rest for the sole of his foot ; no place to lay his head but 
 a stable, and out of that a cruel ostler drove him igno- 
 miniously with a broom. I took him in, and went to 
 procure a place for him ; while gentle hands administered 
 to his urgent necessities, supplying, for the sake of Boz, 
 food and raiment and means of ablution. And — but it 
 is a long story; the rest need not be told. 
 
 Mr. President, the mayor of your city has informed 
 us of the arrival of Mr. Pickwick, in search of his friend 
 and editor. I have reason to believe, sir, that I have 
 the honour to be related to Mr. Pickwick myself. I am 
 descended from English ancestors; I am, as you may 
 have observed, a somewhat large man, and am said to 
 bear a family resemblance to that gentleman. About 
 two years ago, I was walking in a street in New Bedford, 
 when a little maiden, looking out of a window and 
 seeing me pass, exclaimed, with infinite delight, "O 
 mother, mother, isn't that Mr. Pickwick ? " 
 
 But it is time to be serious. Our friend, whom we so 
 
76 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 love and honour "for his work's sake," has carried the 
 torch of genius into those "dark places which are full 
 of the habitations of cruelty," wretchedness and crime. 
 He has himself the largest, most generous feeling of 
 the brotherhood of all men, and he has taught us to feel 
 a deeper sympathy with all men. What revelations has 
 he made of the mysteries of guilt and remorse ! The 
 agony of Sikes, fleeing from the ghastly spectre of his 
 murdered victim, and still carrying the curse with him — 
 his bosom sin, his bosom misery — is worth a hundred 
 sermons. There is a reality which the heart acknow- 
 ledges in all his pictures of humble, guilty and pas- 
 sionate life. And we feel that here is one able and 
 willing to do justice to poor fallen humanity. He has 
 shown us a great heart, full of living affections, beating 
 and throbbing under its veins. Our distinguished friend 
 has taught us never to hate or scorn a wandering, guilty 
 man, for he is our brother — all human conditions, all 
 human experiences, are interesting to us. We are bound 
 up, for weal or woe, with the destinies and hopes of 
 humanity. We are taught to discern in every man 
 something that lies deeper than his folly and sin; for 
 under the moral ruins lie buried the rudiments of a great 
 soul — buried, but not dead— alive, redeemable. Melan- 
 choly indeed is the wreck of an immortal man ; but more 
 venerable still in his fallen grandeur than the ruins of 
 an ancient temple, upon whose defaced and broken 
 columns the traveller gazes with mournful admiration. 
 
 This writer has indeed introduced us into new regions 
 of most interesting reality. To use his own words, he 
 has added, by some of his representations, to the stock 
 of human cheerfulness — by others, to the stock of human 
 sympathy. 
 
 Mr. Stetson gave the following toast — 
 
 Our guest — We might be disposed to pay him distant 
 homage as "a bright particular star" among the serene 
 lights of the firmament, but that he interests us more as 
 a friend, because he is the friend and brother of all 
 men. Out of the abodes of want and sorrow and crime 
 he has preached forth a living gospel of humanity. 
 
 By Mr. Clifford, of New Bedford— 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 77 
 
 The venerable Mr. Pickwick — He has become to us 
 this night, if never before, a great reality. 
 
 In the course of some by-play, Mr. Grattan remarked 
 that the president's four vices were equal to the four 
 cardinal virtues of any other man. 
 
 In reply to Mr. Grattan, Edw. G. Loring, Esq., 
 vice-president, said : Mr. President, every man's 
 " vices " speak For themselves — I would speak for your 
 "four vices"; your guests on either hand (Mr. Dickens 
 and Mr. Grattan) make us regret that, like a most 
 virtuous gentleman, you have "put your vices far from 
 you"; to which Geo. S. Hillard, Esq., replied from 
 the other end of the table, that that might well be, as 
 they were opposite to so much that was good. 
 
 The president read the following letter from Judge 
 Story — 
 
 Washington, January 21, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 It would afford me very sincere gratification to be 
 able to attend the public dinner to Charles Dickens, 
 Esq., according to your kind invitation. But my neces- 
 sary attendance at the Supreme Court interposes an 
 insuperable bar to my enjoyment of such a pleasure. 
 I look upon Mr. Dickens as among the most dis- 
 tinguished authors of our day, for genius, originality, 
 variety of talent, and mastery of all the workings of the 
 human passions. To him may be applied with singular 
 truth and felicity the line of Lord Byron descriptive of 
 Crabbe the poet — 
 
 " Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best." 
 I have the honour to remain, with great respect, 
 Your obliged friend and servant, 
 
 Joseph Story. 
 
 Messrs. Geo. Tyler Bigelow and others, Committee, 
 etc. 
 
 The president here observed, "We have heard of the 
 good things of the Warren; we should now like to hear 
 the good things of the Park." 
 
 John C. Park, Esq., in reply to this call, said — . 
 
78 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 I regret, Mr. President, that it was not my good 
 fortune to have had an opportunity to say the little I 
 am desirous of saying somewhat earlier in the evening. 
 There is a certain stage in a dinner party in which 
 sentiment is obliged, to give place to sparkling wit, and 
 each successive dish is expected to have a stronger 
 seasoning of attic salt. Of such wit I profess to have 
 none. But there are peculiar associations connected with 
 the event of the evening, which perhaps press upon my 
 mind with more force and vividness than upon the mind 
 of any other person present. There have been scenes 
 described by our distinguished guest which rise upon my 
 recollection with startling reality; and if the company 
 in the midst of their hilarity can spare me a moment, I 
 will give my feelings utterance. 
 
 I can easily understand, Mr. President, why it is that 
 the heart of every person is attracted with sympathetic 
 feeling towards the writings of our distinguished guest, 
 as he describes with minute truth the singularities and 
 peculiarities of character out of which society is formed. 
 He has given to the lives of each of us a new zest. I 
 walk abroad into life almost with new faculties and per- 
 ceptions. I seize upon new and fresh and interesting 
 traits of character in my fellow-men which I should not 
 have detected or appreciated if it were not for the per- 
 ceptions awakened by his magic pencil. These are the 
 causes which have endeared him to all of us. 
 
 But it has been my fate, from the peculiar circum- 
 stances of my professional engagements, to see more, 
 perhaps, than others present of that class of life from 
 which our friend has drawn many a sad moral, and 
 conjured much of his deepest interest. I mean the 
 criminal — the felon — the convict ! Beauties of graphic 
 description which others can scarcely realize are to me 
 bold sketches of scenes which I have myself studied; 
 and I can testify to the life-like portraits which spring 
 up before my vision when I peruse those thrilling pages 
 which describe such scenes as the trial and last hours of 
 Fagin the Jew. I have seen the inanity of mind crushed 
 by the weight of surrounding peril when, like that 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 79 
 
 felon's, it pauses in the midst of the solemn warnings of 
 the judge to count the iron spike-points that surround 
 his dock, and wonder if they will repair the broken one 
 or let it be as it is. I can realize, as a thing of life, 
 the morbid curiosity which fills up the horrid moment 
 while the jury have retired, who are to decide on his 
 life, by wondering if the portrait of himself which the 
 man in the gallery is sketching be or be not a correct 
 likeness. It is from contemplating such scenes that I 
 have best learned the depth of the writer's observation, 
 and been taught to look forward with ardent desire to 
 the moment when I could see the man who had marked 
 these startling scenes — scenes which had made so deep 
 an impression upon my own mind. 
 
 Your first vice-president, sir, was proud to claim for 
 England and America some exclusive property in the 
 mind and genius of our highly-gifted guest, based upon 
 the ground that we speak a common language. I rejoice 
 as he does in this fact, for it has made his works as 
 familiar to my countrymen's hands and hearts as their 
 household gods. But it is in \ vain for us to hope for 
 success in this self-appropriation. No, sir, the language 
 he speaks is not the language of one nation or one 
 clime. It is the language which is understood by the 
 poor widow on the banks of the Ganges, who gives to 
 the world and to her god the best proof of her devotion 
 as she mounts the funeral pyre of her husband. It is 
 felt by the Indian mother on the Western prairie as she 
 covers over her little one to shield it from destruction. 
 It comes in soft whisperings to the child of want and 
 neglect as it rests in holy reliance upon the arm of its 
 God. It requires no tongue — it needs no alphabet — it 
 is the universal language — it is the language of the 
 heart ! 
 
 But, sir, there is one other point to which I desire 
 to call the attention of the company. I am aware that, 
 though somewhat past the limited age which entitles 
 one to mingle with the young men, I am in the midst 
 of them, and possibly they cannot yet realize my feel- 
 ings. Still, it is but a few years since we were all 
 
80 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 children. Those past years are hallowed in the very 
 souls of each of us by the recollections of a mother's 
 love — a mother's teaching — as at her knee we learned 
 to lisp the first outpourings of a child's fond heart. I 
 feel, then — I see by your looks that I have your sym- 
 pathies, and I proceed. The scenes of childhood — of 
 infant purity — of youthful suffering — of early and pre- 
 mature death — how they have been portrayed around all 
 of us ! To me personally the tie has been that of the 
 nearest and dearest brotherhood. And let me say to 
 you, sir (addressing Mr. Dickens), that there are now, 
 within the limits of this one city, where you this day 
 stand the stranger-guest, hundreds of mothers who, 
 with tears of happiness and consolation, have blessed 
 the man who has painted to life their own lost and loved 
 one in the saint-like death of little Nell. It is in 
 obedience to such a mother's wish that I now stand 
 here; and though I feared that perhaps my feelings 
 would ill accord with the festivities of this evening, still 
 I came that I might look upon that man, and tell her if 
 he realized in form the soul that breathed within. Sir, 
 I rejoice that I have been here. There has, throughout 
 our evening's enjoyments, flowed an undercurrent of 
 deep and glowing sensibility which has encouraged 
 me to give utterance to the thoughts that burn within 
 me. I feel sure our guest will pardon me. And now 
 let me give a sentiment, perhaps unusual at the festive 
 board — yet one which I feel confident will meet a ready 
 response in every heart — 
 
 Little children — They are flowers which bloom on 
 every land — and though they utter no sound, they speak 
 a universal language — the language of the heart. 
 
 After, some observations upon the late mildness of 
 the weather, the president gave — 
 
 The fair days of this winter — Our distinguished 
 guest t in every clime, carries his own sunshine about 
 him. 
 
 Geo. Minns, Esq., being called upon for a sentiment, 
 said : I have been much interested in the touching 
 speech just delivered, especially as I know of instances 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 81 
 
 of parents under similar bereavements deriving con- 
 solation from the beautiful sentiments with which the 
 author concludes his account of the death of Nell. They 
 are indeed "beautiful garlands concealing the sculptured 
 horrors of the tomb." But, not to dwell too long upon 
 a pathetic topic, especially so near the close of the even- 
 ing, I wish to refer to that thrill of delight which went 
 through every heart at the first announcement of Mr. 
 Dickens's intended visit to this country. It was as if a 
 brother, who had been long absent in a far distant land, 
 had sent us news that he was about to return home. 
 With such feelings we hastened to meet him upon his 
 arrival. I well recollect the feeling of anxiety (so natural 
 at such a moment) which possessed me just before my 
 introduction to him— a feeling of blended hope and fear 
 — of confidence that I could not be disappointed, and of 
 fear lest, as too often happens, the anticipation might 
 surpass the reality. Shall I find in him, I asked myself, 
 all the qualities of those genial characters which he so 
 finely describes, and whose delineations are treasured in 
 our hearts ? When, however, I had the pleasure of 
 seeing him, when I felt the clasp of his hand, cordial 
 as that of my dearest friend, when I enjoyed his frank 
 and hearty conversation, I felt the idleness of all doubt, 
 and that he was all his delightful conceptions combined 
 in one glorious whole. 
 
 I have said that his exquisite delineations of character 
 are stamped upon all our hearts. How true it is that 
 the heart is the memory ! Whatever is imprinted upon 
 that never dies. 
 
 Some philosophers, historians, mathematicians, etc., 
 are said to be immortal; but they are not so in any 
 true sense of the word. They are not totally forgotten, 
 but they are hardly ever remembered. There is as much 
 difference between that immortality which is connected 
 with the mere intellect and that which is associated with 
 the affections, as there is between dry and sour old age 
 and that which is green with all the blooming joys of 
 youth. Mr. Dickens is sure of a true immortality, 
 because he has written his works upon the hearts of 
 all — the uneducated as well as the intellectual, the poor 
 
 G 
 
82 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 as well as the rich — the obscure as well as the famous — 
 and there they will remain for ever embalmed in pleasant 
 recollections. 
 
 Mr. President, I sympathize in all that has been said 
 of Old England. I admire England for all that she 
 has done for the great mind of the world. I have a 
 still stronger affection for Ireland (which country has 
 been so ably represented here this evening) and am as 
 susceptible as a female to Irish blarney. But I love my 
 own country more than all, because she values the man 
 for himself alone, and pays no regard to mere adven- 
 titious circumstances. The proudest nobleman in 
 Europe might travel through this country, and he would, 
 if unendowed with talent, receive but very little atten- 
 tion, and that little from those whose good opinion 
 would be worthless. But our guest will meet with a 
 far different reception. I am proud of my country that 
 such is the case, and I believe that nowhere are his 
 works more universally appreciated than in America. 
 Thousands and tens of thousands all over the land are 
 at this moment looking forward with eagerness to the 
 time when they may tell him how glad they are to see 
 him in America. But it is not alone among those who 
 may see him — that appears to be almost a hopeless 
 endeavour from the numbers who are crowding around 
 him to express their kindly feelings — but everywhere, 
 in many a lowly dwelling in the city — in many a farm- 
 house in the country — and in many a solitary log-cabin 
 in the forest, miles distant from any other habitation — is 
 he frequently thought of with the most enthusiastic love. 
 Many sumptuous entertainments and splendid balls may 
 be given him ; but more than all, and infinitely above all, 
 and what I am sure he will prize infinitely above all, the 
 great heart of this whole people beats towards him with 
 the warmest feelings of attachment. It rushes to meet 
 him, not with adulation — no, that it despises — but with 
 that right, true, hearty and manly fervour which a noble 
 mind like his richly deserves, and which a noble mind 
 like his delights to reciprocate. The whole people will 
 unite as one man to do honour to that creative and 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 83 
 
 benevolent genius which brightens winter nights and 
 shortens summer days — which strikes the stoniest heart 
 and melts it to water — which is the fire upon our hearth- 
 stone, making home cheerful ; and in some faint measure 
 to express this feeling which America has to every true 
 man, I will propose as a sentiment — 
 
 America welcomes to her shores every man whose eye 
 is single and whose heart is true. 
 
 The president here announced that he had received 
 the following letters from gentlemen who had not been 
 able to attend the dinner — 
 
 Portland, January 22, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 My engagements are of such a nature that I dare 
 not promise to be with you, much as I desire it ; and my 
 respect for the occasion, for the committee, and for Mr. 
 Dickens, myself, oblige me to decline your very ob- 
 liging invitation. At such a board there must be no 
 empty chairs. 
 
 Please accept my thanks, gentlemen, and my best 
 wishes for your happiness severally, and for that of 
 your guest, the reformer, not only of the particular 
 occasion you have in view, but for the rest of your 
 lives. Were I with you, I should offer a toast to Old 
 England, as the mother of New England, or as the 
 grandmother of nations — New England being the 
 mother of nations, at least in the new world, and she 
 the mother of New England. I should thank her for 
 sending forth her herald of reformation in literature, as 
 hitherto in science, and politics and religion ; and your 
 guest for picturing the old English humours, in all 
 their heartiness, faithfulness and simplicity, and better 
 still, in the old English tongue. 
 
 Respectfully, gentlemen, I am, etc., 
 
 John Neal. 
 
 Messrs. Geo. Tyler Bigelow, and others, Committee. 
 g 2 
 
84 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Boston, January 21, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I respectfully offer you my grateful acknowledg- 
 ments of your flattering invitation to the proposed 
 dinner to Mr. Dickens. 
 
 I should be proud and gratified to join you in this 
 honourable duty — honourable alike to yourselves and 
 your distinguished guest — but untoward circumstances 
 of a personal character oblige me, very reluctantly, to 
 relinquish the pleasure of uniting with you. 
 
 Let me repeat my sincere acknowledgments to you 
 for your politeness, and believe me to be, 
 
 Gentlemen, your grateful servant, 
 
 Chas. Sprague. 
 Messrs. Bigelow, Hale, Barrett, Crocker 
 and Story, Committee. 
 
 Glenmary, January 25, 1842. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Very much to my regret, I am compelled to 
 decline the kind invitation to the Committee of Arrange- 
 ments to meet Mr. Dickens at dinner. Imperative 
 engagements keep me at home, where, indeed, I hope 
 Mr. Dickens will find me, as I have already written to 
 beg for that pleasure and honour. 
 
 I may be permitted, even at this distance, however, 
 to join my fellow-townsmen in proffering the warmest 
 welcome to Mr. Dickens, and to express the lively 
 interest I feel in their promised enjoyment of his visit. 
 It would be a great pleasure to millions this side the 
 water to look on his face, but nowhere will he be met 
 with greater, and at the same time more appreciative 
 and discriminating, enthusiasm than in Boston. I con- 
 gratulate both him and my townspeople on his com- 
 mencing there the endless harvest of his American 
 laurels. 
 
 Enviable as Mr. Dickens's reputation is for its extent, 
 it is much more enviable for its quality. He has 
 advanced, pari passu, in the admiration and affection 
 of the world, and his " progress " through our country 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 85 
 
 will be as much waited on by loving hearts as by 
 admiring heads. I have startled myself too, with asking 
 what class or description of persons will be foremost 
 to welcome him. He is the favourite author of the old, 
 but he is as much the favourite of the young. He is 
 adored by the poor and humble, but his praise is with- 
 out stint from the intelligent and critical. Those who 
 love to weep over a story, and those who prefer to laugh 
 — those who seek amusement only from an author, and 
 those who exact of him an influence for good — young 
 and old, merry and sad, wise and simple, rich and poor 
 — all love him — all know him — all would go far out of 
 their way to see and welcome him. His fame is 
 strangely universal — enviably, most enviably, warm and 
 genial. 
 
 I could have wished that Mr. Dickens had first 
 travelled incognito in this country. It will be difficult 
 to express to him viva voce how his genius is felt 
 among us. More than any living author, his laurels 
 brighten when his face is turned from them. If prodigal- 
 ity and sincerity in our praises can gratify him, however, 
 he will not lack gratification. 
 
 Renewing my regrets that I cannot be present at 
 your kind invitation, and with many thanks to the com- 
 mittee for the honour they have done me, permit me to 
 subjoin a sentiment and subscribe myself. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 N. P. Willis. 
 
 W. W. Story, Esq. 
 
 Master Humphrey's Clock — Wound up to run with 
 the stars. It will keep Time (or Time will keep it) till 
 the world run down. 
 
 New York, January 31, 1842. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 I greatly regret that I cannot be with you to-day, 
 as I had anticipated, to join you in doing honour to one 
 of the greatest genuises of this age ; but finding myself 
 unexpectedly in a business maelstrom, made up of little 
 currents of avocation which have provokingly converged 
 
86 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 upon me at this moment, I am compelled to forgo the 
 high enjoyment I had promised myself. 
 
 If distant "sentiments," however, are admissible, I 
 will ask you to oblige me by offering the following. I 
 hope it will not be considered as going out of the way ; 
 and if it should be, I can only interpose the excuse, that 
 if the subject (who has never, as I learn, during a long 
 life [I wish I hadn't said that] been twenty miles 
 from his beloved city) would ever come away from home 
 to be toasted, there should be no occasion to send so 
 far to honour him on his own ground. I give you, 
 Mr. Chairman — 
 
 The Health of Charles Sprague, our Poet of the 
 Heart, who amid the cares and turmoil of active life, 
 keeps his holier affections and better thoughts "unspotted 
 from the world." 
 
 Wishing you, what you must have — a delightful 
 "night of it." 
 
 I am, your obliged, 
 
 L. Gaylord Clark. 
 
 To the Committee of the Dinner to Mr. Charles 
 Dickens. 
 
 The president said he had received the following 
 volunteer sentiment — 
 
 Dickens — A great name — it has not been used for 
 centuries, without having the article before it. 
 
 It now being near one o'clock, the president 
 announced his intention of leaving the chair, and gave 
 as a parting sentiment — 
 
 A speedy return to Charles Dickens. 
 
 He then withdrew with Mr. Dickens and other guests, 
 leaving Mr. Stevenson in the chair, and after a few 
 songs and volunteer sentiments the company broke up, 
 perfectly delighted with their guest and their entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 Jas. T. Fields, in Yesterdays with Authors, writing 
 in 1 87 1 of this dinner, says — 
 
THE BOSTON DINNER 87 
 
 "It is idle to attempt much talk about the banquet 
 given on that night in February, twenty-nine years ago. 
 It was a glorious episode in all our lives, and whoever 
 was not there has suffered a loss not easy to estimate. 
 We younger members of the dinner-party sat in the 
 seventh heaven of happiness and were translated to 
 other spheres. Was there ever such a night before in 
 our staid city? Did ever mortal preside with such 
 felicitous success as did Mr. Quincy ? And how admir- 
 ably he closed his speech of welcome, calling upon the 
 young author amid a perfect volley of applause ! 
 Health ! Happiness ! and a hearty Welcome to Charles 
 Dickens ! And when Dickens stood up at last to answer 
 for himself, so fresh and so handsome with his beautiful 
 eyes moist with feeling and his whole frame aglow with 
 excitement, how we did hurrah, we young fellows. 
 Trust me it was a great night, and we must have made 
 a great noise at our end of the table, for I remember 
 frequent messages came down to us from the ' Chair ' 
 begging that we hold up a little and moderate if possible 
 the rapture of our applause." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WORCESTER — HARTFORD — NEW HAVEN 
 
 Dickens left Boston on Saturday, February 5, for 
 Worcester, which he described as "a pretty New Eng- 
 land town, where we had arranged to remain under the 
 hospitable roof of the Governor of the State, until 
 Monday morning." 
 
 Two of the Worcester papers contained very brief 
 notices of his visit to the town, which are here given — 
 
 "Boz, the author of Pickwick, etc., with his lady, 
 came up from Boston on Saturday the 5th, in the cars, 
 with Governor Davis, and passed the Sabbath with 
 him. The Governor introduced his general friends to 
 his guest, Saturday evening, and his particular friends 
 on Sunday evening. Boz left town on Monday morn- 
 ing on the cars for Springfield." — Worcester Palladin, 
 February 9, 1842. 
 
 "Charles Dickens (Boz), the celebrated author, with 
 his lady arrived in town on the evening of the 5th, and 
 left for Hartford via Springfield on the morning of 
 the 7th. While here, many of our inhabitants called 
 upon them at the mansion of Governor Davis, where 
 they stayed during their tarry in town." — The Massa- 
 chusetts Spy, February 9, 1842. 
 
 It will be noticed that not only these two, but prac- 
 tically all the American papers, when mentioning Mr. 
 Dickens, says, "Charles Dickens and 'lady,'" some 
 spelling it with a capital L and others with a small one, 
 and they generally mention that he arrived "in the 
 cars." 
 
 88 
 
J. DAVIS 
 Governor of Massachusetts, 1842 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 89 
 
 The editor of the Worcester Egis evidently believed 
 that the arrival of the great Boz was an event entitled 
 to more extended notice than the mere mention of his 
 arrival in town, and that his readers wanted to know 
 something of the author's personality, attire and mental 
 characteristics. He saw Boz at the Governor's mansion, 
 but whether as one of the Governor's general or par- 
 ticular friends the editor does not say, and the result 
 was the following brilliant effusion, which was copied 
 in several of the gapers of other cities. 
 
 "We found a middle-sized person in a brown frock 
 coat, a red figured vest, somewhat of the flash order, 
 and a fancy scarf cravat, that concealed the collar and 
 was fastened to the bosom in rather voluptuous folds 
 by a double pin and chain. His proportions were well- 
 sounded, and filled the dress suit he wore. His hair, 
 which was long and dark, grew low upon the brow, had 
 a wavy kink where it started from the head, and was 
 naturally, or artificially, corkscrew, as it fell on either 
 side of his face. His forehead retreated gradually from 
 the eyes, without any marked protuberance save at the 
 outer angle, the upper portion of which formed a pro- 
 minent ridge, a little within the assigned position of 
 the organ of ideality. The skin on that portion of the 
 brow which was not concealed by the hair instead of 
 being light and smooth, flushed as readily as any part 
 of the face, and partook of its general character and 
 flexibility. The whole region about the eyes was pro- 
 minent with a noticeable development of nerves and 
 vessels indicating, say the phrenologists, great vigour 
 in the intellectual organs with which they are connected. 
 The eyeballs completely filled their sockets. The aper- 
 ture of the lids was not large, nor the eye uncommonly 
 clear or bright, but quick, moist and expressive. The 
 nose was slightly aquiline, the mouth of moderate 
 dimensions, making no great display of the teeth, the 
 facial muscles occasionally drawing the upper lip most 
 strongly on the left side, as the mouth opened in speak- 
 ing. His features, taken together, were well propor- 
 tioned, of a glowing and cordial aspect, with more 
 
90 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 animation than grace, and more intelligence than 
 beauty. 
 
 " We will close this off-hand description without going 
 more minutely into the anatomy of Mr. Dickens, by 
 saying that he wears a gold watchguard over his vest, 
 and a shaggy greatcoat of bear or buffalo skin that 
 would excite the admiration of a Kentucky huntsman. 
 In short, you frequently meet with similar-looking 
 young men at the theatres and other public places, and 
 you would infer that he found his enjoyments in the 
 scenes of actual life, rather than in the retirement of a 
 study, and that he would be likely to be about town, 
 and witness those scenes which he describes with such 
 unrivalled precision and power. We believe that it is 
 well understood that he draws his characters and inci- 
 dents less from imagination than from memory — depend- 
 ing for its resources less upon reflection and study 
 than upon observation. His writing bears slight evi- 
 dence of reading, and he seldom if ever quotes from 
 books. His wonderful perceptions, his acute sensibility, 
 and his graphic fancy, furnish the means by which his 
 fame has been created. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens was born February 7, 1812. He was 
 therefore thirty years of age on Monday last. The 
 early maturity of his genius and reputation has but few 
 parallels. May he long live to edify and amuse the 
 world, and to receive the reward of praise and emolu- 
 ment which is his just due." 
 
 Dickens left Worcester on Monday evening, and has 
 told us in American Notes how he went by railroad to 
 Springfield, and, without stopping again in that city, 
 embarked in a very small steamboat for a twenty-five 
 mile ride down the Connecticut River for Hartford, 
 where he arrived in the afternoon. He spent four days 
 in the town, during which he visited the State House, 
 Insane Asylum, and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. The 
 Hartford newspapers did not have anything to say about 
 his visits to these institutions, in fact about the only thing 
 they did print was a very brief account of the dinner 
 given to him at the City Hotel. The following account of 
 

 ^•0 I 
 
 GOVERNOR DAVIS S HOUSE, WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
 ROOM IN GOVERNOR DAVIS S HOUSE IN WHICH DICKENS 
 SLEPT, 1842 
 
 90 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD-NEW HAVEN 91 
 
 the dinner is reprinted from the New Haven Commercial 
 Herald, with the exception of Dickens's speech, which 
 is copied from the New York Tribune. 
 
 "Boz at Hartford — A gentleman from Hartford has 
 favoured us with the following account of the proceed- 
 ings at the entertainment given to Mr. Dickens on 
 Tuesday evening last — 
 
 "About seventy persons were at the dinner. William 
 J. Hammersly, Esq., presided, and made a very good 
 speech by way of preface to the toast drank in honour 
 of the distinguished guest. Mr. Dickens made an 
 excellent speech — 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, to say that I thank you for the earnest 
 manner in which you have drunk the toast just now so 
 eloquently proposed to you — to say that I give you back 
 your kind wishes and good feelings with more than 
 compound interest — and that I feel how dumb and power- 
 less the best acknowledgments would be beside such 
 genial hospitality as yours— is nothing. To say that in 
 this winter season flowers have sprung up in every foot- 
 step's length of the path which has brought me here — 
 that no country has ever smiled more pleasantly than 
 yours has smiled on me — and that I have rarely looked 
 on a brighter summer prospect than that which lies 
 before me now — is nothing. (Applause.) 
 
 " ' But it is something to be no stranger in a strange 
 place — to feel, sitting at a board for the first time, the 
 ease and affection of an old guest, and to be at once on 
 such intimate terms with the family as to have a homely, 
 genial interest in its every member — it is, I say, some- 
 thing to be in this novel and happy frame of mind — and 
 as it is of your creation and owes its being to you, I 
 have no reluctance in urging it as a reason why, in 
 addressing you, I should not so much consult the form 
 and fashion of my speech, as I should employ that 
 universal language of the heart which you, and such as 
 you, best teach and best can understand. Gentlemen, in 
 that universal language — common to you in America and 
 to us in England, as that younger mother tongue, which, 
 
92 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 by the means and through the happy union of our two 
 great countries, shall be spoken ages hence by land and 
 sea over the wide surface of the globe — I thank you. 
 
 " ' I had occasion, gentlemen, to say the other night 
 in Boston, as I have more than once had occasion to 
 remark before, that it is not easy for an author to speak 
 of his own books. If the task be a difficult one at any 
 time, its difficulty certainly is not diminished when a 
 frequent recurrence to the same thing has left one 
 nothing new to say. Still, I feel that in a company like 
 this, and especially after what has been $aid by the 
 president, that I ought not to pass lightly over those 
 labours of love, which, if they had no other merit, have 
 been the happy means of bringing us together. 
 
 " ' It has been often observed that you cannot judge of 
 an author's personal character from his writings ; it may 
 be that you cannot — I think it very likely for many 
 reasons that you cannot— but at least the reader will rise 
 from the perusal of a book with some defined and 
 tangible idea of the writer's moral creed and broad pur- 
 poses, if he has any at all ; and it is probable enough 
 that he may like to have this idea confirmed from the 
 author's lips, or dissipated by his explanation. Gentle- 
 men, my moral creed — which is a very wide and com- 
 prehensive one, and includes all sects and parties — is 
 very easily summed up. I have faith, and I wish to 
 diffuse faith in the existence — yes, of beautiful things, 
 even in those conditions of society which are so degen- 
 erate, so degraded and forlorn, that at first sight it would 
 seem as though it could not be described but by a strange 
 and terrible reversal of the words of Scripture — God said 
 let there be light, and there was none. I take it that we 
 are born, and that we hold our sympathies, hopes and 
 energies in trust for the Many and not the Few. That 
 we cannot hold in too strong a light of disgust and con- 
 tempt, that before the view of others, all meanness, false- 
 hood, cruelty and oppression of every grade and kind. 
 Above all, that nothing is high because it is in a high 
 place; and that nothing is low because it is in a low 
 one. (Loud applause.) This is the lesson taught us in 
 the great Book of Nature. This is the lesson which may 
 
WORCESTER-HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 93 
 
 be read alike in the bright track of the stars, and in the 
 dusty course of the poorest thing that drags its tiny 
 length upon the ground. This is the lesson ever upper- 
 most in the thoughts of that inspired man who tells us 
 that there are 
 
 " Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything." 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, keeping these objects steadily before 
 me, I am at no loss to refer your favour and your 
 generous hospitality back to the right source. While I 
 know, on the one hand, that if, instead of being what 
 it is, this were a land of tyranny and wrong, I should 
 care very little for your smiles or your frowns, so I 
 am sure upon the other that if, instead of being what I 
 am, I were the greatest genius that ever trod the earth, 
 and had diverted myself for the oppression and degrada- 
 tion of mankind, you would despise and reject me. I 
 hope you will whenever through such means I give you 
 the opportunity. Trust me that whenever you give me 
 the like occasion I will return the compliment with 
 interest. 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, as I have no secrets from you, in the 
 spirit of confidence you have engendered between us, 
 and as I have made a kind of compact with myself that 
 I never will while I remain in America omit an oppor- 
 tunity of referring to a topic in which I and all others 
 of my class on both sides of the great water are equally 
 interested — equally interested — there is no difference 
 between us — I would beg leave to whisper in your ear 
 two words — International Copyright. I use them in no 
 sordid sense, believe me; and those who know me best 
 know that. For myself, I would rather that my children 
 coming after me trudged in the mud and knew by the 
 general feeling of society that their father was beloved 
 and was of some use, than I would have them ride in 
 their carriages and know by their bankers' books that he 
 was rich. But I do not see, I confess, why one should 
 be obliged to take the choice, or why fame, besides play- 
 ing that delightful revel for which he is so justly cele- 
 brated, should not blow out of the trumpet a few notes 
 
94 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 of a different kind from, those with which she has hitherto 
 contented herself. 
 
 " ' It was well observed the other night by a beautiful 
 speaker whose words went to the heart of every man who 
 heard him, that if there had existed any law in this 
 respect, Scott might not have sunk beneath the mighty 
 pressure on his brain, but might have lived to add new 
 creatures to his fancy to the crowd which swarms about 
 you in your summer walks, and gathers round your 
 winter evening hearths. 
 
 '"As I listened to his words there came back fresh 
 upon me that touching scene in the great man's life, 
 when he lay upon the couch surrounded by his family, 
 and listened for the last time to the rippling of the river 
 he had so loved over its stony bed. I pictured him to 
 myself, faint, wan, dying, crushed both in mind and 
 body by his honourable struggle; and hovering around 
 him the phantoms of his own imagination — Waverley, 
 Ravenswood, Jeanie Deans, Rob Roy, Caleb Balder- 
 stone, Dominie Sampson — all the familiar throng, with 
 Cavaliers, and Puritans, and Highland Chiefs innumer- 
 able overflowing the chamber, and fading away in the 
 dim distance beyond. I picture them fresh in traversing 
 the world, and hanging down their heads in shame and 
 sorrow, that from all those lands into which they have 
 carried gladness, instruction and delight for millions, 
 they brought him not one friendly hand to help, 
 to raise him from that sad, sad bed. No, nor brought 
 him from that land in which his own language was 
 spoken, and in every house and hut at which his own 
 books were read in his own tongue, one grateful dollar- 
 piece to buy a garland for his grave. Oh 1 if every man 
 who goes from here, as many do, to look upon that tomb 
 in Dryburgh Abbey, would but remember this and bring 
 the recollection home. 
 
 " ' Gentlemen, I thank you again, and once again, and 
 many times to that. You have given me a new reason 
 for remembering this day, which is already one of mark 
 in my calendar, it being my birthday, and you have 
 given those who are nearest and dearest to me a new 
 reason for recollecting it with pride and interest. Heaven 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD -NEW HAVEN 95 
 
 knows that, though should I grow ever so grey, I shall 
 need nothing to remind me of this speech in my life. 
 But I am glad to think that from this time you are 
 inseparately connected with every recurrence of this day ; 
 and that on its periodical returns I shall always in 
 imagination have the unfading pleasure of entertaining 
 you as my guests in return for the gratification you have 
 afforded me to-night.' 
 
 "Several eloquent speeches were made and sentiments 
 given by Governor Ellsworth, John M. Miles, Dr. Brig- 
 ham, Prof. Stewart, Messrs. Barnard, Dixon, Putnam, 
 Curtis (of Millingford), Green, etc. Bishop Brownell 
 was present, and invoked the blessing before dinner; 
 letters were read from Washington Irving, George 
 Bancroft, etc. 
 
 "Mrs. Dickens stood in the hall with several other 
 ladies, listening to the speeches. Her name was given 
 and received with great applause. She is a fine-looking 
 lady, and makes herself very agreeable to those who call 
 upon her. She must have been amused at Mr. Miles's 
 speech to Democratic literature. He commenced with 
 the angels, approximated to the patriarchs, floundered 
 through Republican resolutions, and ended in ' pop'lar 
 literature, ' which he said could not be ' monopolated ' 
 by any aristocracy. One of the guests, about the middle 
 of his speech, moved the previous question, which was 
 not seconded, and so the Judge was permitted to proceed. 
 He was rather witty at times. He said that if there was 
 not a lion in his way there was one right before him. 
 The audience could hardly tell whether he referred to 
 Mr. Dickens or Governor Ellsworth, who sat together on 
 the right of the chair. The Judge and the Bishop were 
 on the left. 
 
 " Mr. Putnam in his toast referred to ' Grip ' the raven, 
 a favourite bird with the children of Mr. Dickens, who 
 are in London. The first three, I believe, are girls, and 
 the fourth a young ' Boz.' Likenesses of these four 
 youngsters were shown to the company at the table. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon read the following complimentary lines to 
 Mr. Dickens on his arrival in Hartford, written by Mrs. 
 Sigourney — 
 
96 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Welcome 1 o'er the ocean blue, 
 
 Welcome to the youthful West, 
 Ardent hearts and spirits true 
 
 Greet thee as a favour'd guest. 
 
 Well our Motherhood hath taught us 
 
 How to honour those, whose skill 
 From the realms of genius brought us 
 
 Various treasures, at their will, 
 And her children would not be 
 False to her— or cold to thee. 
 
 And that Motherhood hath shown us, 
 
 How the stranger's heart to cheer ; 
 By her hearth-stone she hath placed us, 
 
 There to learn her lessons dear ; 
 Of such fair example we 
 Would not now forgetful be. 
 
 On our lips her accents linger, 
 
 In our views her blood doth run, 
 And a heaven-born faith inspireth, 
 
 Child and parent, both as one ; 
 So we breathe, with spirit free, 
 Love to her and love to thee. 
 
 "Several songs were sung, which were well received, 
 amongst which was the following, written for the 
 occasion by Mr. Hammersly — 
 
 I'll sing you a new-made song, but from no aged pate, 
 
 Of a fine young English gentleman, whose mind is his estate, 
 
 And who always keeps it furnished at a bountiful old rate 
 
 With sad and sweet, and merry tales, which in books he doth relate, 
 
 Like a fine young English gentleman, a type of better times. 
 
 His heart so true, the dwelling is, of all that's rich and rare, 
 The mansion of the beautiful, the noble and the fair ; 
 No guest so poor, he cannot find a hearty welcome there, 
 While kindness sits with melting eyes within the old arm-chair : 
 God bless this fine young gentleman, this type of better times. 
 
 He comes across the ocean waste, to see our western land, 
 Where many a welcome grasp he'll meet, from many a friendly 
 
 hand, 
 And many a voice will cry to him, " Oh, still maintain your stand, 
 And on hypocrisy and vice still stamp the burning brand," 
 Like a fine young English gentleman, a type of better times. 
 
VIEW ON THE CONNECTICUT RIVER, 1839 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 97 
 
 God speed him on his earthly course, and blessings on him pour, 
 Grant to him rich and bounteous gifts, from Heaven's exhaustless 
 
 store ; 
 Make him as life the longer lasts, but love mankind the more. 
 And may he in a green old age, still flourish at fourscore, 
 Like a fine old English gentleman, a blessing to his times. 
 
 "The dinner did great credit to Mr. Judson, of the 
 City Hotel ; over seventy different dishes were mentioned 
 on the bill of fare. Mr. Dickens is much pleased with 
 Hartford. He dined last evening with Col. Grant and 
 received calls this afternoon. Mrs. Sigourney and several 
 distinguished persons called upon him this afternoon. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens is thirty years of age, and appears much 
 younger. He seems to enjoy himself very much at a 
 dinner party, and tries to make all around him feel 
 happy. In conversation yesterday, referring to Marryatt, 
 Hall, etc., he said that this country had been shamefully 
 treated. Governor Ellsworth at the dinner expressed a 
 hope that he would examine our institutions and give a 
 fair report upon them. He welcomed Mr. Dickens with 
 much spirit and good-will." 
 
 Mr. Henry C. Robinson, of Hartford, one of the lead- 
 ing lawyers of New England, who died some years ago, 
 used to relate the following incident in connection with 
 Dickens's visit to Hartford — 
 
 " I am sure that at no other time did Dickens speak to 
 any American boy as he spoke to me. What he said 
 was not so much, but it was Charles Dickens who said it, 
 and he said it to me, and that was enough. 
 
 "I was then between eleven and twelve years of age 
 when Dickens came to Hartford in 1842. 
 
 "We knew in Hartford the hour at which Dickens 
 would arrive, and there was a great throng at the steam- 
 boat landing waiting to see him. I was not able to be 
 there, for I was at school at the time he arrived. But I 
 heard that he was staying at the City Hotel, which at 
 that time was the leading hotel of the city, and located 
 only three or four minutes' walk from the old State 
 
 H 
 
98 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 House. So as soon as I was out of school I went to the 
 hotel, determined to stand in front of it until I had 
 caught a glimpse of Charles Dickens. 
 
 "I think I must have stood there about an hour — it 
 may have been a little longer — when, looking up at one 
 of the windows opening upon the room at the side of the 
 main entrance to the hotel, I saw Charles Dickens stand- 
 ing there. I knew him instantly from the photographs 
 I had seen of him. I was attracted by his peculiar waist- 
 coat of very vivid colour, from the pockets of which 
 dangled a very prodigious watch-chain. He alternately 
 tossed the chain in his hands and twisted it around his 
 fingers. I also noticed his eyes, because they were very 
 blue. After a while he put his hands in his pockets and 
 stood looking across the street, not noticing me at first. 
 At last his eyes became fixed on me. He looked at me 
 steadily for I do not know how many minutes. I stared 
 at him steadily in return. I remember that I thought: 
 This is the man who told me about Sam Weller, who 
 was one of the great favourites of my boyhood days. 
 
 " I wonder what Dickens thought of me ! He certainly 
 looked me through and through. We must have been, 
 in fact, a spectacle, the lad and the famous author staring 
 at each other. 
 
 "At last Dickens spoke, and the words have been 
 treasured in my memory ever since. This is what he said, 
 and I heard him distinctly, though he spoke through the 
 window : ' Go away, little boy, go away.' Then he 
 waved his hand gently, smiled upon me, and with that 
 benediction I departed. 
 
 " 1 did not see him again until 1867, when he made his 
 second visit to America. He had changed greatly in 
 physical appearance, excepting that his eyes retained 
 that brilliant blue tint, the bluest eyes I ever saw." 
 
 He left Hartford at 5 p.m., Thursday, February 11, by 
 rail for New Haven, where he arrived at 8 p.m., and went 
 to the Tontine Hotel, where he remained that night. 
 The New Haven Commercial Herald on the previous 
 Monday contained the following — 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 99 
 
 "Boz in Transit. — The Hartford Committee are to 
 meet the Dickenses at Springfield, from whence he is to 
 be escorted to that City, where a dinner is to take place 
 on Wednesday. Hope the Hartford folk will allow him 
 to pass this way, that the New Haven colony may, at 
 least, have the honour of his footstep. He may tread 
 on classic ground, and amid the pure atmosphere of the 
 sons of light, recover enough of his natural force and 
 elasticity to enable him to bear the fumes and ' nauseous 
 slaves ' of the great emporium. We hope our folks will 
 treat him like a gentleman, and not like a show." 
 
 A correspondent of the Herald was afraid if Dickens 
 came to New Haven that he might not be given a fitting 
 reception, and therefore wrote a communication to that 
 paper suggesting that he be given a public reception " to 
 secure that pleasure which thousands of our citizens 
 anxiously covet," in other words to give them a chance 
 to get a look at him. 
 
 The following is Suum Qmque's communication — 
 
 " Messrs. Editors : No slight gratification followed the 
 announcement in the closing chapter of Barnaby Rudge 
 that the author of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby 
 had determined to pay a visit to this country. Many 
 hailed with joy that determination, and anxiously antici- 
 pated much pleasure, in gazing upon the form and 
 features of him who had contributed so bountifully to 
 the land of mirth. Charles Dickens, we are assured, has 
 landed in Boston, and is now enjoying the courtesies 
 and hospitalities which the inhabitants of that city never 
 fail to extend to the high-minded and deserving. And 
 while the literary men are straining every nerve to render 
 his sojourn pleasant in this country, why should the 
 literati and citizens of this ' City of Elms ' withhold their 
 tribute, and omit paying that respect and deference 
 which genius of the most exalted kind never solicits but 
 always deserves ? Mr. Dickens comes not among us to 
 spy out the nakedness of the land, but to visit the 
 brethren whom he can learn to love, and with whom his 
 
 H2 
 
100 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 large heart cannot fail to sympathize. Why, then, can 
 we not receive him with that welcome which is so mani- 
 festly his due ? Surely within the halls of this old 
 nursery of learning, and among those connected with the 
 medical and legal departments, there ought to be rever- 
 ence enough for him who has made such vigorous war- 
 fare upon our risible faculties, to seek out devices by 
 which he be assured of the respect and honour enter- 
 tained towards him by the majority of Americans. Will 
 they, then, omit to make arrangements to give him a 
 public reception, and be behindhand in welcoming true 
 genius to our land ? 
 
 "These hints are thrown out by the writer in hopes 
 that the suggestion may not pass by unregarded, but that 
 measure may be seasonably taken to secure that pleasure 
 which thousands of our citizens anxiously covet." 
 
 A search of the files of the Commercial Herald fails 
 to discover any account of his" arrival and brief stay in 
 the city, other than the following — 
 
 "Mr. Charles Dickens and lady arrived here last even- 
 ing in the cars from Hartford, and departed this morn- 
 ing in a steamboat for New York. There was a great 
 curiosity to see one so well known through another 
 medium and the rush to the Tontine for that purpose 
 was a complete melee, without order and very little con- 
 straint. We hope that we shall have the pleasure of 
 seeing Mr. Dickens here again, when the fever is abated, 
 and when he will have an opportunity to see as well as 
 be seen. He was waited upon by some of our profes- 
 sional gentlemen and others, who tendered him those 
 public and private attentions which time did not enable 
 him to enjoy." 
 
 Mr. Putnam, in the Atlantic Monthly articles pre- 
 viously referred to, gives the following account of a 
 reception which was forced upon Mr. Dickens, on the 
 evening after his arrival at the Tontine, and the attention 
 paid him he very probably did not enjoy — 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 101 
 
 "From Hartford Mr. Dickens went to New Haven, 
 arriving there in the evening. The news spread rapidly 
 that ' Dickens had come,' and at once the throng of 
 visitors poured in. Before he had been there an hour 
 the hotel was crowded and the street outside filled with 
 people. Citizens of the highest distinction hastened 
 with their friends to pay their respects, for it was under- 
 stood that his stay in the city would be very short. The 
 Yale students were there in force, and such was the 
 desire to see him that he was urgently requested to 
 receive the throng assembled, and for hours the people 
 filled the reception-room and held the halls and passages 
 of the hotel. As the crowd increased the landlord found 
 it necessary to put two stout porters on the main stair- 
 case, who locked their hands across the stairs, and kept 
 the throng somewhat at bay. As fast as those in the 
 reception-room had their introduction, and retired by 
 another way, the two porters on the stairs would raise 
 their arms and suffer another instalment of the crowd 
 to pass; and thus, until nearly eleven o'clock at night, 
 the admirers of ' Boz ' pressed around him for a look 
 and an introduction, and all this was evidently from a 
 love and appreciation of the man. It was nearly mid- 
 night before Mr. Dickens could retire to his room." 
 
 After Dickens's departure for New York, which took 
 place on Saturday evening, there appeared the following 
 items, the first in the Palladium and the second in the 
 Commercial Herald — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens, accompanied by his lady, arrived in 
 the cars last evening and took lodgings at the Tontine. 
 He left in the boat for New York this morning. A large 
 number of our citizens paid their respects to him at his 
 lodgings, and much interest was manifested by all classes 
 to obtain a sight of, or an introduction to, the distin- 
 guished stranger. He has been the principal subject of 
 conversation for the last few days, and as much so, 
 perhaps, by those who know nothing of his reputation 
 as an author, as by those to whom his works had become 
 
102 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 as familiar as household words. We have an anecdote 
 in illustration. ' Fagin,' who was anxiously inquiring in 
 regard to his arrival, and the length of time he would 
 spend in the city, among other questions very earnestly 
 and innocently asked if ' Boz ' and ' Dickens ' would 
 both be here at the same time." 
 
 "The Dickens has come and gone; he stole in, in the 
 darkness of the night, and stole out, in the fog of the 
 mountain. But, what with the halloing of the boys at 
 Mr. J.'s lecture, the cry of fire, the ringing of bells, and 
 the light of the conflagration, we got up about as pretty 
 a piece of glorification, all for Boz, as the poor man will 
 meet with anywhere in the United States. The sun came 
 out of the fog about 10 o'clock and behold ! the Glory 
 had departed." 
 
 There was one citizen of New Haven who seemed to 
 have an idea that the American people were overdoing 
 it in the manner in which they received Mr. Dickens, 
 and having this idea in his mind, thought that he should 
 let his fellow-citizens know that such adulation as was 
 shown the author was not befitting good American 
 citizens, and therefore proceeding to ease his mind, he 
 wrote the following communication to the Commercial 
 Herald — 
 
 " Messrs. Editors : Have you seen the celebrated Mr. 
 Dickens ? Well, what do you think of him ? In what 
 order of beings do you rank him ? Is he human ? If 
 so, qui tanti talem genuere farentes? Is he not rather 
 one of those mystic beings whom the Learned Black- 
 smith would denominate a mythological demi-god? 
 The adulation paid him reminds us of European 
 servility, ill-befitting Americans— much less the descend- 
 ants of the Puritans, who never bowed the knee to any 
 earthly potentate or kissed the toe of any dignitary. 
 Either Mr. Dickens must be a man of sense, or he must 
 not. If he is, he must look upon the Yankees as a set 
 of silly parasites; if he is not, their folly is the more 
 palpable and disgraceful. 
 
CITY HOTEL, HARTFORD 
 
 NEW HAVEN, FROM PERRY HILL 
 
WORCESTER— HARTFORD— NEW HAVEN 103 
 
 " Query : Would it not be well for some shrewd enter- 
 prising Yankee to procure Boz, put him in a cage, and 
 take him about the country for a show? I mean nothing 
 disrespectful to Mr. Dickens. I regard him as a man 
 of no ordinary abilities ; a benefactor of the race, if you 
 please. Proper respect and deference should be paid 
 him, but this servile homage, this sickening flattery, is 
 doubtless as contemptible in his eyes as it is derogatory 
 to us." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dickens arrived in New York Sunday 
 morning, February 13, and went to the Carlton Hotel 
 on Broadway, where they remained until they left for 
 Philadelphia on Sunday, March 6, a week later than was 
 their intention, as their departure was delayed by reason 
 of the illness of Mrs. Dickens. 
 
 Most of Dickens's time was spent in visiting the public 
 institutions, such as the Tombs prison, the Penitentiary, 
 Alms House and Lunatic Asylum, the last three being 
 on Blackwell's Island, and not Long Island, where 
 Dickens locates them in American Notes. He was 
 entertained privately by some of the leading people of 
 the city, but the principal events of his stay were the 
 "Boz Ball" and the "Dickens Dinner," the former 
 taking place at the Park Theatre the day after his 
 arrival, and the latter at the City Hotel on Friday of 
 the same week. With the exception of very full accounts 
 of these two events, the newspapers did not pay a great 
 deal of attention to the doings of Dickens during the 
 three weeks he remained. 
 
 Mr. Philip Hone, a prominent banker and ex-mayor 
 of New York, in an entry in his diary dated January 24, 
 says regarding Dickens's arrival in Boston — 
 
 "I signed, three or four days ago, with a number of 
 other persons, a letter to be presented to him on his 
 arrival in the city, giving him a hearty welcome and 
 inviting him to a public dinner, which, from the spirit 
 which seems to prevail on the subject, will be no common 
 affair." 
 
 There also appears the two following entries in the 
 diary, referring to the dinner, and also to the ball — 
 
 104 
 
NEW YORK 105 
 
 "January 27. — In addition to the dinner which it is 
 intended to give Mr. Dickens on his arrival in New 
 York, a grand ball is to be gotten up for him and his 
 lady, at the Park (Theatre), where it is proposed to have 
 tableaux vivant and other devices illustrating some of 
 the prominent scenes in his admirable stories. For this 
 object a meeting was held last evening at the Astor 
 House, which was attended by fifty or sixty respectable 
 gentlemen. 
 
 "The Mayor presided, and a letter, of which I am 
 selected to be the author, was agreed upon, signed by 
 all present, and entrusted to David C. Colden, to be 
 delivered by him in person to Mr. Dickens, in Boston, 
 inviting him to the f&te and requesting him to name 
 the day on which it shall take place. This is all well, 
 but there is danger of overdoing the matter, and making 
 our well-meant hospitalities oppressive to the recipient. 
 We are a people of impulse ; when we get fairly mounted 
 upon the back of a lion, we are all apt to drive him with 
 might and mane, until the ' royal beast ' is fain to 
 escape from the menagerie." 
 
 At this meeting, the following resolutions were 
 Unanimously adopted — 
 
 "Resolved: That in the opinion of this meeting, it is 
 proper and becoming in the citizens of New York to 
 unite heartily in these demonstrations of respect and 
 esteem which have been,, and will be, everywhere in our 
 land called forth by the visit of Mr. Dickens to America ; 
 not because of his talents alone, but in consideration of 
 the noble use he has made of those talents, in indicating 
 the rights and claims and feelings of humanity at large, 
 without distinction of rank or circumstances." 
 
 "Resolved: That in welcoming Charles Dickens to 
 America, we feel that we are at once paying due homage 
 to genius and fulfilling the demands of gratitude; for 
 as individuals we owe gratitude to the minister of intel- 
 lectual delight, and also as Republicans we are bound 
 to thank him who has, in his writings, so eloquently 
 
106 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 maintained the cause of the humble and oppressed, who 
 exhibits, in every line, his own keen sensibility to wrong, 
 and the prevailing spirit of all whose work is a touching 
 illustration of the truth that in the elementary constitu- 
 tion of men there is no difference, whatever difference 
 may have been created." 
 
 "Resolved: That in the arrangement of a fitting recep- 
 tion for the visitor we delight to honour, regard be had 
 to the participation of the ladies; for we feel assured 
 that our countrymen will look with little favour on any 
 device which excludes them from joining in a festival 
 given in honour of him whose imagination and heart 
 gave birth to ' Little Nell.' " 
 
 "Resolved: That all gentlemen present, and such 
 others as may be hereafter named, constitute a General 
 Committee." 
 
 Mr. Hone's diary contains an entry of February i, 
 referring to meetings of the committees in charge of 
 arrangements for both the ball and dinner — 
 
 "I went to two Boz meetings last evening; one at the 
 Carlton House, of the dinnerites, at which Chief Justice 
 Jones presided. A committee of arrangement was ap- 
 pointed and the officers of the dinner selected. They 
 consist of Washington Irving, John Duer, John A. 
 King, Judge Betts and myself, and we are to determine 
 on the presiding officer and the names of the vice-presi- 
 dents. The other was a meeting of the ballites, at the 
 Astor House, the Mayor in the chair. A long report 
 from the Committee was adopted. This affair is in a 
 forward state, and promises to eclipse the Lafayette Ball 
 at Castle Garden." 
 
 The following is the letter to Mr. Dickens inviting him 
 to the ball, which Mr. Hone was delegated to prepare — 
 
 New York, January 26, 1842. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 The citizens of New York having received the 
 agreeable intelligence of your arrival in the United 
 States, and appreciating the value of your labours in the 
 
NEW YORK 
 
 107 
 
 cause of humanity, and the eminently successful exercise 
 of your literary talents, are ambitious to be among the 
 foremost in tendering to you and your lady the hearty 
 welcome which they are persuaded is in reserve for you 
 in all parts of our country. With this object in view, 
 we have been appointed a committee in behalf of a large 
 meeting of gentlemen convened for the purpose, to 
 request your attendance at a public ball to be given in 
 this city. 
 
 Mr. Colden, one of our members, will have the honour 
 of presenting the invitation, and is charged with the 
 agreeable duty of presenting their congratulations on 
 your arrival. We shall expect, through him, your kind 
 acceptance to this invitation and your designation of the 
 day when it may suit your convenience to attend. 
 
 We are, sir, 
 
 With great respect, 
 
 Yr. Obt. Servants — 
 
 Danl. B. Tallmadge. 
 
 Chas. A. Davis. 
 
 John C. Cheesman. 
 
 Wm. H. Maarwelt. 
 
 Prosper M. Wetmore. 
 
 A. M. Cozens. 
 
 John R. Livingstone, Jr. 
 
 Wm. B. Darr. 
 
 James M. Smith, Jr. 
 
 William Gran den. 
 
 Waddell. 
 
 D. S. Gregory. 
 
 Wm. Grimell. 
 
 Wm. Starr Miller. 
 
 F. A. Tallmadge. 
 
 Robt. W. Morris. 
 
 Philip Hone. 
 
 To Charles Dickens, Esq., etc. 
 
 Mr. Colden went to Boston and presented this letter 
 to Dickens, and returned to New York with the following 
 reply- 
 
 John W. Francis. 
 J. W. Edmonds. 
 Chas. W. Sanford. 
 Geo. P. Morris. 
 Wm. Turner. 
 A. G. Stout. 
 R. Faynweather. 
 W. R. 
 
 Martin Hoffman. 
 J. Beekman Fish. 
 James Phalen. 
 W. H. Appleton. 
 F. W. Edmunds. 
 S. Draper. 
 J. S. Bartlett. 
 John Inman. 
 
108 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Tremont House, Boston, January 28, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I beg to convey to the Committee of Gentlemen, 
 whose organ you are, very hearty and cordial thanks for 
 their most kind congratulations ; and my glad acceptance 
 of the honour they propose to confer upon me. 
 
 I have had the pleasure of seeing your agent, and 
 of explaining my movements and engagements to that 
 gentleman. Rest assured, that I shall be proud and 
 happy to meet you at any time you may appoint, after 
 receiving his explanation of my engagements. 
 
 With many thanks to you and the Committee 
 generally, 
 
 I am, My dear Sir, 
 
 Yours, faithfully and obliged, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 Robert Morris, Esq. 
 
 The date set by the Committee for the ball after 
 receiving this letter was Monday, February 14, and the 
 place at which it was to be held was the Park Theatre. 
 
 As stated, Dickens arrived in New York on Sunday, 
 13th, and on the next day there appeared in the Tribune 
 the following notice of his arrival — 
 
 "Charles Dickens with his lady reached our city on 
 Saturday, in the steamboat from New Haven, and was 
 allowed with very little annoyance to proceed to his 
 rooms at the Carlton House. A very miscellaneous, but 
 not large, assemblage had collected on the wharf where 
 he landed, but they were content to gratify their curiosity 
 in silence. We believe he was permitted to spend the 
 evening and the Sabbath in peace undisturbed — to go to 
 church or stay at home as he chose — to eat his dinner 
 undepressed by the brooding horror of a speech to make 
 at the end of it — and to go out and in unannoyed by a 
 spy standing ready to note down his words and caricature 
 his actions. If the facts were otherwise he will £t least 
 do our country the justice to satisfy himself that his tor- 
 mentors are not American. He will this evening attend 
 the grand ball given in honour of his visit at the Park 
 
NEW YORK 109 
 
 Theatre, and on Friday evening he will be present at a 
 superb dinner given him by our foremost citizens at the 
 City Hotel. He will leave the city on his progress south- 
 ward this day fortnight. We understand that he has 
 already promised to attend as many parties, dinners, 
 balls, etc., as will occupy the entire interim, leaving 
 little or no opportunity for unharassed observation. 
 This is to be regretted ; since it is not in our fashionable 
 and holiday life that he can find materials for future por- 
 traiture and higher intellectual effort. It was not in ball- 
 rooms and dinner parties that he learned to stir the heart 
 of universal humanity with the rugged fortunes of Oliver 
 Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, the woes of hapless Smike, 
 and the fortitude and purity of angelic Nell. 
 
 The following, from the Evening Post of February 4, 
 contains the report of the Committee in charge of the 
 "BozBall"— 
 
 B02 in New York. — The arrangements for reception 
 to Mr. Dickens in New York are on the most splendid 
 scale. A sub-committee, appointed by the general com- 
 mittee, to suggest a plan of proceeding, made the fol- 
 lowing report: "That they had considered it advisable 
 to offer Mr. Dickens and his lady a public ball ; that, to 
 heighten the effect of the ball, and in compliance with 
 the desire generally expressed, they recommended that 
 the ball-room should be made to represent compartments 
 of the ' Curiosity Shop,' in which the productions of 
 ' Boz ' might be illustrated ; and, in order to give a novel 
 and agreeable feature to the intended fete, they suggested 
 that a number of tableaux vivant should be formed 
 by competent artists, in the intervals of the dances, 
 ' drawn from the novels, poems, sketches and dramas of 
 Mr. Dickens, and shadowing forth in living pictures the 
 graphic and glowing descriptions of this singularly 
 gifted and original author.' " The Committee further- 
 recommended the following sketch of decorations and 
 devices for the ball-room and arrangements for the floor — 
 
 1 . The inside of the theatre to represent a magnificent 
 saloon hung with chandeliers. 
 
110 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 2. The audience part of the house to be ornamented 
 with festoons of flowers, garlands, draperies, and trophies 
 emblematical of the different States of the Union. 
 
 3. The floor to extend from the front of the boxes to 
 the back of the building, where, on an elevated stage, 
 arrangements be made for the representation of numerous 
 tableaux vivant from the works of Mr. Dickens, repre- 
 sented by artists, under the direction of the Committee. 
 
 4. The stage part of the theatre to be highly embel- 
 lished with various designs from the writings of "Boz," 
 illustrating many of the striking, original, novel, graphic 
 and familiar scenes. 
 
 5 . A full and sufficient orchestra, comprising the prin- 
 cipal musical talent at present in the city, to be engaged 
 and so arranged as to add to the general effect, without 
 diminishing the space allotted to the company. 
 
 6. The ball-room to afford accommodation for upwards 
 of 3,000 persons. 
 
 7. The following arrangements are also recom- 
 mended — 
 
 Order of the Dances and Tableaux Vivant. 
 
 1. Grand March. 
 
 2. Tableaux Vivant : A sketch 
 
 by Boz. 
 
 3. Amile Quadrille. 
 
 4. Tableaux Vivant : The Sea- 
 
 sons, a poem, music. 
 
 5. Quadrille Waltz, Selections. 
 
 6. Tableaux Vivant : The Book 
 
 of Oliver Twist. 
 
 7. Quadrille March, Norma. 
 
 8. Tableaux Vivant : The Ivy 
 
 Green. 
 
 9. Victoria Waltz. 
 
 10. Tableaux Vivant : Little Nell. 
 
 11. Basket Quadrille. 
 
 12. Tableaux Vivant : The Book 
 
 of Nicholas Nickleby. 
 
 13. March. 
 
 Tableaux Vivant : A sketch 
 by Boz. 
 
 15. Spanish Dance. 
 
 16. Tableaux Vivant: Pickwick 
 Papers. 
 
 Boz Waltz. 
 
 Tableaux Vivant : Washing- 
 ton Irving in England and 
 Charles Dickens in America. 
 
 Postillion Quadrille. 
 
 Tableaux Vivant : Curiosity 
 Shop. 
 
 March. 
 
 Tableaux Vivant : The Club. 
 
 23. Contra Dance. 
 
 24. Tableaux Vivant : The Book 
 
 of Bamaby Rudge. 
 
 25. Gallopade. 
 
 14. 
 
 17- 
 18. 
 
 19. 
 20. 
 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 On motion, it was resolved, that the chairman appoint 
 a sub-committee of sixteen to carry the foregoing arrange- 
 
NEW YORK BAY 
 
 CARLTON HOTEL, NEW YORK 
 
NEW YORK 111 
 
 ments into effect. The following gentlemen were then 
 named by the chair — 
 
 Philip Hone. William Starr Miller. 
 
 John C. Cheesman. Charles A. Davis. 
 
 Geo. P. Morris. Martin Hoffman. 
 
 J. W. Francis. 
 Henry Inman. 
 W. H. Maxwell. 
 
 John R. Livingstone, Jr. Daniel B. Tallmadge 
 Charles W. Sanford. 
 
 as. M. Smith, Jr. 
 'rosper M. Wetmore. 
 ohn W. Edmonds. 
 
 On February 8 the Evening Post published the rules 
 and regulations to be observed at the ball, which were 
 as follows — 
 
 "The ball to be given to Mr. Charles Dickens and lady 
 under the direction of a committee of citizens of New 
 York will take place at the Park Theatre on Monday, the 
 14th of February. 
 
 The doors to be open at half-past seven, and dancing 
 to commence at nine o'clock. 
 
 The Committee to appear in full ball dress, and wear 
 rosettes with appropriate designs. 
 
 Military and naval officers to appear in their respective 
 uniforms. 
 
 All fancy dresses to be positively excluded except such 
 as are admitted under the direction of the Committee. 
 
 An ample supply of refreshments to be provided for 
 the company. 
 
 Cloak- and retiring-rooms to be set aside for the accom- 
 modation of ladies, and suitable attendants to be in 
 waiting. 
 
 An awning to be erected in front of the theatre. 
 
 Carriages will come into line with the horses' heads 
 towards Chatham Street, and take up in the opposite 
 direction. 
 
 Gentlemen are requested to dismiss their carriages on 
 arriving at the door and to take the one opposite to the 
 entrance on their departure. 
 
 The superintendent of carriages will be in attendance 
 
112 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 to preserve regularity and to see that no imposition be 
 practised on the company through carelessness, extra 
 charges or otherwise. 
 
 An efficient police has been engaged to secure order 
 on the arrival and departure of the company. 
 
 No more persons will be admitted to the flte than the 
 ball-room can conveniently accommodate. 
 
 In behalf of the Committee of Citizens, 
 
 Robert H. Morris, Chairman. 
 
 D. C. Colden, V f, . • „ 
 D. C. Pell, / Secretaries. 
 
 The following description of the ball is taken from the 
 Evening Post of February 15 — 
 
 "The f6te at the Park Theatre, last evening, is 
 described as one of the most magnificent that has ever 
 been given in this city. The gorgeousness of the 
 decorations and the splendour of the dresses, no less than 
 the immense throng, glittering with silks and jewels, 
 contributed to the show and impressiveness of the occa- 
 sion. It is estimated that nearly three thousand people 
 were present, all richly dressed and sparkling with anima- 
 tion. The doors of the theatre were thrown open at half- 
 past seven o'clock, and such was the eagerness to get in 
 that in less than an hour the whole area of this immense 
 building was densely crowded. Great pains had been 
 taken with the decoration of the theatre, and the lobbies, 
 halls, saloons, boxes and green-rooms were each taste- 
 fully ornamented with festoons, wreaths, garlands, por- 
 traits and statues. The seats of the first tier were covered 
 with white muslin, trimmed with gold, and the columns 
 festooned with fine drapery. The second tier was orna- 
 mented with a series of medallions, rosettes and silver 
 stars, representing the works of the distinguished guest 
 of the evening, the centre ornament being the head of 
 Mr. Dickens, surmounted by an eagle holding a laurel 
 wreath. In the middle of the theatre was the orchestra, 
 containing twenty-five seats, covered with muslin and 
 gold, and hung with wreaths ; while the stage part of the 
 room represented a large and magnificent chamber of 
 
NEW YORK 118 
 
 carved and gilded oak, with deep Gothic windows on 
 each side, and a lofty, fretted ceiling. The whole 
 appearance was striking beyond description. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens entered the theatre about nine o'clock, 
 and after proceeding to the back part of the stage, was 
 introduced by the Mayor to those who wished to speak 
 with him. ' Mrs. Dickens,' says the reporter of the 
 Express, ' is a fine-looking Englishwoman, and appeared 
 much to enjoy the honours given her husband. Soon 
 after entering, both participated in the dance in the 
 cotillion in the centre of the room. Mr. Dickens was 
 dressed in a suit of black, with a gay vest, and Mrs. 
 Dickens in a white, figured Irish tabinet trimmed with 
 mazarine blue flowers ; a wreath of the same colour round 
 her head, and with pearl necklace and earrings. Her 
 hair was curled in long ringlets.' 
 
 "Between the different dances the tableaux vivant 
 were exhibited at the back of the stage. A curtain, 
 painted like the frontispiece of the Pickwick Papers, was 
 drawn up at the sound of a gong, when the artists pro- 
 cured for the occasion were discovered in attitudes and 
 positions descriptive of several familiar passages from 
 Mr. Dickens's works. These were — 
 
 i. Mrs. Leo Hunter's dress, dejeuner. 
 
 2. The middle-aged lady in the double-bedded room. 
 
 3. Mrs. Bardell faints in Mr. Pickwick's arms. 
 
 4. Mrs. Bardell encounters Mr. Pickwick in prison. 
 
 5. The red-nosed man discourseth. 
 
 6. Mr. and Mrs. Mantalini in Ralph Nickleby's office. 
 
 7. Oliver Twist at Mr. Maylie's door. 
 
 8. Little Nell, her grandfather, the military gentle- 
 
 man, and Mr. Slum's unexpected appearance. 
 
 9. Little Nell leading her grandfather. 
 
 10. The Stranger scrutinizing Barnaby's features in 
 
 the widow's cottage. 
 
 11. The Pickwick Club. 
 
 12. Washington Irving in England and Charles 
 
 Dickens in America. 
 
 "The festivities, which passed off with much good 
 feeling, were continued to a late hour in the night." 
 1 
 
114 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Mr. Hone wrote in his. journal, the day after the 
 "Boz Ball"— 
 
 "Feb. 15. — The agony is over; the ' Boz Ball,' the 
 greatest affair in modern times, the latest compliment 
 ever paid to a little man, the fullest libation ever poured 
 upon the altar of the muses, came off last evening in fine 
 style; everything answered the public expectations, and 
 no untoward circumstances occurred to make anybody 
 sorry he went. 
 
 " The author of the Pickwick Papers is a small, bright- 
 eyed, intelligent-looking young fellow, thirty years of 
 age, somewhat of a dandy in his dress, with ' rings and 
 things in fine array,' brisk in his manner, and of a lively 
 conversation. If he does not get his head turned by 
 all this, I shall wonder at it. Mrs. Dickens is a little, 
 plump, English-looking woman, of an agreeable coun- 
 tenance, and, I should think, ' a nice person.' " 
 
 In Forty Years in America, the author, T. L. Nichols, 
 M.D., who attended the "Boz Ball," gives the following 
 account — 
 
 " So it was a ball at the Park Theatre — the Old Drury 
 of New York— where the Cookes, the Keans and 
 Kembles had delighted us, that was fixed upon. There 
 was a supper, I believe, and there was a series of tableaux 
 vivant, representing some of the best scenes in the Pick- 
 wick Papers, and the earlier works of the ' immortal 
 Boz.' I remember the immense crowd of the ' beauty 
 and fashion ' of New York that filled the theatre from 
 its dancing-floor, laid over stage and pit, to the gallery. 
 I remember the mixed committee, official, fashionable 
 and literary, and some one who aspired to all these dis- 
 tinctions. I think Irving and Cooper were there — I am 
 sure of Halleck and Bryant. Willis sported his ringlets 
 there, no doubt ; and can I ever forget the beaming, rosy, 
 perspiring face of the American Korner, General George 
 P. Morris? 
 
 "There was a rush near the door, a flutter through the 
 crowded theatre, a hush of expectation, a burst of ' See 
 the Conquering Hero comes, ' and the author of Pickwick 
 and the Uncommercial Traveller, with all of the honour 
 
NEW YORK 115 
 
 and pathos that lie between, burst upon our astonished 
 and delighted vision. Then the cheers, then the waving 
 of handkerchiefs from floor to boxes, and all the tiers— 
 and tears, no doubt, of joy and happiness, and bouquets 
 innumerable, gave what was possible to the irrepressible 
 enthusiasm of the hour. 
 
 "I remember Mr. Dickens as my eye caught him 
 there, with all that throng around him, and he the 
 cynosure of ten thousand eyes, allowing each person 
 present the usual number. His hair was in the bright 
 gloss of its youthful, silken curls ; his face was full, and 
 ruddy with English health — not seamed, as now, with 
 the thought and work of all these years. His dress was, 
 I thought, sufficiently pronounced; but he was, on the 
 whole, eminently satisfactory and sufficiently imposing. 
 It was hard to open a passage where two or three thou- 
 sand people were crowding to see and be near, if pos- 
 sible, shake hands with him, but with tremendous efforts 
 he was escorted round the room. 
 
 "We tried to dance. Mrs. General Morris honoured 
 the thrice-honoured author with her fair hand for a 
 quadrille, but the effort to dance was absurd. I remem- 
 ber being in a set with two young army officers who 
 were afterwards heroes in Mexico, but even their prowess 
 could do little toward carrying their partners through 
 the galop in such a rush. Happily it was before the age 
 of crinoline, and what room there was we made the most 
 of; but it was like dancing in a canebrake, the poor 
 girls clinging to their partners to avoid being swept 
 beyond their power to protect them." 
 
 While Dickens wrote Forster that if he dropped a letter 
 in the street it would be related in the newspapers the 
 next day, a careful search of the New York Evening 
 Post and New York Tribune, with the exception of full 
 accounts of the ball and the dinner, fails to discover 
 much, if any, to which he could take exception, as the 
 only items found of a personal nature were brief notices 
 that he had attended two private dinners, had gone to 
 church on Sunday, had visited the Tombs, and that he 
 had left the city and gone to Philadelphia. In fact, 
 
 12 
 
116 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 neither of these papers gives any personal mention of his 
 days from February 13 to March 5, a period of three 
 weeks, with the exceptions noted above. Dickens, how- 
 ever, in American Notes, tells of his visits to various 
 public institutions, and of his wanderings around the 
 city streets, Broadway, the Bowery, and visits to the 
 theatres. Mr. Putnam wrote concerning his stay in New 
 York — 
 
 "Prof. Felton was often with him, and some quiet 
 evening walks were taken about the metropolis by the 
 two, in which they visited some of the fashionable 
 restaurants of the city. Speaking of the oyster suppers, 
 in his Notes Mr. Dickens always alludes to his friend as 
 the ' heartiest of Greek professors.' 
 
 "Washington Irving came very often, and the meeting 
 of these kindred spirits was such as might have been 
 expected. They were delighted with each other, and at 
 all hours they were admitted. A great ball was given 
 in honour 'of Mr. Dickens and his lady, a full account 
 of which was given in the papers of that day. 
 
 " Besides Irving and Felton, came Bryant, Willis, Hal- 
 leck, Clark of the Knickerbocker, and many others of the 
 stars of the literary firmament ; and on one occasion Mr. 
 Dickens had to breakfast with him, Irving, Bryant and 
 Halleck. The clerk of the Carlton was himself a great 
 lover of literature, and remarked to me, ' Good Heaven ! 
 to think what the four walls of that room now contain ! 
 Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, FitzGreene 
 Halleck and Charles Dickens.' " 
 
 Mr. Charles Lanman of Georgetown, D.C., who was 
 a friend of both Dickens and Irving, in an article pub- 
 lished shortly after Dickens's death, wrote that Irving 
 not only visited Dickens in New York in 1842, but that 
 Dickens visited Irving at his residence at Sunnyside. 
 
 Professor Felton, in his remarks on the death of 
 Washington Irving, before the Historical Society of 
 Massachusetts, gave some of his recollections of the 
 intimacy between Dickens and Irving. He said — 
 
 "I passed much of the time with Mr. Dickens and 
 
NEW YORK 117 
 
 Mr. Irving, and it was delightful to witness the cordial 
 intercourse of the young man, in the flush and glory of 
 his fervent genius, and his older compeer, then in the 
 assured possession of immortal renown. Dickens said 
 in his frank, hearty manner, that from his childhood he 
 had known the works of Irving; and that before he 
 thought of coming to this country, he had received a 
 letter from him, expressing the delight he felt in reading 
 the story of Little Nell." 
 
 Dickens in one of his letters to Forster related how 
 Irving broke down in his speech at the Dickens Dinner 
 at the City Hotel, but none of the New York newspapers 
 mentioned the fact. 
 
 The Aurora of Tuesday, February 15, contained the 
 following notice of the two private dinners which 
 Dickens attended — 
 
 "Yesterday, Mr. Dickens and lady dined with Charles 
 A. Davis, Esq., who resides, we believe, at 365, Broad- 
 way, and is a merchant on Broad Street. This gentle- 
 man is also distinguished in literature as the author of 
 the letters of Major Jack Downing, which appeared in 
 the New York Daily Advertiser, much the best of all 
 that have been written under that signature. 
 
 "This was a very quiet and excellent affair, and one 
 calculated to give Mr. Dickens a very favourable idea 
 of our society. 
 
 "To-day (Tuesday) he will also dine out, and, if we 
 are not misinformed, with Daniel C. Colden, Esq., of 
 28, Laight Street. It will doubtless be an elegant affair, 
 and the quiet family party, which Mr. Dickens insists 
 upon, will be made up of the elite of the ancient regime. 
 Indeed, it is probable that Mr. Dickens was never, in 
 England, admitted into such really good society as since 
 he landed in this country. He has seen and will see 
 more aristocracy in Boston and New York than he has 
 ever seen, and probably ever will see, in his native land." 
 
 The Aurora is the paper which Dickens referred to in 
 one of his letters to Forster, dated February 17, in which 
 he wrote — 
 
118 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "Another paper, coming after the ball, dwells upon its 
 splendour and brilliancy, hugs itself and its readers upon 
 all that Dickens saw ; and winds up by gravely express- 
 ing its conviction that Dickens was never in such society 
 in England as he has seen in New York, and that its 
 high and striking tone cannot fail to make an indelible 
 impression on his mind ! " 
 
 On Sunday, the 20th, Dickens attended St. John's 
 Church with ex-President Van Buren. On Thursday, 
 the 24th, he attended a private dinner at the Astor 
 House, as shown by the following notice from the New 
 York Express — 
 
 "Another Dinner to Dickens — On Thursday last 
 Mr. Dickens fulfilled his last engagement in this city, 
 when he dined with some fifty gentlemen at the Astor 
 House. The dinner was strictly private, and, feeling 
 this, each one threw off all those formalities he is com- 
 pelled to assume when he knows every word and action 
 is readily noted to be blazoned forth to the world. Mirth 
 and good humour were the order of the night — the guest 
 delighted the company with two speeches abounding with 
 rich humour and given most inimitably, and charmed 
 every one by his unaffected manners and the spirit with 
 which he entered into the engagements of the evening." 
 
 The following extract from the Tribune of February 
 23 is given, for the reason that it contains a letter of 
 Dickens which is not included in the published volumes 
 of his letters — 
 
 C. H. Delevan's Lecture. — Notwithstanding the 
 many festive and other birthday celebrations held last 
 evening throughout the city, a Lecture on Temperance 
 delivered by C. H. Delevan, Esq., at the Hall of the 
 New York Society Library, drew a full and respectable 
 audience. He divided the subject into four parts or 
 classifications : economy, health and mental capacity, 
 laws of decorum, and patriotism ; which he forcibly illus- 
 trated by the retrospective and concurrent effects of in- 
 temperance. Previous to the lecture Mr. D read the 
 
 following communication from Charles Dickens, Esq. — 
 
NEW YORK 119 
 
 Carlton House, February 16. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I very much regret, and so does Mrs. Dickens, 
 that in consequence of the numerous engagements which 
 we have made, it is not in our power to accept the 
 welcome invitation of the New York Mechanics' Insti- 
 tute. And I assure you that I regret this the more 
 because I have formed the very highest respect for the 
 object which brings them together on the anniversary 
 of Washington's birthday, and for its great influence 
 upon the most valuable portions of society. 
 
 I am, dear sir, yours faithfully and obliged, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 Charles H. Delevan, Esq. 
 
 Monday, March 2, was the day Dickens visited the 
 " Tombs " prison which he has so graphically described 
 in the Notes. The Evening Post mentions the visit in 
 the following brief item — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens has not yet left the city, being detained 
 by the serious indisposition of his Lady. He walked 
 through the Tombs yesterday, incognito, and visited 
 most of the cells." 
 
 The following article from the Evening Post of 
 February 18 is interesting as giving the editor's idea of 
 the reason for the enthusiasm with which Dickens was 
 received in the United States — 
 
 "The Ovations to Mr. Dickens — The French journal 
 of this city, Le Courier des Etats Unis, is endeavouring 
 to account for the enthusiasm which has been manifested 
 toward the author of the Pickwick Papers. It is a 
 curious problem, it says, of the social physiology that 
 deserves to be solved. Three causes are then assigned 
 to account for what it considers this extraordinary 
 ebullition of feeling. 
 
 "The first of these is the instinctive desire which 
 Americans have to refute the accusations of coldness, 
 self-love, money-making, and Puritanic strictness, 
 
120 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 brought against them by foreigners, and to do this they 
 resort to unusual displays, just as a man charged with 
 avarice will indulge in some splendid extravagance to 
 retrieve his reputation. The second is that they suppose 
 the author has come to study their character and institu- 
 tions, and are anxious to conciliate his good opinion, 
 even to the extent of bribing his judgment. Like a 
 young miss who expects a new lover, they take care to 
 make their toilette with pains. And the third is that the 
 austerity of our religious tenets and forms, preventing 
 the people from those everyday social amusements to 
 which other nations are accustomed, take these occasions 
 to give vent to their natural love of hilarity and excite- 
 ment. Six days are employed in the counting-house, 
 and the seventh in the church. 
 
 "We do not think our French critic has gone to the 
 bottom of this matter. The main cause of the movement 
 to which he refers is the merit of the individual, and an 
 honourable desire on the part of the community to testify 
 their appreciation of it. Many who take a more active 
 part are, no doubt, prompted by a vain curiosity, or by 
 a paltry ambition to render themselves conspicuous. 
 But the great majority of them, we believe, are sincere 
 admirers of the man and his work. His more obvious 
 excellences are of that kind which are the more easily 
 understood by all classes — by the stable-boy as well as 
 the statesman. His intimate knowledge of character, 
 his familiarity with the language and experience of low 
 life, his genuine, humour, his narrative power, and the 
 cheerfulness of his philosophy, are traits that impress 
 themselves upon minds of every description. But 
 besides these, he has many higher traits to interest the 
 higher orders of mind. They are such as recommend 
 him particularly to Americans. His sympathies seek 
 out that class with whom American institutions and laws 
 sympathize most strongly. He has found subjects of 
 thrilling interest in the passions, sufferings and virtues 
 of the mass. As Dr. Channing has said, ' he shows that 
 life in its rudest form may wear a tragic grandeur ; that 
 amidst follies and excesses, provoking laughter or scorn, 
 the moral feelings do not wholly die ; and that the haunts 
 
NEW YORK 121 
 
 of the blackest crime are sometimes lighted up by the 
 presence and influence of the noblest souls. His pictures 
 have a tendency to awaken sympathy with our race, to 
 change the unfeeling indifference which has prevailed 
 toward the depressed multitude into a sorrowful and 
 indignant sensibility to their wrongs and woes. 
 
 " Here we have the secrets of the attentions that have 
 been showered upon Mr. Dickens. That they may have 
 been carried too far is possible; yet we are disposed to 
 regard them, even in their excess, with favour. We 
 have so long been accustomed to seeing the homage of 
 the multitude paid to men of mere titles or military 
 chieftains that we have grown tired of it. We are glad 
 to see the mind asserting its supremacy — to find its 
 rights generally recognized. We rejoice that a young 
 man without birth, wealth, title, or a sword, whose only 
 claims to distinction are in his intellect and heart, is 
 received with a feeling that was formerly rendered only 
 to conquerors and kings. It is but a fair return. The 
 author, by his genius, has contributed happy moments 
 to the lives of thousands, and it is right that the thou- 
 sands should recompense the gift. If their enthusiasm 
 shall be always as discriminating as it is in this instance, 
 there will be little reason to complain. 
 
 "Yet, it must be confessed, there is much truth in 
 the third position assumed by the writer for the French 
 journal." 
 
 The account of the dinner at the City Hotel has been 
 reserved for a separate chapter, containing, as it does, 
 so many interesting speeches, and particularly that of 
 Mr. Mathews on International Copyright, which gives 
 the arguments from the standpoint of both the American 
 and English authors. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE DINNER AT THE CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 
 
 The following invitation was sent to Mr. Dickens on 
 his arrival at Boston — 
 
 New York, January, 1842. 
 
 To Charles Dickens, Esq. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 The undersigned, for themselves, and in behalf 
 of a wide circle of their fellow-citizens, desire to con- 
 gratulate you on your safe arrival, and tender to you a 
 sincere and hearty welcome. 
 
 Though personally unknown, still we can assure you 
 that you will find yourself no stranger among us. That 
 genius with which you have been so, singularly gifted, 
 and which your pen has directed with such consummate 
 skill, in delineating every passion and sympathy and 
 peculiarity of the human mind, has secured to you a 
 passport to all hearts; whilst your happy personifica- 
 tions, and apt illustrations pointing at every turn a 
 practical and fruitful moral, have rendered your name 
 as familiar to us as household words. 
 
 In testimony of our respect and high regard, as a 
 slight, though thankful tribute to your genius, we 
 request that you will name as early a day as will suit 
 your convenience to meet us in this city, at a public 
 dinner, where, as elsewhere, it will be our pride and 
 pleasure to express to you our gratitude for the many 
 rich intellectual feasts you have so often spread before 
 us. 
 
 We are very sincerely and cordially, your friends, 
 
 122 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 123 
 
 S. Jones. 
 
 William T. McCoun. 
 Saml. R. Betts. 
 John Duer. 
 Henry Cary. 
 Theodore Sedgwick. 
 Wm. Saml. Johnson. 
 D. S. Kennedy. 
 James G. King. 
 Henry Brevoort. 
 Charles March. 
 Anthony Barclay. 
 J. Prescott Hall. 
 James Gallatin. 
 John A. King. 
 Wm. Kent. 
 David S. Colden. 
 G. G. Howland. 
 James I. Jones. 
 Jacob R. Leroy. 
 M. C. Patterson. 
 
 Washington Irving. 
 Philip Hone. 
 Daniel B. Tallmadge. 
 David S. Jones. 
 Martin Hoffman. 
 Charles King. 
 Wm. C. Bryant. 
 Wm. B. Astor. 
 Maturin Livingston. 
 Hamilton Fish, 
 as. D. P. Ogden. 
 
 H. Grinnell. 
 Wm. H. Aspinwall. 
 Edward Curtis. 
 Edward Jones. 
 Wm. C. Rhinelander. 
 Abm. Schermerhorn. 
 Thos. W. Ludlow. 
 FitzGreene Halleck. 
 Chas. Augs. Davis. 
 
 & 
 
 Mr. Dickens's reply — 
 
 Tremont House, Boston, 
 
 January 27, 1842 
 
 My dear Sirs, 
 
 I need not tell you that I accept with inexpressible 
 pride and pleasure the invitation with which you have 
 honoured me, and I cannot tell you how much moved and 
 gratified I have been by the terms in which it is conveyed. 
 Your kind and earnest words have done my heart good — 
 you have made me feel indeed that I am no stranger 
 among you, and I have looked at your names a hundred 
 times, as if they were the faces of old friends. 
 
 As nearly as I can guess, I shall be in New York 
 on Saturday, the 12th of February, or it may be a day 
 earlier. Any day toward the latter end of the following 
 week that will suit you, will suit me. 
 
 Be assured that you cannot name any time which 
 will not be a bright day in the calendar of my life, and 
 
124 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 that all hours and seasons will be alike welcome to 
 me. 
 
 Believe me, dear sirs, with cordial and affectionate 
 regard, your faithful friend, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 To the Committee, etc., etc., New York. 
 
 The day fixed for the dinner was Friday, February 
 1 8, and the following report of the dinner is reprinted 
 from the New York Evening Post of February 19, with 
 the exception of the speech by Mr. Cornelius Mathews, 
 which is taken from the Tribune — 
 
 Dinner to Mr. Dickens. — A large number of persons 
 were present at the complimentary entertainment given 
 to Mr. Charles Dickens, at the City Hotel, last evening. 
 Washington Irving presided on the occasion, assisted 
 by Judge Betts, Philip Duer, John Hone, Gulian C. 
 Verplanck, John A. King and James de Peyster Ogden, 
 who acted as vice-presidents. 
 
 The tables were sumptuously furnished with all the 
 delicacies of the season and the room was elegantly 
 decorated and arranged. Reverend Henry W. Bellows, 
 of the Unitarian Church, asked the benediction, and 
 after the cloth was removed the president rose and 
 said — 
 
 I never regretted more than I do at this moment my 
 want of the habit of public speaking. For I feel that I 
 could now wish to give way to the current of my 
 thoughts and feelings. And yet I am like a poor horse- 
 man and must be careful how I get into the saddle or 
 I shall be thrown from my seat. And yet, on further 
 consideration, I do not see much cause to regret this 
 inability of mine to interest you in this way; for I feel 
 that there will be no want of champions ready to take 
 my place. I see so many of them round me at this 
 moment, firmly seated in their saddles, and who find it 
 difficult to rein in their steeds, until the signal is given 
 them to start. So, therefore, I leave the field, and with 
 a few preliminary remarks I will dispose of my part of 
 
CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 
 Where the ' Dickens Dinner ' was given 
 
 - 
 
 PARK THEATRE, NEW YORK 
 Where ' Boz Ball ' took place 
 
 124 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 125 
 
 the subject. I confess I never rose under deeper or 
 more pleasurable excitement or with more feelings of 
 pride as an author, than when I look around on this 
 assembly of my townsmen, met to greet the arrival of 
 an author among them. I never was more proudly con- 
 scious of the intellectual character of my countrymen 
 than in witnessing this burst of enthusiasm which has 
 been echoed from city to city, to welcome a mere literary 
 visitor to our land. (Applause.) And this, too, at a 
 time of great public distress, when every mind, more 
 or less, is corroded by care, and the most prosperous 
 among us doubts the foundation of his prosperity. 
 
 Gentlemen, this enthusiasm is of the right kind. It 
 speaks well for the people — it speaks well for the nation. 
 We have been accused of being sordid and mercenary — 
 and too much given up to the pursuits of our more 
 worldly interests. But in the present instance our en- 
 thusiasm has given the lie to the charge and has spon- 
 taneously arisen in one wide scene of homage paid to 
 intellect. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, it is impossible for 
 me to proceed — gentlemen — I'll give you a toast — 
 
 Charles Dickens, the literary guest of the nation. 
 
 When the applause with which this sentiment was 
 greeted had subsided, Mr. Dickens arose and spoke 
 substantially as follows — 
 
 Gentlemen — I don't know how to thank you — I really 
 don't know how. You would naturally suppose that 
 my former experience would have given me this power, 
 and that the difficulties in my way would have been 
 diminished, but I assure you the fact is actually the 
 reverse and I have completely baulked the ancient 
 proverb that "a rolling stone gathers no moss," and in 
 my progress in this city I have collected such a weight 
 of obligations and acknowledgments — I have picked up 
 such an enormous mass of fresh moss at every point, 
 and was so struck with the brilliant scenes of Monday 
 night, that I thought I could never by any possibility 
 grow any bigger. Allow me again : I have made 
 
126 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 continually new accumulations to such an extent that I 
 am compelled to stand still, and can roll no more ! 
 
 Gentlemen, we learn from the authorities that when 
 fairy stones, or balls or rolls of thread, stopped of their 
 own accord — which I do not — it presaged some great 
 catastrophe to be near at hand. The precedent holds 
 good in this case. When I have remembered the short 
 time I have before me to spend in this land of mighty 
 interests, and the poor opportunity I can at best have 
 of acquiring a knowledge of, and forming an acquaint- 
 ance with it, I have felt it almost a duty to decline the 
 honours you so generously heap upon me and pass more 
 quietly among you, for Argus himself, though he had 
 but one mouth for his hundred eyes, would have found 
 the reception of a public entertainment once a week too 
 much for his greatest activity; and as I would lose no 
 scrap of the rich instruction and the delightful know- 
 ledge which meet me on every hand, and already I have 
 gleaned a great deal from your hospitals and common 
 jails, I have resolved to take up my staff and go my 
 way rejoicing, and for the future to shake hands with 
 America not at parties, but at home; and therefore, 
 gentlemen, I say to-night with a full heart and an honest 
 purpose and grateful feelings that I bear, and shall 
 ever bear, the deep sense of your kind, your affectionate 
 and your noble greeting — which it is utterly impossible 
 to convey in words. No European sky without and no 
 cheerful home or well-warmed room within shall ever 
 shut out this land from my vision. I shall often hear 
 your words of welcome in my quiet room and oftenest 
 when most quiet ; and shall see your faces in the blazing 
 fire. If I should live to grow old, the scenes of this 
 and other evenings will shine as brightly to my dull 
 eyes fifty years hence as now — and the honours you 
 bestow upon me shall be well remembered and paid back 
 in my undying love and honest endeavours for the good 
 of my race. 
 
 Gentlemen, one other word with reference to this first 
 person singular, then I shall close. I came here in an 
 open, honest and confiding spirit if ever man did, and 
 because I felt a deep sympathy in your land; had I felt 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 127 
 
 otherwise, I should have kept away. As I came here, 
 and am here, without the least admixture of one hun- 
 dredth part of one grain of base alloy, without one 
 feeling of unworthy reference to self in any respect, I 
 claim in reference to the past for the last time, my right 
 in reason, in truth and in justice, to approach as I have 
 done on two former occasions, a question of literary 
 interest. I claim that justice be done, and I prefer this 
 claim as one who has a right to speak and be heard. 
 I have only to add that I shall be as true to you as you 
 have been to me. I recognize in your enthusiastic 
 approval of the creatures of my fancy, your enlightened 
 care for the happiness of the many, your tender regard 
 for the afflicted, your sympathy for the downcast, your 
 plans for correcting and improving the bad, and for 
 encouraging the good; and to advance these great 
 objects shall be to the end of my life my earnest 
 endeavour to the extent of my humble ability. 
 
 Having said this much with reference to myself, I 
 shall have the pleasure of saying a few words with 
 reference to somebody else. 
 
 There is in this city a gentleman who at the reception 
 of one of my books — I well remember it was The Old 
 Curiosity Shop — wrote to me in England a letter so 
 generous, so affectionate, and so manly that if I had 
 written the book under every circumstance of disappoint- 
 ment, of discouragement and difficulty, instead of the 
 reverse, I should have found in the receipt of that letter 
 the best and most happy reward. I answered him and 
 he answered me, and so we kept shaking autographic- 
 ally, as if no ocean rolled between us. I came here to 
 this city eager to meet him, and [laying his hand upon 
 Irving's shoulder] here he sits ! I need not tell you 
 how happy and delighted I am to see him here to-night 
 in this capacity. 
 
 Washington Irving ! Why, gentlemen, I don't go 
 upstairs to bed two nights out of the seven — as a very 
 creditable witness near at hand can testify — I say I do not 
 go to bed two nights out of the seven without taking 
 Washington Irving under my arm. 
 
 And when I don't take him, I take his own brother, 
 
128 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. Washington Irving! Why, of 
 whom but he was I thinking the other day when I came 
 up by Hog's Back, the Frying Pan, Hell Gate and all 
 these places? Why, when not long ago I visited 
 Shakespeare's birthplace, and went beneath the roof 
 where he first saw light, whose name but his was pointed 
 out to me upon the wall ? Washington Irving — 
 Knickerbocker — Geoffrey Crayon — why, where can you 
 go that they have not been there before? Is there an 
 English farm — is there an English street, an English 
 city or an English country-seat where they have not 
 been ? Is there no Bracebridge Hali in the distance ? 
 Has it no ancient shades or quiet streets ? 
 
 In bygone times, when Irving left that hall, he left 
 sitting in an old oak chair, in a small parlour of the 
 Boar's Head, a little man with a red nose and an oilskin 
 hat. When I came away he was sitting there still ! 
 Not a man like him, but the same man — with the nose 
 of immortal redness and the hat of an undying glaze ! 
 Crayon, while there, was on terms of intimacy with a 
 certain Radical fellow who used to go about with a hat 
 full of newspapers, woefully out at elbows, and with a 
 coat of great antiquity. Why, gentlemen, I know that 
 man — Tibbies the Elder, and he has not changed a 
 hair. And when I came away he charged me to give 
 his best respects to Washington Irving. 
 
 Leaving the town and the rustic life of London, for- 
 getting this man if we can, putting out of mind the 
 Country Churchyard and The Broken Heart, let us 
 cross the water again, and ask who has associated him- 
 self most closely with the Italian peasantry and the 
 bandits of the Pyrenees ? When the traveller enters his 
 little chamber beyond the Alps, listening to the dim 
 echoes of the long passages and spacious corridors, 
 damp and gloomy and cold — as he hears the tempest 
 beating with fury against his window, and gazes at the 
 curtains, dark and heavy and covered with mould, and 
 when all ghost stories that ever were told come up before 
 him — mid all his thick-coming fancies, whom does he 
 think of ? Washington Irving. Go farther still — go to 
 the Moorish fountains, sparking full in the moonlight — 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 129 
 
 go among the water-carriers and the village gossips, 
 living still as in days of old, and who has travelled 
 among them before you, and peopled the Alhambra, 
 and made eloquent its shadows? Who awakes there 
 a voice from every hill and in every tavern, and bids 
 legends, which for centuries have slept a dreamless 
 sleep or watched unwinkingly, start up and pass before 
 you in all their glory? 
 
 But leaving this again, who embarked with Columbus 
 upon his gallant ship— traversed with him the dark and 
 mighty ocean — leaped upon the land and planted there 
 the flag of Spain — but this same man now sitting by 
 my side ? And being here at home again, who is a more 
 fit companion for money diggers, and what pen but his 
 has made Rip Van Winkle — playing at ninepins on 
 that thundering afternoon — as much a part and parcel 
 of the Catskill Mountains as any tree or crag that they 
 can boast. 
 
 But these are topics familiar from my boyhood, and 
 which I am apt to pursue, and lest I should be tempted 
 now to talk too long about him, I will in conclusion 
 give you a sentiment — most appropriate, I am sure, in 
 
 the presence of such writers as Bryant, Halleck and 
 
 But I suppose I must not mention the ladies here — , 
 
 The Literature of America — She well knows how to 
 do honour to her own literature, and to that of other 
 lands, when she chooses Washington Irving for her 
 representative in the country of Cervantes. 
 
 Judge Betts, the first vice-president, when called on 
 for a sentiment, after a brief and pertinent address, gave 
 the following — 
 
 The Literature of Romance — Its highest powers 
 have been displayed in depicting everyday life, and the 
 language of everyday life. 
 
 John Duer, Esg., second vice-president, was called 
 upon. He said: "Mr. President, it is a duty, a most 
 solemn duty, I am called upon to perform, and I shall 
 perform it with a solemnity befitting the occasion. And 
 if any person here is supposing that he will be enter- 
 tained, or find occasion for jest or unseemly merriment, 
 K 
 
130 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 his hopes will be sadly disappointed. I stand here in 
 the capacity of public prosecutor of one accused of high 
 crimes and misdemeanours. Without further preamble I 
 shall proceed to discharge my duty. You have before 
 you a great criminal, and you, gentlemen, are the jury 
 empanelled to pass on the guilt or innocence of the 
 accused. We have had great difficulty in getting pos- 
 session of the person of the criminal. He has recently 
 arrived in this country, and was immediately seized by 
 some evil-disposed persons, and while in their hands 
 forced to submit to such treatment that to me it is a 
 wonder and mystery that he was able to survive. He is 
 now here, and we have to pass upon his guilt or inno- 
 cence, and I have no doubt that he will receive his 
 deserts. This paper which I hold in my hand is an 
 indictment recently found. (Great laughter.) Really, 
 gentlemen, this laughter upon this solemn occasion 
 appears to me very unseemly. This paper, I say, is 
 an indictment recently found by the Grand Jury of the 
 City and County of New York. It is endorsed Wash- 
 ington Irving, Foreman, Charles A. Davis, Secretary — 
 so that its authenticity cannot be doubted. This indict- 
 ment I shall now proceed to read, and I ask for it your 
 serious attention — 
 
 City and County of New York, SS. 
 
 The Grand Jurors of the City and County of New 
 York, in the Name and Behalf of the People of the 
 State of New York and of the United States, on their 
 oaths present that one Charles Dickens, otherwise called 
 Boz, now or late of the city of Westminster, in that 
 part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland called England, Gent, not having the fear of 
 critics before his eyes, and being thereunto moved and 
 instigated by a certain familiar spirit, and restless 
 genius, heretofore, to wit, on the first day of January, 
 in the year 1836, and on diverse days and times during 
 the said year 1836, and during the year 1837, at the 
 city of Westminster aforesaid, to wit, in the city and 
 county of New York, made, composed, indicted, wrote, 
 
WASHINGTON IRVING 
 
 U 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 131 
 
 printed and published, or caused and procured to be 
 printed and published, in a succession or series of, 
 numbers, and in pamphlet form, diverse papers loosely 
 stitched, called and known by the name, appellation or 
 denomination of Pickwick Papers; and that the said 
 Charles Dickens, otherwise called Boz, during the year 
 aforesaid, and on diverse days and times in every sub- 
 sequent year, to the year 1841 inclusive, by the means, 
 intervention and agency of diverse subordinate persons 
 called editors, publishers and booksellers, to wit, 5000 
 editors, 10,000 publishers and 10,000 booksellers, caused 
 and procured the said Pickwick Papers to be reprinted 
 and re-published in a great variety of shapes and forms, 
 to wit, in newspapers, weekly journals, magazines, 
 pamphlets and books ; and that the said Charles Dickens, 
 otherwise called Boz, during the years aforesaid, in 
 addition to the copies sold and distributed in the said 
 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of 
 the continent of Europe, caused and procured, by and 
 through his agents aforesaid, a large number of copies, 
 to wit, 200,000 copies of the said Pickwick Papers, so 
 reprinted and republished, to be vended, sold, circulated 
 dispersed and distributed throughout the State of New 
 York aforesaid, and throughout the United States, and 
 in every city, town, village and hamlet thereof : 
 
 And the Grand Jurors aforesaid, on their oaths afore- 
 said, further say that the said Pickwick Papers purport 
 to contain a history of the proceedings, actions and 
 discourses of the members of a certain pretended asso- 
 ciation or club, called the Pickwick Club, and' that in 
 the said history, the ingredients of which, humour and 
 pathos, are mixed and compounded with so much skill 
 and art, and the various events, incidents, adventures 
 and scenes therein related are painted, are described, 
 with so much vivacity and force and with such a deep 
 insight into the true springs of human action and 
 thought, and the characters of the persons therein intro- 
 duced, and rendered throughout so probable and con- 
 sistent, that the , whole narration is made to wear and 
 assume the semblance of truth, nature and reality,, so 
 that many thousand persons, not only in the said United 
 
 K2 
 
132 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but in the state 
 of New York aforesaid, and throughout the United 
 States, in reading the said Pickwick Papers, have not 
 only experienced many strange and violent changes of 
 mood, fear, temper and thought, but the Grand Jurors 
 aforesaid, on their oaths aforesaid, say that a large 
 number of persons in the state of New York aforesaid, 
 to wit, 200,000 persons, and a much larger number of 
 persons in the United States, to wit, 500,000 persons, in 
 reading and studying the said Pickwick Papers, have 
 been seduced, deceived, deluded and cheated into the 
 persuasion, conviction and belief that the said pretended 
 Pickwick Club was and had been an actually existing 
 club, and that the scenes, incidents, adventures and 
 events in the said Pickwick Papers described had 
 actually taken place, happened and occurred, and that 
 the persons whose actions and discourses in the said 
 papers were, or have been actually true and living 
 persons; whereas the Grand Jurors aforesaid, on their 
 oaths aforesaid, say that the several matters, things, 
 events, incidents, persons and characters in the said 
 Pickwick Papers contained, are the sole product of 
 the fancy and imagination and invention, prompted 
 by the observation and judgment of the said Charles 
 Dickens, otherwise called Boz; and that no such club 
 as the pretended Pickwick Club was ever formed or 
 existed, and that no such events, incidents, adventures 
 and scenes as in the said Papers are described, ever 
 took place, happened or occurred; and that the persons 
 whose actions and discourses in the said papers are 
 related were not and never have been actual, true and 
 living persons : with the exception of Samuel or 
 Samivel Weller, whom the Grand Jurors aforesaid, on 
 their oaths aforesaid, say they verily believe to be a 
 real person, now living in the city of London, to wit, in 
 the city and county of New York, aforesaid : 
 
 And the Grand Jurors aforesaid, on their oaths afore- 
 said, further say that the said history or narrative in 
 the said Pickwick Papers contained, and the events, 
 incidents, adventures, scenes, persons and characters 
 aforesaid, so far from being, as is commonly asserted 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 133 
 
 and believed, real, genuine, authentic and true, are all, 
 each and every one of them, with the exception afore- 
 said, wholly, absolutely and altogether feigned, fictitious, 
 fabulous and false. 
 
 Wherefore the Grand Jurors aforesaid, on their oaths 
 aforesaid, present and charge that the said Charles 
 Dickens, otherwise called Boz, now or late of West- 
 minster aforesaid, in making, composing, inditing, 
 writing and in printing and publishing, or in causing 
 to be published the paper so called the Pickwick 
 Papers as aforesaid, and in causing and procuring the 
 same to be reprinted and republished, vended, sold, 
 circulated and distributed as aforesaid with the intent 
 not only to cheat, deceive and delude the subjects of 
 the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and the subjects of the several kings, princes, 
 potentates and powers on the continent of Europe, but 
 with the further special and wicked intent to cheat, 
 deceive and defraud the good citizens of this state and 
 the United States, has been and is guilty of high crimes 
 and misdemeanours, contrary to the statute in such 
 case made and provided, and against the peace of the 
 people of the State of New York and their dignity. 
 
 Mr. Duer followed up this playful vein by acting as 
 judge and prosecutor, assuming that the truth of these 
 grave charges against Boz was matter of universal 
 notoriety and needed no formal proof, nor could the 
 culprit be allowed to plead to the indictment for fear of 
 his fascinating tongue. A plea of not guilty would be 
 entered for him as not pleading; but the judge would 
 allow no pleading, and he summoned the company 
 present as a jury to give their verdict. "Guilty" was 
 the unanimous response, amidst a tempest of most 
 unjudicial cheers. The judge proceeded to pass sentence 
 upon him that he should not repent, but go on repeating 
 his transgressions — which the jury concurred in most 
 heartily. 
 
 Mr. Philip Hone, after a few happy remarks, gave — 
 
 A Bill at Sight — Drawn by Cheeryble Brothers in 
 favour of Charles Dickens, on American Hospitality. 
 
134 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Accepted and duly honoured without discount or 
 defalcation * 
 
 He was followed by Gulian C. Verplanck, who con- 
 trasted the author they were met to welcome with the 
 earlier English authors. He then remarked on the 
 stronger relish with which the productions of the English 
 genius were read in this country, than those of Germany 
 and France, assigning the causes of it, and concluded 
 with this toast — 
 
 The health of all who, speaking the rich tongue that 
 Shakespeare spoke, unite with us in awarding to genius 
 its fitting honours. 
 
 Hon. John A. King, fifth vice-president, on being 
 called on, spoke as follows — 
 
 "If it could be permitted, on such an occasion, to go 
 back to the period which terminated in Europe with 
 the overthrow of that master-spirit which aspired to the 
 empire of the world, and which ended in this country 
 in the establishment of peace between the two kindred 
 nations — if it might also be permitted to contrast that 
 period with the present, and show the influence pro- 
 longec| peace has had on nations and individuals, it 
 would afford a most remarkable study for the historian 
 and philanthropist. A long war of revolutionary am- 
 bition had deluged the eastern continent in blood, and 
 man, with all his energies, was the patient instrument 
 of power, ambition and never-ending conflict; then all 
 the intelligence of the age, its men of Letters, of Science 
 and the Arts, were either seduced to praise or awed into 
 silence by the blandishments or menaces of power. Man 
 was then a slave, for he toiled and bled not for himself, 
 but for others. The mind, then, too, given to be free 
 as the elements, lost its vigour, or at least worked only 
 by command. When peace with her golden wings 
 covered again the earth, the salient springs of know- 
 ledge once more gushed forth in every land. The Mind 
 of man, recoiling upon itself, soon taught him the 
 power that was in him, and the great objects to be 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 135 
 
 attained and secured by the uncommon exercise of all 
 his faculties. The Slave became suddenly the Master, 
 and he who lately received the unresisting command of 
 a superior, now bows alone to intelligence and worth. 
 The first was the Age of Iron — this the Golden Era. 
 The first saw the human passions freed and millions 
 led to battle at the will of the conqueror — this beholds 
 those passions subdued, and increased millions obedient 
 under equal laws and regulated liberty. Among the 
 nations which have made the greatest advance in all 
 the arts, inventions and humanities of peace, England 
 and America are most distinguished. The common 
 origin, language and laws have mutually encouraged 
 and supported each other in the noble race of emulation. 
 Where liberty dwells and the laws are equal, each one 
 feels their elevating power, and man stands forth in all 
 his varied attributes. The spirit of the age is full of 
 inquiry, and knowledge flows in from every side. 
 Education here at least will spread, draw on our gener- 
 ous minds abroad, and send back in return the free 
 offerings of kindred minds. The age, too, is marked 
 by the varied inventions and productions of genius. 
 The power of steam, the great agent of modern times, 
 has solved both time and space, and multiplied to an 
 unlimited extent the power of man in every branch of 
 art and industry ; and quickly and variedly as the human 
 head ever works, this great agent can throw as rapidly 
 upon the printed pages. 
 
 Another and perhaps a greater power has also grown 
 up and been strengthened by the peaceful relations of 
 the world during a quarter of a century. This power 
 and influence of mind have been achieved by the press 
 — the ready instrument of the fertile mind — in spreading 
 its riches before millions of thinking and intelligent 
 men. In all branches of knowledge writers of the 
 highest order have flourished. In the popular branches 
 of literature a new and most attractive style has arisen, 
 true in the delineation of individual character and of 
 classes of men — depicting in the most graphic manner 
 their impulses, habits and passions. Among the gifted 
 writers who have thus revealed and illustrated the 
 
136 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 mysteries of the human heart, describing scenes of the 
 deepest interest in the easiest and most eloquent manner 
 appealing most forcibly to the finest sympathies of our 
 nature, and giving to his varied works the best moral 
 direction, stands the guest whom we here in this western 
 hemisphere this day receive and welcome as a brother 
 and a friend. 
 
 Young, but of rare renown, he comes among us who 
 have eagerly sought and read and appreciated each 
 effort of his^ genius; he has left a great and powerful 
 and kindred people to visit another land, where millions 
 of free men are also ready to greet and grasp him by 
 the hand — who has so often charmed and delighted their 
 leisure hours. Here then he stands in the midst of an 
 intelligent and reading people, ready ever to do honour 
 to genius and talent, belong to whom it may, and above 
 all to those who, writing in their mother tongue, record 
 in such eloquent and glowing colours the sufferings, the 
 wrongs, the patient virtues of those whose lot is cast 
 in the humble walks of life. If in crossing the wide 
 ocean which separates, but which would never divide, 
 us, he has changed his native skies to those less genial, 
 perhaps, because not his own, may the mind and genius, 
 alike the pride of either shore, know no friendly change, 
 but return in all its pristine vigour to observe, describe 
 and illustrate the good and the evil, wisdom and folly, 
 as each in its turn, or in mingled action, shall rise up 
 before him. He had found us a true, intelligent and 
 wholly a generous and confiding people; and he may 
 accept here the general wish that he may find health 
 and all that he deserves among us; and return once 
 more to his household gods, maybe rejoice in our 
 glorious destiny, as we have and do in that of his great 
 and illustrious country. 
 
 The sculptor lives in the breathing stone, the painter 
 in the glowing canvas, but he lives in the affections of 
 the people, who in revealing the mysteries of the human 
 heart, has shown that its virtues and its feelings are 
 alike independent of station and of power. 
 
 D. P. Ogden, sixth vice-president, being next called 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 137 
 
 on, closed a forcible tribute to Mr. Dickens by per- 
 tinently reminding the company of the services and 
 achievements of American authors, and of their claims 
 to the gratitude and affectionate regard of their country- 
 men. He proposed — 
 
 The Republic of Letters — Having mankind for a 
 constituency, it invites all the world to share the rich 
 blessings it bestows. 
 
 Mr. C. A. Davis, after reading some letters from 
 Governor Seward and other invited guests, closed with 
 a humorous reply from 1 his friend, Major Jack Downing — 
 
 To the Gentlemen of the Committee — for the dinner 
 to Mr. Boz. 
 
 Washington, February 15, 1842. 
 
 There is nothing in nature would tickle me so desper- 
 ately as to be able to go on to York and eat dinner 
 along with Mr. Boz — but I can't nohow and noway in 
 the world, and the Capting thinks it best that I wait 
 here till Mr. Boz comes this way, as he wants me to 
 take a share in shaking hands at the White House. 
 
 There are very few folks nowadays who desarve 
 more civilities on the score of gratitude — for few folks 
 now living or dead have done more to scrape the shins 
 of the wicked — to plead the causes of the destitute and 
 suffering, and to nail to the counter like a bad penny the 
 hard-hearted and selfish. 
 
 As to laming and book-study, no matter how much 
 a man has — if he keeps it all to himself and looks and 
 feels wise, he is of no more use to his fellow-critters 
 than a miser who stores away his gold in an old stock- 
 ing, but if he tells what he knows and thinks, and puts 
 it into sech shapes as let young and old, high and low 
 understand and be instructed by it — then he is entitled 
 to gratitude, and I hope he will get his full share of 
 it, especially as he ain't likely to get anything else so 
 long as some of our folks understand "copy-right" to 
 mean "right to copy." 
 
 There is one class of writers that I and the Capting 
 
138 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 have a shocking bad opinion of — it is them chaps that 
 thinks there ain't sickness and sorrow and suffering and 
 hard times enough in this world, and so they turn and 
 rile up folks, and make muddy water betwixt them, and 
 are never so happy as when they injure better people 
 than themselves, and being ashamed to sign their own 
 names to their dirty work, clap down "Brutus" and 
 "Cato" and "Nebuchadnezzar" and "Judas Iscariot" 
 and other old Roman and foreign Injuns. The Capting 
 and I keep our eye on these chaps, and when we know 
 who they are, they may as well look for a frost in June 
 as an office, I tell you, Sonny. But when they use 
 their pen in grubbing up tangled briars and making 
 the path clear for a happy journey through life, the 
 Capting is sure to remember them. You see how it 
 was t'other day in that appointment to Spain ; he asked 
 no questions, just wrote doen the name of Geoffrey 
 Crayon as nat'ral as putting on his mittens. So there 
 is no telling yet how soon I may stand a chance to get 
 a post office or land office as a reward for my long 
 labours. 
 
 I did hope that Mr. Boz would come into the states 
 down east, so as to take a look at Downingville, and 
 begin the country at sunrise ; but I suppose he thought 
 it best to land first where he did on account of the 
 compliment paid to his grandfather, who was a warm 
 friend of the Pilgrims before they left home — and so 
 they called it Bbsting after him ; and if it had not been 
 for the ignorance or vanity of the early printers the 
 spelling would be now as it was before the Revolution. 
 The least, however, that can now be done is to correct 
 that error, and bring it back to the good old Pilgrim 
 spelling, "Boztown." It is due to old Mr. Boz, and to 
 his great grandson who comes out in the middle of 
 winter to see us. It will please infinitely, too, a good 
 many honest old folks along up the northeastern 
 boundary-line, who are unwilling to see izzards turned 
 into esses and snaix crawling off under other spellings 
 just to justify some new twistification instead of letting 
 letters tell their own story. 
 
 I am sorry to hear that Mr. Pickwick and Samivel 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 139 
 
 Weller havint come out with Mr. Boz, specially Samivel, 
 for I wanted to see him amazingly and have a chat 
 with him. I think there is as much left of that critter 
 as has yet been threshed out of him ; but that is saying 
 a good deal before such a man like Mr. Boz, who can 
 put his rake on a stubble that others have cut before 
 him and carry off more clear corn than the first reapers. 
 I see that Mr. Boz let the old clock run down at hum. 
 If he's willing I'll lend him one I bought of Samuel 
 Slick. It's a wooden one, but can tick as loud as if 
 it was all brass, and will run a plaguy long time if 
 well wound up. If there is a spare hole to stick in 
 another toast without alarming folks as Oliver Twist 
 did when he asked for more, please scrooge in the 
 following — 
 
 The Quill — May the ink it sheds in the cause of truth 
 and justice (and in good old Anglo-Saxon lingo) wet in 
 the priming of the war gun, while its feather-end tickles 
 the nose of the base passions of all creation into good 
 humour and happy smiles. 
 
 J. Downing, Major, etc. 
 
 The president, Washington Irving, having proposed 
 the following sentiment — 
 
 International Copyright — It is but fair that those who 
 have laurels for their brows should be permitted to 
 browse on their laurels. 
 
 Mr. Cornelius Matthews, one of the editors of 
 Arcturus, having been called, rose and responded to 
 the sentiment as follows — 
 
 I answer your summons, Mr. President, under some 
 restraint. I am not quite sure that it becomes me, a 
 humble lay-brother of the order of authors, to trouble 
 a diplomatist and Spanish Minister, in any way, with 
 the insignificant affairs of the fraternity. But when I 
 recollect how the distinguished gentleman on your right, 
 a monk at least if not a bishop, has been lately received 
 in this great city of ours, I am re-assured : knowing how 
 you, once an honoured member of the craft, are going 
 forth from the country, its ambassador and representa- 
 
140 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 tive, and how he, a man of letters, in full communion 
 with the brethren, has just entered it — I think I may 
 venture to say a word or two of rights which you hold in 
 common. In speaking on the subject of an International 
 Copyright, at this time, I would not be understood as 
 being moved by any new impulse or sudden enthusiasm ; 
 but as uttering convictions carefully considered and long 
 entertained. 
 
 That I am speaking in the presence of an eminent 
 foreign writer — the universality of whose genius, appeal- 
 ing by its delineations to all classes and conditions of 
 men, would seem to entitle him to an universal recogni- 
 tion of his rights — will, I believe, by no means diminish 
 the force of what I may say. 
 
 It is argued, sometimes, I know, that authors have no 
 rights; and a paper-dealing tradesman of this city, 
 greedy of some sort of renown, has lately contended, if 
 we could but get English Books at the cost of type and 
 paper (the author being considered an impertinent third 
 party), all the ends of good literature would be answered. 
 I might ask this artful casuist, how it would suit his 
 convenience — he being a man of some stamp and char- 
 acter among his neighbours — to come abroad in the open 
 light of day — in a coat yet odorous of the fingers of the 
 petit-larceny thief ; a hat savouring of the burglar's fist ; 
 his pockets jingling with the transferred coin of a bank 
 robber : but I look beyond this miserable economical 
 subterfuge, and seek, somewhat farther down, the actual 
 operation of an uncopyrighted Foreign Literature, re- 
 printed without restraint. There is at this moment 
 waging in our midst a great war between a Foreign 
 and a Native Literature. The one claims pay — food, 
 lodging, and raiment; the other battles free of all 
 charges, takes the field, prepared for all weathers and 
 all emergencies; has neither a mouth to cry for susten- 
 ance, a back to be clothed, nor a head to be sheltered. 
 
 The conflict between a paid literature and an unpaid 
 is a fierce one while it lasts; it cannot last long. The 
 one relies on the feeble and uncertain impulses of author- 
 ship; the other is driven on by all the restless interests 
 of trade. What, sir, is the present condition of the 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 141 
 
 Field of Letters in America ? It is in a state of desperate 
 anarchy — without order, without system, without cer- 
 tainty. For several years past, it has been sown broad- 
 cast with foreign publications of every name and nature ; 
 what growth has ensued? No single work, so far as I 
 can see, has sprung up as its legitimate result ; no addi- 
 tion to the stock of native poetry or fiction ; no tree has 
 blossomed; no solitary blade struck through the hard 
 and ungrateful turf. Whatever has been produced has 
 been in spite of opposition from within and without ; has 
 been the bright exception, not the rule. Instead of being 
 fostered and promoted, as it should be, our domestic 
 literature is borne down by an immethodical and unre- 
 strained republication of every foreign work that will 
 bear the charges of the compositor and paper-maker. 
 
 Under the regulations of an International Copyright, 
 the work of a British author would be published here in 
 its order ; would take its chance with other works, native 
 and foreign; would be valued and circulated according 
 to its worth ; and would hold its rank in due subordina- 
 tion to the judgment passed upon it by the side of other 
 compositions. What is the case now? A new work by 
 the author of Charles O'Malley reaches this country — 
 a pleasant, lively, vivacious picture of Irish life and 
 dragoon service, well worthy of being printed by some 
 prominent house, furnished to the libraries, and put in 
 the hands of a liberal circle of readers, in due course of 
 trade. This would be proper and natural. On the con- 
 trary, twenty, yea, fifty, or a hundred hands — for the 
 giant of Republication is single-eyed and many-handed 
 —are thrust forth, spasmodically to clutch the first 
 landed copy ; it is followed, watched to its destination ; 
 violent hands are perhaps laid on it to snatch it from its 
 first possessor; it is reprinted; early copies are de- 
 spatched into the country; new editions follow, in 
 pamphlet, in book, by chapters in a thousand news- 
 papers; the land is vocal with the unrestrained chuckle 
 of the daily and weekly press over this new acquisition ; 
 while no other writer, whatever his merit, if his popu- 
 larity be but a degree less, is listened to. What hope is 
 there here for the native author? 
 
142 CHARLES DICKENS EN AMERICA 
 
 The odds are tremendous; and I do not hesitate to 
 say, sir, that if he had thousands to lavish on the print- 
 ing of a single work, a press in every village, a pub- 
 lisher of enterprise and spirit in every city, the purchased 
 control of fifty newspapers — he would be only beginning 
 to enter the field on anything like fair terms with Dr. 
 Lever. The one literature, the Foreign, is propelled 
 through the country by steam; the other, the Native, 
 halts after on foot or in such conveyances as a very 
 narrow purse may bargain for. Principles, it may be, 
 alien to our own, travel with the speed of lightning, 
 while national truths, in which we have the profoundest 
 interest, follow at a lacquey's pace behind. As an 
 American I feel this and I avow it. From the contem- 
 plation of that distinguished author, glorying in the 
 zenith of a reputation universal as the light of day, my 
 eyes turn away, and in the sequestered retreat, in the 
 cramped and narrow room, seek that other brother of 
 his, poor, neglected, borne down by the heavy hand of 
 his country, laid, like an oppressor's, upon him; and I 
 feel that the conditions of human life are hard indeed. 
 Far be it from me, sir, to indulge in idle repinings over 
 any of the inevitable sufferings of authors or of men; 
 still farther be it from me to cast any shadow upon the 
 general joy of this occasion ; but I feel it my duty, as I 
 trust in God I always shall, to say something, wherever 
 I can, in behalf of the victims of false systems, the 
 children in this case — the orphans, rather, I might say 
 — who inherit the wide kingdom of Thought, and who 
 toil bitterly in secret, in labours not seen of the eye, that 
 the world may have enough of mirth and cheerful truth 
 to make the day wear through. Standing here to-night, 
 the representative, in some humble measure, of the 
 interests of American authors in this question, I say 
 they have been treated by this people and government 
 as no other of its citizens ; that an enormous fraud prac- 
 tised upon their British brethren, has been allowed so to 
 operate upon them as to blight their hopes and darken 
 (heir fair fame. They have remonstrated, and will, until 
 the evil has grown too great to be encountered, or is 
 subdued. I might speak especially in behalf of the com- 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 143 
 
 pany of young native writers, who, seeing how well the 
 world was affected toward good literature, and moved by 
 some kindly impulses of nature, may have hoped in their 
 way to add something to the happiness, something to 
 the renown of their country. But we are advised how 
 others, who thought they had secured a constant and 
 enduring hold on the public good will by past character 
 and services, have also been affected by the present 
 injurious state of affairs. 
 
 You, sir, for example, in that retreat of yours, classical 
 in the world's affections, having matured a work of some 
 value and which you think ready for the metropolitan 
 market, take passage down the Hudson in company with 
 one of your farmer neighbours, who has, perhaps, just 
 fattened his fall stock to a grain : with your manuscript 
 in your pocket — recollecting, too, that in times past, 
 your handicraft has been held in some repute — you 
 flatter yourself you will find a prompt purchaser for 
 whatever you bring. You call, sir, on certain traders 
 in Cliff Street, you suggest the MSS. "For Heaven's 
 sake, Mr. Irving," is the response of the blandest mem- 
 ber of the firm, the one that talks to the authors, "don't 
 plague us just now ; we have a profound respect for your 
 talents, an ardent affection for American Literature : but 
 Mr. Bulwer's Zanoni has arrived, and we must have a 
 hundred hands on it before night. Call again, we shall 
 be happy to see you ! " 
 
 Then, sir, meditating on the patriotic courtesy of the 
 gentleman you have just left, you shape your course 
 toward a great Publishing House in Broadway : famous 
 heretofore for a certain solidity and selectness of pub- 
 lication, but having been lately bitten by the Number 
 viper — which, by the by, is encompassing the Earth, 
 like the Great Snake of the Hindoo Mythology — they 
 beg you, with some natural tears in their eyes, not to 
 interrupt them just then : "The Big Papers, the Mam- 
 moth Press, is on the alert : they must have Handy 
 Andy on the counter by Saturday or the tide will be 
 down with them : " and behold, sir, the author of the 
 Sketch Book, the illustrious historian of New York, 
 very much in the situation of the ostrich of the desert 
 
144 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 having an egg to lay, but nowhere to lay it; and, like 
 it, I might add, greatly disposed to hide his head for 
 very shame. How has it fared, sir, in the meantime, 
 with your sturdy neighbour and his charge ? In robus- 
 tious health, cheerful of spirit, with no misgivings what- 
 ever, he makes the voyage to New York; remembers 
 many a hearty welcome, many a lucky market in times 
 past; and has no sooner touched the wharf, than he is 
 seized upon by a dozen or more red-cheeked hucksters, 
 who well nigh embrace him from the joy they feel at his 
 coming; he runs hastily over an inventory of what he 
 has brought — so many turkies of a year old, so many 
 spring chickens, so many cocks and hens, and before he 
 has had a chance to unbutton his overcoat, his mer- 
 chandise is off his hands, and he casts about in his mind 
 at what comfortable chop-house he shall hold an inter- 
 view of settlement, and reckon his gains over a snug 
 meal and glass of choice cider. 
 
 Now, sir, I would ask, is not your brood of speckled 
 fancies, as honestly begotten from the beginning, as his 
 parti-coloured capons? Are not your historical truths 
 as solid and substantial, as real to the mind as his gross- 
 fed turkies to the body? Are not your racy courses of 
 humour as much a solace and comfort to the soul as his 
 web-footed waddlers to the palate? The property is as 
 real, as actual in one case as the other ; and why should 
 it not command its price? That, sir, is a wretched 
 country, or a wretched condition of things, where the 
 best products of the best workman in any department 
 are not in demand. And it is just so here at present. 
 
 The public taste is so deeply affected by the interested 
 laudations of inferior authors by the republishers, that 
 the value of literary reputation, as well as literary pro- 
 perty, is greatly impaired. No distinction is made 
 between good writers and bad; they all appear in the 
 same dress, under the same introduction ; and the judg- 
 ment of the general reader is so perplexed that he cannot 
 choose between Mr. Dickens and Mr. Harrison Ains- 
 worth — between the classical drama of Talfourd and the 
 vapid farce of Boucicault. As this system deepens and 
 $trengthens itself, as it does every day, an American 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 145 
 
 celebrity will cease to have any semblance of the dis- 
 criminating applause of a "contemporaneous posterity," 
 and be regarded only as the confused shout of a distant 
 crowd. I know that to many of our trans-Atlantic 
 brethren their American reputation is dear and valued; 
 and for their sakes I would not have a system endure by 
 which its worth will be so surely diminished. 
 
 This brings me, gentlemen, to another aspect of the 
 cause I am pleading with you. It has been a matter of 
 surprise in some quarters that Mr. Dickens, a British 
 writer, has addressed the American people on the subject 
 of Copyright. Amid the happier visions which have 
 crowded his English chamber for the last five or six 
 years, are we quite sure that no Corsair face has ever 
 looked in ? — no eager visage of the ink-stained pirate, 
 with a hand stretched stealthily towards the MS. on his 
 desk, to snatch it away ere it was dry, and blazon it 
 throughout the whole New World, as an acquisition 
 honestly made ? May not his brightest hours have been 
 darkened, at times, by the fancy of a grim row of repub- 
 lishers rising before him — line upon line of readers, 
 beginning at the Atlantic and stretching to the very 
 verge of Oregon, with lines crossing them from Penob- 
 scot to the Mexican Gulf, all busy in the self-same task, 
 turning page after page of what he has written — roaring 
 with laughter, melting in tears — until the contemplation 
 of it (with the thought that no honest penny was gained 
 to him by all this pleasant show that was going forward) 
 has become actually painful to his mind? And when, 
 landing on our shores, these very readers, many of 
 them, drew nigh and took him by the hand — in a very 
 earnest, friendly grasp, too — and made solemn vows and 
 protestations of friendship — was it less than natural that 
 he should speak to them, in the confidence of frank 
 discourse, of what had so often pressed painfully on his 
 thoughts ? 
 
 He was among brethren, in his own younger brother's 
 house, and because he ventured to speak of a patrimony 
 they held in common, with a like interest as himself, 
 shall he be condemned ? 
 
 But all this broadens into a general question, and one 
 
146 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 to which we are bound to give heed. I will take it for 
 granted, sir, that every gentleman within hearing of my 
 voice is aware that fifty-six British Authors — and among 
 them many that have given lustre to the age — applied to 
 the American Congress for an international copyright, 
 and were refused. I will also take it for granted that 
 every gentleman here admits that there may be a good 
 indefeasible right and property in a book as in any other 
 estate. By what casuistry or jurisprudence does that 
 which is property in one latitude in one civilized country 
 cease to be property when transferred within the limits 
 of another ? 
 
 The most precious property of one country in another, 
 as I regard it, is its books. To us, what is Germany, 
 half so much as Goethe? Greece but Homer? And 
 England is nearer and dearer to us by her long array of 
 great writers, than by the constant intercourse of com- 
 merce, the closest compacts and treaties of amity. Her 
 writers ask that this claim should be allowed ; that all the 
 relations of the two countries shall not be reduced to a 
 gross, material standard ; but that they shall have a pro- 
 perty, as they have a right, in whatever of noble senti- 
 ment, or enduring thought they may impart to us; and 
 that we shall have a like property with them. That we 
 have heretofore enjoyed their labours free of charge, is 
 nothing; that we have lived on their free bounty for a 
 long time creates in us no claim — as it should no desire 
 — to become perpetual almoners of theirs. A true spirit 
 of national fair-dealing, not to say national dignity, 
 would impel us to disclaim the charity, and persuade us 
 to purchase what we read, as well as what we eat and 
 wear. 
 
 I have said nothing, sir — and I might have said much 
 — of the mutilation of books by our American repub- 
 lishes — that outrageous wrong by which a noble Eng- 
 lish writer, speaking truths in London dear to him as 
 life, is made to say in New York that which his soul 
 abhors. This, sir, silent and uncomplaining as it seems, 
 is a despotism as gross as that of the rack and the thumb- 
 screw, which wrings from men, under torture, falsehoods 
 to flatter the tormentor. What right have I, sir, to stifle 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 147 
 
 the utterance of any manly spirit — to offer him oppor- 
 tunities of speech, and then, in bitterest mockery, abridge 
 the truth he would deliver ? Soul speaks to soul through 
 all distances of time and space ; and accursed should he 
 be that ventures to thrust his uncouth shadow as a 
 softening medium, between the two ! We have friendly 
 treaties, Mr. President, by which property and person, 
 as commonly acknowledged, are sacred between the two 
 nations. Is it not worth the while of statesmen and 
 legislators to incorporate hereafter a provision by which 
 the great rights of Thought, of the soul speaking in its 
 highest moods, shall be cared for and guarded ? 
 
 I desire to see the two sections of Anglo-Saxon Litera- 
 ture on either side of the great ocean, moving harmoni- 
 ously onward ; they giving to us whatever they have of 
 maturity and art, and we returning, as we are bound, all 
 of freshness and vigour with which a new world may 
 have inspired us. I desire to see something of the great 
 debt, now accumulated for ages, which we owe to the 
 brotherhood of British writers, cancelled; first, in the 
 true honest currency of dollars and cents, known to the 
 Union as the representative value between man and 
 man; secondly, in works of genius, the growth of our 
 own soil, coloured by our own skies, and showing some- 
 thing of the influences of a new community, where 
 nature comes fresh and mighty to her task. A thousand 
 voices now slumber in our vales, amid our cities and 
 along our hill-sides, that only await the genial hour to 
 speak and be heard. Silence would no longer brood, as 
 it now does, over so many fair fields, nor, "moon-like, 
 hold the mighty waters fast." Alleghany would have a 
 voice, to which the Metropolis, with its hundred steeples 
 and turrets, would answer ; gulf and river, and the broad 
 field would reply, each for itself, until the broad sky 
 above us should be shaken with the thunder tones of 
 master-spirits responding to each other ; the whole wide 
 land echo from side to side with the accents of a Majestic 
 Literature — self-reared, self-sustained, self-vindicating I 
 
 I offer you, Mr. President — 
 
 An International Copyright — The only honest turn- 
 pike between the readers of two great nations. 
 L 2 
 
148 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Eloquent addresses were made by the Rev. Mr. 
 Bellows and the Mayor, and among others these toasts 
 were offered — 
 
 Mr. Kennedy proposed : The Clergy of the City of 
 New York — who "allure to brighter worlds and lead the 
 way." 
 
 Mr. Bellows answered : Our Vernacular Tongue — the 
 English language — a recovery from the confusion of 
 Babel destined yet to build a tower to reach to heaven. 
 
 By Mr. Bronson : Master Humphrey's Clock — 
 Though it goes on tick, always in good credit. 
 
 By L. Gaylord Clark, editor of the Knickerbocker: 
 The Health of Sergeant Talfourd — who stands among 
 the tribe of our later dramatists like an ancient Grecian 
 statue in a gallery of modern casts. 
 
 By R. H. H. — The Works of our Guest — Like Oliver 
 Twist "we ask for more." 
 
 ******** 
 
 The following account of the dinner is from Mr. 
 Hone's diary — 
 
 "Feb. 19th. — The great dinner to Dickens was given 
 yesterday at the City Hotel, and came off with flying 
 colours. Two hundred and thirty persons sat down to 
 dinner at seven o'clock. The larger room was orna- 
 mented with two illuminated scenes from the works of 
 ' Boz,' busts of celebrated persons and classical devices, 
 all in good taste; and the eating and drinking part of 
 the affair was excellent. The president was Washington 
 Irving (I beg pardon, ' His Excellency '). Non nobis 
 was sung by Mr. Horn and a band of vocalists, who 
 gave several glees during the evening. After the intel- 
 lectual operation of eating and drinking was concluded, 
 the president rose and began a prepared speech, in which 
 he broke down flat (as he promised us beforehand he 
 would), and concluded with the toast : ' Charles Dickens, 
 the literary guest of the nation.' To this the guest 
 made acknowledgment in an excellent speech, delivered 
 with great animation and characterized by good taste 
 and warm feeling. 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL, NEW YORK 149 
 
 An unusual feature in this festivity was the presence 
 of a coterie of charming women, who were first stowed 
 away in a small room adjoining the upper part of the 
 hall, and who, with a laudable and irrepressible curiosity 
 to hear me, and others equally instructive and agreeable, 
 at the lower end, edged by degrees into the room, and 
 finally got possession of the stage behind the president, 
 to the discomfiture of certain pleasant old bachelors and 
 ungallant dignitaries, but to the great delight of us who 
 profess to have better taste in such matters. This flying 
 squadron of infantry consisted of Mrs. Davis, Mrs. 
 Colden, Miss Wilkes, Mrs. Dickens, Miss Sedgwick, 
 Miss Wadsworth, the Misses Ward, Mrs. Burrows, 
 Mrs. Parrish, Miss Anna Brigden and others, all of 
 whom seemed to regret they could not take a more active 
 part in the business of the evening. The dinner with 
 the ball on Monday night is a tribute to literary talents 
 greater than any I can remember; and if the English 
 people do not repay it in some shape to our eminent 
 men, they are no great things." 
 
 Professor Felton, in his address before the Massa- 
 chusetts Historical Society on Washington Irving, gave 
 the following interesting account of Irving's breakdown 
 in his speech introducing Dickens at the dinner — 
 
 "Great and varied as was the genius of Mr. Irving, 
 there was one thing he shrank with a comical terror from 
 attempting, and that was a dinner speech. A great 
 dinner, however, was to be given to Mr. Dickens in 
 New York, as one had already been given in Boston ; 
 and it was evident to all that no man but Washington 
 Irving could be thought of to preside. With all his 
 dread of making a speech, he was obliged to obey the 
 universal call and to accept the painful pre-eminence. 
 I saw him daily during the interval of preparation, either 
 at the lodgings of Dickens or at dinner or evening 
 parties. I hope I showed no want of sympathy with 
 his forebodings, but I could not help being amused with 
 the tragi-comical distress which the thought of that 
 approaching dinner caused him. His pleasant humour 
 
150 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 mingled with the real dread andi played with the whim- 
 sical horrors of his own position with an irresistible 
 drollery. Whenever it was alluded to, his invariable 
 answer was, ' I shall certainly break down ! ' — uttered 
 in a half-melancholy tone, the ludicrous effect of which 
 it is impossible to describe. He was haunted as if by 
 a nightmare; and I could only compare his dismay to 
 that of Mr. Pickwick, who was so alarmed at the pros- 
 pect of leading about that ' dreadful horse ' all day. At 
 length the long-expected evening arrived ; a company of 
 the most eminent persons, from all the professions and 
 every walk of life, were assembled, and Mr. Irving took 
 the chair. I had gladly accepted an invitation, making 
 it, however, a condition that I should not be called upon 
 to speak — a thing I then dreaded quite as much as Mr. 
 Irving himself. The direful compulsions of life have 
 since helped me to overcome, in some measure, the post- 
 prandial fright. Under the circumstances — an invited 
 guest with no impending speech — I sat calmly and 
 watched with interest the imposing scene. I had the 
 honour to be placed next but one to Mr. Irving and the 
 great pleasure of sharing in his conversation. He had 
 brought the manuscript of his speech and laid it under 
 his plate. ' I shall certainly break down,' he repeated 
 over and over again. At last the moment arrived. Mr. 
 Irving rose and was received with deafening and long- 
 continued applause, which by no means lessened his 
 apprehension. He began in his pleasant voice, got 
 through two or three sentences pretty easily, but in the 
 next hesitated, and after one or two attempts to go on, 
 gave it up with a graceful allusion to the tournament, 
 and the troops of knights all armed and eager for the 
 fray, and ended with the toast : ' Charles Dickens, the 
 guest of the nation.' 'There,' said he, as he resumed 
 his seat under a repetition of the applause which had 
 saluted his rising, ' there ! I told you I should break 
 down, and I've done it.' 
 
 "There certainly never was made a shorter after-dinner 
 speech ; I doubt if there ever was a more successful one. 
 The manuscript seemed to be a dozen or twenty pages 
 long, but the printed speech was not as many lines. I 
 
DINNER AT CITY HOTEL.. NEW YORK 151 
 
 suppose that manuscript may be still in existence; and 
 if so, I wish it may be published. Mr. Irving often 
 spoke with a good-humoured envy of the felicity with 
 which Dickens always acquitted himself on such 
 occasions." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 Dickens left New York Sunday, March 6, in the 
 afternoon and arrived in Philadelphia late that night. 
 At the present time the traveller goes to the railroad 
 station in the heart of the city, gets on a train which 
 takes him through the tunnel under the Hudson River, 
 and in two hours he is landed in Philadelphia. It was 
 different in 1842, for, as Dickens wrote at that time, 
 the journey was made by railroad and two ferries and 
 occupied nearly six hours' time. On his arrival he went 
 to the United States Hotel, which stood on Chestnut 
 Street opposite the United States Bank. In American 
 Notes he does not even mention the name of the hotel, 
 and does not say whether it was good, bad or indifferent, 
 while in almost every other city he visited he has some- 
 thing to say of the character of the hotel he stopped 
 at. It is possible that the reason he said nothing of the 
 United States Hotel was on account of the fact that, as 
 he had complained in one of his letters to his friend, 
 Thomas Mitton, the landlord had charged him for his 
 rooms and board from the date he had engaged the 
 rooms, instead of from the actual time of his arrival a 
 week later. 
 
 At the time of Dickens's visit there were four daily 
 papers in Philadelphia, and while there was neither a 
 ball nor a dinner given in his honour, as in New York, 
 and while there was no authorized reception given him, 
 and while he spent his time in visiting the Penitentiary, 
 water-works, and other public institutions, and was only 
 in the city two days, all four of these papers informed 
 the public very fully as to a reception which some of 
 the papers said was authorized and others said was 
 unauthorized. 
 
 152 
 
PHILADELPHIA 153 
 
 That Dickens did not desire any public reception in 
 the city was generally known is shown by the follow- 
 ing notice which appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette, 
 two weeks before his arrival in the city — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens will visit this city in a few days. He 
 wisely declines all dinners, parades, shows, junketings 
 and things of that sort, preferring to meet such private 
 unostentatious hospitalities as a courteous people should 
 extend to any gentleman, and a stranger." 
 
 Similar notices appeared in some of the other papers, 
 but notwithstanding Dickens's wishes, there was at 
 least one man who determined that if it could be accom- 
 plished, Dickens should hold a public reception, and 
 being a politician of some influence, he had the follow- 
 ing item inserted in the Public Ledger on Tuesday 
 morning — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens. — This gentleman will, we understand, 
 be gratified to shake hands with his friends between the 
 hours of half-past ten and half-past eleven o'clock. He 
 leaves for the South to-morrow." 
 
 That this announcement brought crowds to the hotel, 
 and that it was a surprise to Mr. Dickens, can be seen 
 by this short account of the affair which appeared in one 
 of the morning papers the next day — 
 
 "Boz — It was stated in one of the morning papers 
 yesterday, that Mr. Dickens would be happy to see his 
 friends between half-past ten and half-past twelve o'clock 
 yesterday. And few men, we believe, have been more 
 unexpectedly surprised at the number of unknown 
 friends, than was Mr. D., especially as he was ignorant 
 of the intention of any one to invent such an article. 
 However, the public came, and Colonel Florence, who 
 was present, introduced the numerous visitors until Mr. 
 Dickens, who has been unwell for some time, was com- 
 pelled to retire. We do not know, not having been 
 present, how many called upon Mr. D., but probably a 
 large number. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens was to visit the Eastern Penitentiary 
 
154 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 at twelve o'clock, and after inspecting the place, was to 
 dine with some friends. He expected to depart soon." 
 
 The Philadelphia Gazette did not believe the announce- 
 ment of the reception was authorized, as shown by their 
 account of the affair — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens — Rudeness and Cruelty. — Some of 
 the morning papers contained a sort of semi-official 
 announcement that Mr. Dickens would receive the calls 
 of gentlemen between the hours of ten and twelve 
 to-day. Consequently a crowd gathered there, and 
 among others, curiosity led us to the United States 
 Hotel. We found ' Boz ' in a large reception-room in 
 the second storey, earnestly toiling away with all his 
 might, shaking the hands of a dense crowd of people, 
 as they promiscuously thrust out their digits, at the 
 announcement by Colonel Florence, who appeared to be 
 master of ceremonies. We understand that the invita- 
 tion for gentlemen to call was wholly unauthorized, in 
 consequence of Mr. Dickens's positive engagements and 
 his rather delicate health, which must have suffered from 
 the mistaken kindness and troublesome importunities of 
 people before he reached this city. ' Boz ' has a very 
 youthful look, with a profusion of hair and a winning 
 smile, and a countenance decidedly affable. His voice, 
 by which character is often indicated, we did not hear. 
 We understand he will remain in town some days, and 
 before he leaves, the citizens, doubtless, will have an 
 opportunity of an introduction. But we beg of Philadel- 
 phians to respect this distinguished stranger, if they do 
 not themselves. Do not obtrude upon his time and 
 patience by needlessly taxing his physical energies, and 
 thus rendering his visit one of pain rather than pleasure." 
 
 Colonel Florence, who seemed to have been the in- 
 stigator of the notice advising the public of the recep- 
 tion, and who acted as a self-constituted major-domo of 
 the affair, felt that these accounts of the reception did 
 him an injustice, and protested to the editor of the 
 Gazette against the wrong that had been done him, 
 with this result — 
 
PHILADELPHIA 155 
 
 "Colonel Florence has called upon us in behalf of 
 himself and brethren of the ' Committee ' and assured 
 us that they acted yesterday in conformity with the 
 wishes of Mr. Dickens. He doubtless expected a few 
 gentlemen in company with the Committee, but under 
 some sort of mistaken kindness, the notice was made 
 public, and half the city besieged poor ' Boz ' at his 
 lodgings." 
 
 Colonel Florence was evidently not of the same 
 political persuasion as the editor of the Philadelphia 
 Gazette, who took an opportunity to give the Colonel 
 and the Committee a lesson in politeness, and some 
 instruction as to the manner in which distinguished 
 strangers should be treated when visiting the city, with- 
 out the guidance of "Tom, Dick and Harry." 
 
 "Mr. Dickens and the Public. — It will be a matter 
 of deep regret if the presence of this distinguished 
 private gentleman in this city should give rise to 
 heart-burnings and criminations among any portion 
 of the citizens of Philadelphia. We stated yesterday 
 that the invitation to call upon Mr. Dickens was pre- 
 mature and unauthorized, yet he received those who 
 did call with his characteristic ease and urbanity. It 
 appears that a Committee, whether self-constituted or 
 not the public have not been informed, addressed Mr. 
 Dickens while in New York, begging him not to put 
 himself into the hands of a ' clique ' when he reached 
 this city. That Committee remarked, among other very 
 queer things — 
 
 " ' It is needless to ask you whether you intend visit- 
 ing Philadelphia. Doubtless you have determined this 
 in your mind already ; and, without doubt, many of the 
 soi disant magnates of our city have conceived a multi- 
 tude of plans for the monopoly of Bos, and it is of 
 this that we complain ; for we cannot conceive why you 
 should be the exclusive property of a self-delegated 
 clique, who may claim to be all in all, to the exclusion 
 of all others.' 
 
 "Mr. Dickens replied, that when he reached Phila- 
 
156 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 delphia, he should be ' exceeding glad to shake hands ' 
 with these gentlemen, but doubtless he expected, as 
 they condemned ' exclusiveness ' and ' self-delegated 
 cliques,' that he should not be under their special con- 
 trol. Neither could he have expected that his move- 
 ments, even remotely, would be subject to their arrange- 
 ments or dictation. Yesterday, it appears, this self-same 
 Committee inserted in many of the morning papers, on 
 their own responsibility, a notice, that Mr. Dickens 
 would see his friends between 10 and n. We were 
 informed that Mr. D. did appoint this hour to receive 
 the Committee, but as his health was not good and he 
 had engagements elsewhere, which would prevent his 
 seeing the public promiscuously, he was expecting only 
 a few persons in his private apartment. Doubtless the 
 Committee mistook the intentions of this gentleman in 
 their eagerness to be civil, but when Mr. Dickens found 
 a crowd below, with the complaisance of a gentleman, 
 he submitted to their calls, and the ceremony proceeded 
 for nearly two live-long hours ! 
 
 "We protest against all this obtrusiveness and tres- 
 passing upon the time and patience of a private gentle- 
 man. Especially do we reprobate all the official action 
 of men, who addressed him the absurd letter while in 
 New York. They deprecate ' fawning ' or ' sycophancy.' 
 but yet huddle about this gentleman and obtrude them- 
 selves upon him in a manner which he has repeatedly 
 condemned, asked to be rid of, and which every gentle- 
 man despises. To this committee and all other com- 
 mittees who are appointed, or who appoint themselves, 
 to superintend the movements of distinguished gentle- 
 men who come among us, we would only say, leave Mr. 
 Dickens and all such people alone. They visit us for 
 the purpose of seeing our institutions and to mingle 
 with society, and with such private hospitality as is 
 extended to them they will be well satisfied. Beyond 
 this, they are capable of taking care of themselves and 
 of seeking out their own pleasures and amusements, 
 without the intervention of committees or the guidance 
 of ' Tom, Dick and Harry.' Beyond this, it is posi- 
 tively rude, if not exceedingly impertinent, for people 
 
PHILADELPHIA 157 
 
 promiscuously to trespass upon either the time or atten- 
 tion of private gentlemen, merely to gratify their vague, 
 if not idle, curiosity." 
 
 The editor of the Public Ledger also took a whack at 
 that Committee and pitched into them even stronger 
 than his fellow-editor of the Gazette, in the following 
 article — 
 
 " Grand Reception of Boz — that Committee and the 
 shaking, of hands. — The United States Hotel was thronged 
 yesterday morning by a crowd of the admirers of Dickens, 
 in consequence of the publication of a notice that he would 
 be happy to meet that Committee and perform the agree- 
 able task of shaking them and their friends by the hand, 
 which he had promised to perform in coming to our 
 city. The Committee and ' troops of friends ' accord- 
 ingly made their appearance, and agreeably to demo- 
 cratic usages voted him into the corner of his room, 
 and commenced the delightful ceremony of introducing 
 him to all the Smiths, Browns, Greens and Johnsons 
 present. Boz looked considerably distressed at first, as 
 he had other arrangements which he considered more 
 important, but being assured that such was the custom 
 here, he put the best face upon the matter possible, and 
 suffered his arm to be almost shaken off without a 
 groan. The whole ceremony was managed in a truly 
 simple, and consequently republican, way and must have 
 made a deep and lasting impression on Mr. Dickens. 
 We cannot pretend to give a perfect report, nor would 
 we attempt to make a full one, of the sayings and doings 
 in the reception chamber. We shall merely say that 
 the Committee did their utmost to render the affair inter- 
 esting and imposing, and the friends exerted themselves 
 to an equal extent to ' present ' the intelligence of the 
 city in a proper light to Boz. 
 
 "As a notice of one introduction will suffice to show 
 what most of them were, we will simply give that. 
 Imagine the illustrious Boz standing in one corner of 
 the room, with a member of the Committee on each 
 side, and a number of distinguished friends near him. 
 
158 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 To accommodate all parties, the crowd in the room form 
 an alley way to admit the ' friends ' outside ; the latter 
 pass in at one door, Indian file, and after stopping to 
 do the shaking, and express their opinion on the state 
 of the weather, pass out in the same order through the 
 other door. Everybody is excited, and some are so 
 agitated as to be scarcely able to inform the introducing 
 member what their names are. This was the case of 
 an individual who bore the name of Brooks. On 
 coming into the room, the introducing member asked 
 the individual his name. ' Brooks,' replied he, in a 
 tremulous whisper. ' Dukes, did you say ? ' rejoined 
 the first. 'No, Brooks,' repeated the second in still 
 greater agitation. ' Oh, Snooks, is it, very well — Mr. 
 Snooks, Mr. Dickens, Mr. Dickens, Mr. Snooks.' Mr. 
 Brooks gave Boz his hand and looked out of the window. 
 Boz smiled fatiguedly, shook the proffered hand feebly 
 and let it fall, when Mr. Brooks put it in his pocket and 
 walked off as if he had been doing something he would 
 not like to be caught at. The same form was gone 
 through with for an hour or two, when Boz became 
 restive and vowed he would sink under such hospitality 
 unless relieved. One of the Committee then announced 
 that the gentlemen ' with hearts in their hands ' had to 
 retire, as Mr. Dickens wanted their room! The 
 ' friends ' then went down, followed by ' that Com- 
 mittee ! ' " 
 
 Mr. Putnam, in the Atlantic Monthly article pre- 
 viously quoted, wrote regarding the unauthorized public 
 reception referred to in the Philadelphia papers — 
 
 "A day or two after his arrival in Philadelphia, an 
 individual somewhat prominent in city politics came 
 with others and obtained an introduction. On taking 
 his leave, he asked Mr. Dickens if he would grant him 
 the favour to receive a few personal friends the next 
 day, and Mr. Dickens assented. The next morning it 
 was announced through the papers that Mr. Dickens 
 would ' receive the -public ' at a certain time ! At the 
 
UNITED STATES HOTEL, PHILADELPHIA 
 
 PENITENTIARY, PHILADELPHIA 
 
 158 
 
PHILADELPHIA 159 
 
 time specified the street in front was crowded with people 
 and the offices and halls of the hotel filled. Mr. Dickens 
 asked the cause of the assemblage and was astonished 
 and indignant when he learned that all this came of his 
 permission to the individual above mentioned ' to bring 
 a few personal friends for an introduction, ' and he posi- 
 tively refused to hold a ' levee.' But the landlord of 
 the house and others came and represented to him that 
 his refusal would doubtless cause a riot, and that great 
 injury would be done to the house by the enraged 
 populace; and so at last Mr. Dickens consented, and 
 taking his place in one of the large parlours upstairs, 
 prepared himself for the ordeal. Up the people came, 
 and soon the humorous smiles played over his face, for, 
 tedious and annoying as it was, the thing had its comic 
 side, and while he shook hands incessantly, he as usual 
 studied human character. For two mortal hours or more 
 the crowd poured in and he shook hands and exchanged 
 words with all, while the dapper little author of the 
 scene stood smiling by, giving hundreds and thousands 
 of introductions, and making, no doubt, much social 
 and political capital out of his supposed intimacy with 
 the great English author. This scene is substantially 
 repeated in Martin Chuzzlewit when his new-made 
 American friends insisted upon Martin's ' holding a 
 levee,' having announced without his authority, as in 
 the case of Mr. Dickens, that he would receive the 
 public." 
 
 On Thursday, March 10, the day after Dickens left 
 Philadelphia, the Pennsylvanian contained the follow- 
 ing notice — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens left town yesterday morning for the 
 south. On Tuesday, after having disengaged himself 
 from the unexpected invasion of five or six hundred 
 persons, he visited the Penitentiary; and having passed 
 some time in a minute examination into the system 
 practised there for reforming convicts, he dined with a 
 small party of his Philadelphia friends, devoting the 
 remainder of the evening to the enjoyment of other 
 
160 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 hospitalities which had been extended to him. It is to 
 be regretted that his visit to Philadelphia has been so 
 very brief, as this city prides herself upon her lions, 
 which might perhaps have been seen quietly, affording 
 an opportunity for pleasant recreation and comparative 
 repose." 
 
 On Friday, March n, the Philadelphia Gazette also 
 had the following to say regarding the "lions" of the 
 Capitol — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens, we rejoice to hear, has reached Wash- 
 ington in safety. There are too many ' lions ' there to 
 have either one of them incommoded with attention. 
 He left here Tuesday morning, slipped through the 
 fingers of the ready-made Committee at Baltimore, and 
 that evening was quietly and comfortably lodged in the 
 Metropolis. Distinction is sometimes inconvenient, and 
 greatness is often the source of much trouble." 
 
 While he was in Philadelphia, some of the "funny 
 men " of the newspapers attempted either to exercise 
 their wit with Dickens's hair as the subject, or else as 
 a rebuke to those who were anxious to obtain one of his 
 wavy locks as a memento. Here are a few of the 
 attempts — 
 
 "Dickens is in danger of becoming bald, in con- 
 sequence of the number of applications for a lock of his 
 invaluable hair. We thought it would come to this." — 
 Public Ledger. 
 
 " The Dickens he is ! The matter is not so serious, 
 Mr. Ledger, as you seem to imagine, when it is known 
 that there is a ' Balm in Gilead,' by which he can restore 
 his hair to its pristine luxuriance and beauty. Go it, 
 Boz, don't be selfish, give the ladies a lock of your hair, 
 and when it is all gone, rub your bald pate with Balm 
 of Columbia, to be had at 71 Maiden Lane, New York, 
 corner of Third and Race, and Muth and Chestnut 
 Streets, Philadelphia." — Spirit of the Times. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens narrowly escaped the fate of Samson 
 
PHILADELPHIA 161 
 
 the other night at a social party in this city. Groups of 
 the gay and beautiful crowded around him, eyeing his 
 profuse flow of ' soap locks ' with a most envious glance, 
 and wishing all the while he could be thrown into a 
 mesmeric sleep, that they could plunder his cranium 
 of its drapery undiscovered. Not being able to furnish 
 these bewitching ones with a lock of his hair, he gave 
 the most of them a bit of sweet poetry, or a sentiment, 
 coupled with his autograph." — Philadelphia Gazette. 
 
 "A Shocking Bad Hat. — It is said at the Boz ball the 
 ladies bribed some of the waiters to bring them Charles 
 Dickens's hat, and that the lovely dears plucked off all 
 the nap, and put it in their bosoms as a memento of the 
 great author. When asked why they did so, they said 
 he would not part with his hair, and they wished some- 
 thing as near it as possible. When Boz saw his hat, he 
 imagined it had the small-pox, by which calamity he 
 accounted for the loss of the nap." — Public Ledger. 
 
 A certain Philadelphia confectioner, James Parkinson 
 by name, utilized Dickens's visit to create a monumental 
 tribute in sugar to the author, and incidentally to adver- 
 tise the firm of Parkinson on Chestnut Street, and the 
 United States Gazette published the following descrip- 
 tion of this work of art — 
 
 "A Splendid Ornament We see daily some evidence 
 
 or other which brings the famous Boz to our mind 
 — something contrived as a tribute to his worth, or 
 as a vehicle to display a portion of those creations 
 which have given to him so great a fame. The latest 
 attraction of this kind is one which has just been 
 completed by Mr. James Parkinson, of the firm of 
 Parkinson, in Chestnut Street, where it is now to be 
 seen. It represents a temple resting on a square rocky 
 base, in each of the four sides of which there is a 
 deep niche. In each of the niches is displayed with 
 admirable truth and effect a tableau from Boz's works. 
 On the top of this base lie imitations of the volumes of 
 Dickens's works, and on them rests the famous clock 
 M 
 
162 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 of Master Humphrey, having on one side of it ' Little 
 Nell ' and on the other ' The Fat Boy.' Both on the 
 front and back, standing on the vase, appear ' Mr. Pick- 
 wick ' and ' Samivel, ' the figures modelled in sugar 
 with great neatness and truth. Around the edges of the 
 vase are placed twelve columns which support a flat ceil- 
 ing appropriately ornamented, and from this spring a 
 number of columns bearing aloft a dome of great 
 beauty and lightness in its formation. The tracery of 
 the upper part of the work is very rich, and altogether 
 it wears a bizarre and most inviting appearance, showing 
 much ingenuity and labour well applied. It is well 
 worth seeing." 
 
 Here is another bon mot from the United States 
 Gazette — 
 
 "Charles Dickens. — We are very happy to see him 
 among our living authors, although his Nell has been 
 heard of all over the country." 
 
 Even the poets of the Quaker City invoked their 
 Muses, and the following is an example of the result — 
 
 Welcome to Boz 
 
 By Mrs. C. H. W. Esling 
 
 Welcome, thrice welcome to our shores, thou champion of the poor, 
 
 Thou faithful chronicler of woes their weary hearts endure ; 
 
 Welcome we give thee with our hearts, our voices, and our hands. 
 
 And claim thee as in brotherhood, among our kindred bands. 
 
 Thy name is as a household word of most familiar tone, 
 
 It seems amid our good, or ill, a something of our own ; 
 
 A guide, a beacon from afar, a bright enduring ray 
 
 To lead the meagre child of want from vicious paths away. 
 
 How oft does pensive Oliver at Mrs. Maylie's door, 
 
 Arise like a reality, our thinking minds before, 
 
 And little NELLY trudging on, unmurmuring all the while, 
 
 Leading her blind old grandfather for many a lengthy mile. 
 
 And poor heart-broken Smike, we hear his accents thin and weak, 
 
 We mark the tear of sorrow steal adown his hollow cheek ; 
 
 We note again his wistful gaze, with anxious watch grow dim, 
 
 When sweet home tokens came to all, but nothing came to him. 
 
PHILADELPHIA 163 
 
 Their figures seem to haunt our walks where'er our footsteps tread, 
 Though Nelly and the blind old man are number'd with the dead, 
 And Smike, in his own chosen spot, is slumbering in his rest, 
 With the deep secret of his soul untold within his breast. 
 
 Unweariedly we think of them, but oh ! we wish again 
 To feel our bosom's pulses thrill unto another strain — 
 Unsatisfied with what we have, although a precious store, 
 We, like thy favourite Oliver, still yearning, " ask for more." 
 
 U.S. Gazette, 
 Tuesday, March 8, 1842. 
 
 M2 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 Dickens left Philadelphia Wednesday morning, 
 March 9, for Washington. There was no railroad at 
 that time running through from Philadelphia to the 
 capital, and the first part of the journey was by steam- 
 boat down the Delaware River to Wilmington. Here 
 the train was taken as far as the Susquehanna River to 
 a point opposite Havre de Grace, Maryland, the river 
 being crossed by a ferry boat, and the journey continued 
 by rail. A stop for dinner was made at Baltimore, 
 and Mr. Putnam relates the following incident which 
 happened there — 
 
 "On reaching Baltimore the cars stopped while in the 
 market-place. In a couple of minutes word had passed 
 that ' Dickens was aboard the train.' Instantly the 
 windows were darkened with faces, and all sorts of com- 
 ments — but mostly kind and respectful — were made upon 
 his looks and general appearance. 
 
 "A market woman near by, seeing the crowd, came 
 up close to the windows, but she could not make out 
 what all the excitement was about, and calling to a friend 
 who was standing by, she loudly asked, ' What's the 
 matter ? What is it all about ? Say, John, what is it ? ' 
 ' Why,' answered the man, looking over his shoulder, 
 ' they've, got Boz here ! ' ' Got Boz,' said she. 'What's 
 Boz? What do you mean?' 'Why,' said the man, 
 ' it's Dickens. They've got him here I ' ' Well, what 
 has he been doing ? ' said she. ' He ain't been doing 
 nothin,' answered the man ; ' he writes books.' ' Oh ! ' 
 said the woman indignantly. ' Is that all ? What they 
 should make such a row about that for, I should like 
 to know?'" 
 
 164 
 
WASHINGTON 165 
 
 After dinner the journey was continued by railroad, 
 and Washington was reached in the evening. Mr. 
 Putnam writes of the arrival at Washington as follows — 
 
 "On arriving at Washington Mr. Dickens went to his 
 quarters at Willard's (Fuller's). But Willard's was not 
 then the splendid hotel it now is. It was a low, two- 
 storey building, with many odd additions which had 
 been put up at intervals, and the rooms were small. 
 But the house was well kept, and every attention was 
 paid the visitors. There was a big triangle placed in 
 the back-yard close to our rooms, and at all hours of the 
 day and night it sent its summons to the servants. It 
 was rather troublesome for a day or two, but we finally 
 got used to it. Mr. Dickens had letters from distin- 
 guished English and American friends to all the leading 
 members of Congress and other official dignitaries, and 
 in due time Webster, Calhoun, Bell of Tennessee, and 
 many others called to pay their respects. Among the 
 rest was the Honourable R. C, then member of the 
 Senate, from Massachusetts. I had often heard his 
 splendid pleading at the bar; and after he left, I said 
 to Mr. Dickens, ' That, sir, is one of the most remarkable 
 men in our country.' 'Good God! Mr. P.,' answered 
 he, ' they are all so ! I have scarcely met a man since 
 my arrival who wasn't one of the most remarkable men 
 in the country ! " 
 
 The Washington papers had less to say about Dickens 
 than the Boston, New York and Philadelphia papers, 
 and it will be seen that the further Dickens got away 
 from those three eastern cities, the less attention the 
 newspapers paid to him. On his arrival in Washington, 
 the papers simply announced the fact, and the following 
 from the Daily National Intelligencer of March 12 is 
 given as a sample of these notices — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens, author of the admirable story of Oliver 
 Twist and other of the most popular works of fiction 
 known to the history of English literature, arrived in 
 Washington on Wednesday last, accompanied by his 
 lady, and took lodgings at Fuller's Hotel. These 
 
166 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 estimable strangers will remain in the city a few days, 
 and then proceed south as far as Charleston." 
 
 On Thursday, the ioth, Mr. and Mrs. Dickens visited 
 the Capitol, which event was chronicled in the Washing- 
 ton Independent the next day as follows — 
 
 "Charles Dickens, Esq., and lady visited the Capitol 
 yesterday. Mrs. Dickens remained during the greater 
 part of the time in the gallery, while the distinguished 
 author was introduced upon the floor of the Chamber. 
 In the House, he was presented to the venerable ex- 
 president, but their brief conversation was interrupted 
 by those who were eager to grasp the hand that has 
 penned so many admirable stories. We have under- 
 stood that the reporters have it in contemplation to do 
 the honours of Washington, by a dinner to Mr. Dickens. 
 He was formerly, we believe, of their profession. His 
 works show the minuteness of many of his descriptions, . 
 that he has taken down human nature in shorthand." 
 
 If the intention of the reporters to give a dinner were 
 carried out, there was no account of it in the newspapers. 
 A search of the papers fails to disclose anything as to 
 Dickens on Friday, but in the New York Evening Post 
 of March 12 there is the following, telling of his doings 
 on Saturday — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens has visited the President and the heads 
 of the departments, and received the calls of a vast 
 number of citizens and strangers at his lodgings. He 
 has visited the Public Office to-day, the Patent Office, 
 the National Institution, the new Post Office, and other 
 public institutions. Monday, he is invited to a private 
 dinner, with about twenty-five gentlemen, embracing 
 some of the members of Congress, gentlemen of the 
 press and several citizens, and from the character of the 
 persons composing the party, there is no doubt it will be 
 a ' feast of reason and a flow of soul.' Every person 
 who becomes acquainted with him and his lady are 
 pleased with them, and, we are happy to say, the people 
 are not disposed to make fools of themselves, nor to 
 
WASHINGTON 167 
 
 inflict pain upon this intelligent and worthy stranger by 
 any ostentatious parade." 
 
 On Sunday Dickens accepted two invitations to dinner, 
 one at Mr. John Quincy Adams's and the other at Mr. 
 Robert Greenhow's. No newspaper accounts of these 
 two affairs have been discovered, but Mr. Philip Hone, 
 who was at the Adams dinner, makes the following 
 reference to it in his diary, and also of the lev6e at the 
 President's house on Tuesday the 15th — 
 
 "Washington, March 15. — Dickens and his wife are 
 here. There has not been much fuss made about him. 
 They laugh at us in New York for doing too much, and 
 have gone upon the other extreme. He has been invited 
 to dine by several gentlemen to whom he brought letters. 
 Amongst the rest, Mr. Adams invited him and his wife 
 to dinner on Sunday at half-past two o'clock. (This 
 early hour was fixed, I suppose, to keep up the primitive 
 beauty of New England Republican habits.) Some 
 clever people were invited to meet them. They came, 
 he in a frock-coat, and she in her bonnet. They sat at 
 table until four o'clock, when he said, ' Dear, it is time 
 for us to go home and dress for dinner.' They were" 
 engaged to dine with Robert Greenhow, at the fashion- 
 able hour of half-past five ! A most particularly funny 
 idea, to leave the table of John Quincy Adams to dress 
 for a dinner at Robert Greenhow's ! 
 
 "This has been a day of great business. After our 
 dinner party broke up, we went to the President's lev£e — 
 the last of the season, and the crowd was great. The 
 east room, which is one of the most splendid I ever saw, 
 was a complete jam; but considering the facility of 
 access, the sort of people who do the honours and those 
 who receive them, the company was highly respectable ! 
 The first people in the land were there, and the women 
 were well dressed. I noticed no gaucheries, no vulgar- 
 ity, and I doubt if any society in any country, so organ- 
 ized, could have turned out so decorous and respectable 
 an assemblage. 
 
 "Dickens was at the lev£e, and Washington Irving, 
 and, so far as I could judge, Irving out-bozzed ' Boz,' 
 
168 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 He collected a crowd around him ; the men pressed on 
 to take his hand, and the women to touch the hem of his 
 garment. Somebody told me that he saw a woman put 
 on his hat, in order, as she told her companions, that she 
 might say she had worn Washington Irving's hat. All 
 this was ' fun to them,' as the frogs said, but ' death ' to 
 poor Irving, who has no relish for that sort of glorifica- 
 tion, and has less tact than any man living, to get along 
 with it decently." 
 
 The Washington correspondent of the Baltimore 
 Patriot wrote regarding the levee — • 
 
 "The Dickens party left last night for the South. He 
 was at the President's levee on Tuesday, and, while 
 there, the greatest lion at the White House. The crowd 
 oppressed him with kindness and thronged him where- 
 ever he moved. There was amusement and incident 
 enough for a book, and if Boz does not make one of it, 
 it will not be for want of a good opportunity to do so." 
 
 On Monday was given the private dinner referred to 
 above, and no newspaper account of it can be found. 
 Fortunately one of the guests who attended the dinner 
 kept a diary in which he recorded an account of it, which 
 appears in McKenzie's Life of Charles Dickens, pub- 
 lished in 1870, and from which the following is taken — 
 
 "In Washington every attention was paid to Mr. 
 Dickens. The Hon. B. B. French, who resided in that 
 city at the time, kept a careful diary of events, a copy 
 of which has been kmdly lent me by H. M. Keim, Esq., 
 of Reading. From this I learn that on March 10, 1842, 
 Mr. Dickens visited the House of Representatives, with 
 Mr. N. P. Tallmadge of the Senate. Two days later, 
 he ' was in the house ' nearly through its session. He 
 was invited to a seat within the bar by some member, 
 and occupied the selfsame chair in which Lord Morpeth 
 sat nearly every day while he was in the city. In the 
 following month (14th) he was entertained with dinner 
 at Boulanger's; Hon. John Quincy Adams and General 
 Van Ness were invited guests. Hon. George M. Keim 
 was president, in the room of the Hon. John Taliaferro, 
 
WASHINGTON FROM THE PRESIDENT S HOUSE 
 
 $&$*' 
 
 THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE FROM THE RIVER 
 
 168 
 
WASHINGTON 169 
 
 who was expected to preside, but was unavoidably absent 
 from Washington, and Hon. M. St. Clair Clarke and 
 Hon. Aaron Ward were vice-presidents. The following 
 persons made the party : Mr. Dickens, Mr. Adams, and 
 General Van Ness as guests; General Keim, Mr. M. 
 St. Clair Clarke, General Ward, Messrs. Sumpter, 
 Roosevelt, Irwin, Cushing and Holmes of the House of 
 Representatives ; and Messrs. Kingman, F. W. Thomas 
 (the author), Bache, Rice, John Tyler Jr., J. Howard 
 Payne, Frailey, Keller, Dimitry, Major Harrison, 
 Messrs. Samuel P. Walker, Robert N. Johnston, Sutton, 
 H. G. Wheeler, Riggs and B. B. French. 
 
 "Wit, sentiment, song-singing, story-telling and 
 speech-making occupied the time till eleven, when Mr. 
 Dickens arose and, in the most feelingly beautiful 
 manner possible, bade us good-night. The diarist 
 warmly eulogized the guest, saying, ' Dickens, by his 
 modesty, his social powers and his eloquence, has added 
 to the high esteem in which I was previously induced 
 to hold him. I believe every person present was de- 
 lighted.' Mr. Keim proposed Mr. Dickens's health in 
 the following exalted terms : ' Philanthropy and Genius, 
 and a representative of both, now our guest in Washing- 
 ton, whom Washington himself would have rejoiced to 
 welcome.' Dickens, in reply, said, ' That if this were 
 a public dinner he supposed he would be expected to 
 make a speech ; as it was but a social party, surely no 
 such effort would be expected of him; and when he 
 looked about the table and saw gentlemen whose posi- 
 tions in public life rendered it unavoidable that they 
 should either speak themselves or listen to the speeches 
 of others every day, his refraining upon this occasion 
 must be far more acceptable, and surely possess more 
 novelty than any remarks he might make — and he must 
 be allowed to presume that here, in the enjoyment of 
 the social hour, they will be happy to give their ears 
 some rest, and he should, therefore, consider himself 
 relieved from making a speech. He would, however, 
 say that, like the Prince in the Arabian Tales, he had 
 been doomed, since he arrived in this hospitable country, 
 to make new friendships every night, and cut their heads 
 
170 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 off on the following morning. But the recollection of 
 this night, wherever he might go, should accompany 
 him, and, like the bright smiles of his better angel, be 
 treasured in his mind as long as memory remains.' 
 
 " Among the subsequent toasts were ' The Health of 
 John Quincy Adams,' ' The City of Boston ' and 'The 
 Old Curiosity Shop ' — among whose notions were the 
 oldest wine, the newest wit, and the best cradle in the 
 United States. After the evidence our guest had of the 
 goodness of the former, we hope and trust they will give 
 him the benefit of the latter.' After ' The Queen of 
 Great Britain * had been drunk standing, Mr. Dickens 
 said : ' Allow me to assume the character of Mr. Pick- 
 wick, and in that character to give you ' The President 
 of the United States,' which was also drunk standing. 
 By this time the company had apparently reached a, 
 period of very pleasurable enjoyment, for after Mr. Caleb 
 Cushing had responded to ' Our Country and our Guest 
 — both in the first vigour of their youth, and both made 
 great by the might of mind,' he proposed ' The Health of 
 Mr. Pickwick.' At eleven o'clock Mr. Dickens arose 
 and said, ' I rise to propose to you one more sentiment ; 
 it must be my last; it consists of two words — "Good 
 Night." Since I have been seated at this table I have 
 received the welcome intelligence that the news from the 
 dear ones has come at last — that the long-expected letters 
 have arrived. Among them are certain scrawls from 
 little beings across the ocean, of great interest to me, 
 and I thought of them for many days past in connection 
 with drowned men and a noble ship, broken up and 
 lying in fragments upon the bottom of the ocean. But 
 they are here, and you will appreciate the anxiety I feel 
 to read them. Permit me, in allusion to some remarks 
 made by a gentleman near me, to say that every effort 
 of my pen has been intended to elevate the masses of 
 society, to give them the station they deserve among 
 mankind. With that intention I commenced writing, 
 and I assure you as long as I write at all, that shall be 
 the principal motive of my efforts. Gentlemen, since 
 I arrived on your hospitable shore, and in my flight 
 over your land, you have given me everything I can ask 
 
WASHINGTON 171 
 
 but time — that you cannot give me, and you are aware 
 that I must devote some of it to myself; therefore, with 
 the assurance that this has been the most pleasant even- 
 ing I have passed in the United States, I must bid you 
 farewell, and once more repeat the words good night ! ' 
 "The guest was not to be let off without a parting 
 bumper, on Sheridan's plan — 
 
 ' Let the toast pass, 
 Drink to the lass, 
 I'll warrant 'twill prove an excuse for a glass.' 
 
 For Mr. St. Clair Clarke proposed ' Mrs. Dickens : May 
 her stay amongst us be pleasant ; may her return voyage 
 be comfortable, and, when she reaches home, may she 
 find her little ones as healthy as they surely will be 
 happy." " 
 
 None of the Washington newspapers contained any 
 account of Dickens's reception at the President's lev6e 
 on Tuesday the 15th, but a correspondent of the New 
 York Express thus refers to some of the incidents 
 connected with it — 
 
 " ' The last levee of the season, held by President 
 Tyler, was on the evening of Tuesday, the 15th instant. 
 
 " ' The City and District seemed to have turned out 
 en masse at this last gathering of the People at the Presi- 
 dent's house. They came literally in clouds and in all 
 the various forms and shapes of the seven classes, now 
 dancing in like a lock of hair, or a feather, as a cirrus 
 cloud, worn like the cumulus in conical round heaps, 
 and now like the seventh class spreading out and run- 
 ning down. There were children in their nurses' arms, 
 and overgrown and over-aged children, a good many 
 years beyond second childhood. They run from the knee- 
 heigh to a grass-hopper of early N infancy, to long Jim 
 Wilson of the Granite Hills that was, and the Surveyor- 
 General of Iowa that is. It was in the way of ascent and 
 descent of persons you might count somewhere from 
 seven inches to six feet seven inches, more pr les§. 
 
172 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 " ' And then for dressing ! Goddess of fashion, what 
 a figure do some of your votaries cut? An old woman 
 just three steps from the grave* decked out in all the 
 finery and gewgaw of her granddaughter. A grand- 
 mother with nineteen children (the grandchildren in- 
 cluded) carrying as much sail as might interpret the 
 feminine gender of a ship at sea — with quite toui\neau 
 enough to make ballast for a ship of almost any size, 
 from a shallop to a seventy-four. Have you 'not heard 
 of a man mad enough to curse his grandmother ? 
 
 " ' Such an unfilial act must have been where a very 
 sensible grandmother, in some strange freak or other, 
 metamorphosed herself from a sensible woman into a 
 fool. Fools or not, there was much foolish dressing 
 among the crowd, and not altogether confined to the old 
 women. There was no lack of cast, colour or shape. 
 
 " Black spirits and white, 
 Red spirits and gray," 
 
 mingled in strange and odd confusion, everything 
 in a word among the men, from muddy boots, holey 
 coats and unshaven faces, to that pink of society, pro- 
 priety, and sometimes foppishness seen in your kid 
 gloves, oily hair and scented pocket-handkerchief. And 
 then for the women, Heaven bless them all, they came 
 sometimes like the graces, clothed in fleecy clouds and 
 gauze veils, too spiritual, it seemed, to be touched, and 
 sometimes, again, like so many patterns fresh from the 
 quay of the street; some were bonneted, booted and 
 spurred, it seemed, and some, again, like the witches of 
 Macbeth — 
 
 "(Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 
 Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 
 Adder's fork and blind- worm's sting, 
 Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing." 
 
 " ' The greatest lion among the men was Boz, the 
 never-ending Boz. He made his appearance between 
 nine and ten, and the fifteen hundred or two thousand 
 people present went in pursuit of him like hounds, 
 horses and riders in pursuit of a fox in the chase. It 
 

 
 
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 MgT ll 
 
 
 w* A 
 
 
 WjvT' ■•■ ; "'A 
 
 ^i :.,.^y fe^ 
 
 JmSr^ illlSik 
 
 '■■■' 
 
 E A' w 
 
 .. . .. -*-w^ 
 
 .; - ■ . ■ 'V . 
 
 JOHN TYLER 
 President of the United States, 1842 
 
 172 
 
WASHINGTON 173 
 
 was in this trying time that brawny arms, robustious 
 waists and good understandings accomplished valorous 
 feats. Alas for the weak, the modest and timid ! Alas, 
 too, for laces and silks, head-dresses, satin shoes, 
 jewellery and alabaster necks. The pillory or the stocks 
 would have been a heaven upon earth. "Where is 
 Boz ? " says one. " Where ? " " There ! " and a sea of 
 heads appearing like the waves dancing in the river at 
 the incoming of the tide are seen, staring poor Boz out 
 of countenance. He is encompassed and as immovable 
 as the men, and the crowd in sort of a funeral march 
 revolve around him, reflecting some of the brightness 
 in a smile or a word of their adored author. The Peru- 
 vians never worshipped the bright "god of day" with 
 more fervour than the people did this bright emanation 
 of that genius and truth which, after all, is from above, 
 and for the possession of which so much more is due to 
 the Creator than the creature; one could not but pity 
 Boz with a full heart. There he stood like patience on 
 a monument, and literally "smiling at grief." 
 
 " ' Almost every countenance was a rueful one, because 
 in the general press almost every one was kept in a most 
 inconvenient and respectful distance. The people gazed, 
 stared, opened their mouths, stretched their necks until 
 the cords of their necks cracked and the limbs were 
 extended to their utmost tension. This fever was kept 
 up for some thirty or forty minutes, until Boz turned 
 upon his heels to get rid of his two thousand good- 
 natured American friends who had taken the President's 
 house by storm. And there was no peace. Wherever 
 he moved, it was like throwing corn among hungry 
 chickens. They flocked around him here until he took 
 leave of the President. He was then pursued to the 
 dressing-room, and finally to his carriage, and probably 
 to his house and chamber. In the general admiration, 
 too, it is presumed that he found some dozen or two 
 under his bed, in his bedroom closet, and perhaps, un- 
 consciously, a bed-fellow with him. Well, "Hurrah for 
 Boz," and " Hurrah for the Americans." 
 
 " ' They who have seen him, of course, never will be 
 smitten with blindness — and if any of the thousands 
 
174 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 who have run and jumped, screamed and halloed to see 
 Boz should find themselves in print after the fashion and 
 skill of Squeers and Squeers's accomplished school and 
 family, for example, why, they must not complain. 
 
 "'"Madame Boz" was the next of the lions most 
 gazed at in the general menagerie. An honourable 
 M.C. played the agreeable, and the crowd spared the 
 better half to gaze upon the great lion. 
 
 " ' Washington Irving, the new Minister to Spain, 
 who is here to receive his instructions, was turned upon 
 next. The poor man placed himself somewhere in the 
 East room, and the multitude came upon him like the 
 billows of the ocean ; first a crowd of women and then a 
 crowd of men, some eager to take the author of The 
 Broken Heart by the hand, and others content with a 
 good stare, either with the naked eye or by the agency 
 of a quizzing-glass. The squeeze around. Mr. Irving 
 for a half-hour was tremendous, and the people, having 
 satisfied themselves here, turned their attention to new 
 objects. 
 
 " ' The President's Cabinet, Foreign Ministers, some 
 of the tarrying judges of the Supreme Court, a sprink- 
 ling of Senators, two or three scores of representatives, 
 fifteen hundred men, women and children, in every 
 costume, and from every nook and corner of the country, 
 made up the remainder of the medley. It was one to 
 please everybody who could be pleased with a sight of 
 the world at a focus. You might see it face to face, or 
 at least through a glass darkly, and to add interest to 
 the general variety, there was the Marine Band dis- 
 coursing sweet music for the evening. The President, 
 who keeps an open heart as well as an open house, found 
 himself upon this occasion surrounded by troops of 
 friends; but, after all, one could realize, in the labour 
 and honour of office, the truth of the maxim — 
 
 " Untried, how sweet a court attendance : 
 When tried, how dreadful the dependence." ' " 
 
 Dickens left Washington for Richmond on Wednes- 
 day, March 16, and on Friday, the 18th, the Daily 
 National Intelligencer of Washington contained the 
 following reference to his departure — 
 
WASHINGTON 175 
 
 "Mr. and Mrs. Dickens left the city on Wednesday 
 evening for Richmond, in continuation of their tour 
 through a portion of the Union. They proceed from 
 Richmond to Norfolk, thence up the Chesapeake Bay 
 to Baltimore, whence they proceed by the Pennsylvania 
 route to Pittsburgh and the Western States. During 
 their short stay with us these interesting strangers have 
 conciliated the warmest personal esteem by their frank 
 and amiable deportment and the cordiality with which 
 they received and appreciated the respectful attentions 
 so extensively shown them by the inhabitants, resident 
 and transient, of this city. We are requested by a friend 
 to state that it was a source of much regret to them that 
 their brief sojourn placed it out of their power to manifest 
 their sense of these civilities, at least so far as returning 
 the very numerous calls which they received during the 
 few days they spent here. We are also requested to 
 state that, as the arrangements of Mr. D. for his de- 
 parture on Wednesday evening would have prevented 
 his attending the theatre, the annunciation that he would 
 do so was made without his authority." 
 
 The Editor of the Intelligencer was Mr. W. W. 
 Seaton, and the latter part of this notice was written 
 by reason of a request made by Mr. Dickens to Mr. 
 Seaton in the following letter — 
 
 Washington, March 16, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I am truly obliged to you for your kind note. I 
 am so constantly engaged, however, that I think I must 
 deny myself the pleasure of making an appointment with 
 you, which I could scarcely keep without making a most 
 uncomfortable scramble of it. I will report my know- 
 ledge of the lions to you, and you shall judge how I 
 have been show-done. 
 
 In case I should forget it when we meet to-night, may 
 I venture to ask two favours of you — or rather one favour 
 with two heads? 
 
 It is that you will kindly (if you see no objection) let 
 
176 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 my friends here know through the channel which is 
 open to you, and over which you so ably preside, that 
 whenever I make an appointment I keep it; and that it 
 gives me great uneasiness to be placarded all over the 
 town as intending to make a visit to the theatre, when 
 I have given no authority to any person to publish such 
 an announcement; and secondly, that, travelling as we 
 do, we can never return the calls of our friends, in conse- 
 quence of their immense number, and our very limited 
 stay in any one place. 
 
 Let me take this opportunity of thanking you for the 
 exceedingly kind attention I have received at your hands, 
 and the pleasure I have enjoyed in your society and in 
 that of your family. I need scarcely say that Mrs. 
 Dickens desires me to say as much for her. 
 
 I am, my dear sir, with true regards, 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 Mr. W. W. Seaton. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 RICHMOND, BALTIMORE AND HARRISBURG 
 
 Dickens left Washington on Thursday, March 16, 
 at four o'clock in the morning, having gone aboard the 
 steamer the night before. He arrived at Richmond in 
 the evening. He has given in American Notes a full 
 account of the journey, but in the following, Mr. 
 Putnam relates some instances that Dickens does not 
 mention — 
 
 " Leaving Washington, Mr. Dickens took the steamer 
 down the Potomac to Potomac Creek. He rose early in 
 the morning to get a glimpse of Mount Vernon, for he 
 cherished a profound respect for the great man who lies 
 buried there. On arriving at Potomac Creek we found 
 stages to take us to Fredericksburg, Virginia, and as 
 usual Mr. Dickens secured his favourite seat on the box 
 beside the driver. This ride and the negro drivers of the 
 seven coaches is most graphically described in his Notes. 
 The roads were bad past all description, and seemed to 
 be impassable, but the negro drivers possessed great skill 
 and drove through without accident. 
 
 "At Fredericksburg we took the cars for Richmond. 
 After travelling a while we came to a very lonely and 
 dismal-looking country. We passed plantations long 
 ago deserted, the houses and barns rotting down, and 
 the ground as barren of soil as a New England street. 
 A gentleman told me that the vast pine barrens, stretch- 
 ing miles away, through which we were occasionally 
 passing, were, years ago., the same as these barren fields, 
 for only pines of the most meagre growth could grow on 
 this slavery-cursed soil. I called the attention of Mr. 
 Dickens to the sterility and ruin all around us, and he 
 seemed astounded at the fact that the land was once fertile, 
 
 N 177 
 
178 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 and the very ' garden of America ' ! Turning to his 
 wife, he exclaimed, ' Great God ! Kate, just hear what 
 Mr. P. says ! These lands were once cultivated, and 
 have been abandoned because worn out by slave labour ! ' 
 At sight of this widespread desolation his already deep 
 detestation of slavery became intensified. 
 
 "An incident upon the road added, if possible, to this 
 feeling. Stopping at a lonely station in the forest for 
 food and water, we noticed a coloured woman with 
 several small children standing by, who seemed to be 
 waiting for passage. After a little time we heard the 
 woman and children weeping, and some one in the car 
 asked the cause. A bluff, well-dressed man near us 
 
 answered: 'It's them d d niggers; somebody has 
 
 bought them and is taking them down to Richmond, and 
 they are making a fuss about it.' 
 
 " Dickens heard the answer, and what impression this 
 separation of families made upon the mind of one who 
 loved so well the freedom and happiness of all human 
 beings may be imagined. 
 
 "At Richmond Mr. Dickens took rooms at the 'Ex- 
 change.' Here, as elsewhere, large numbers of the most 
 prominent people called upon him, and a dinner was 
 given in his honour. Here, too, he visited the tobacco 
 factories, and saw ' the happy slaves singing at their 
 work.' But it was a useless task to attempt to blind the 
 eyes or corrupt the heart of this friend of humanity. All 
 that was praiseworthy in our people and their institutions 
 he praised without stint; but he would not endorse any 
 wrong, especially that of slavery." 
 
 The morning after his arrival the Richmond Enquirer 
 contained the following mention of his arrival — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens at Richmond. — Mr. Charles Dickens 
 and lady reached Richmond Thursday evening on the 
 cars from Washington, and will remain with us till 
 Sunday morning, when he is compelled to return to 
 Baltimore. Thence he will go to Pittsburgh and the 
 north-western section of the United States. He has not 
 time to visit Charleston at the farther south. He will 
 return to England early in June after visiting the Cataract 
 
RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 EXCHANGE HOTEL, RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 178 
 
RICHMOND 179 
 
 of Niagara, Canada, etc. Some of his friends met him 
 last night at a petite supper, got up by our friend Boyden 
 of the ' Exchange.' " 
 
 The supper at the ' Exchange ' seemed to have caused 
 some dissatisfaction amongst those who were not for- 
 tunate enough to be bidden to the feast, and the dissatis- 
 faction was voiced through the Richmond Star, for on 
 March 22 the Enquirer contained the following article 
 explaining how the affair came to be arranged — 
 
 " The Star of yesterday morning, speaking of the Boz 
 Petite Souper, says that ' a subscription was soon 
 circulated among a select few, who, for some reason 
 unknown to us, thus assumed the honour of representing 
 the citizens of Richmond.' We hasten to correct this 
 impression, as we do not wish the slightest trace of ill- 
 feeling to be left from C. Dickens's visit to this city. 
 The fact was that the gentleman who first waited upon 
 him had been some time before selected by a meeting 
 of their fellow-citizens to correspond with him and invite 
 him to a public dinner. He had refused the dinner, and 
 he now wished also to decline a supper, until he was told, 
 as the Star states, that ' there were several gentlemen of 
 Richmond who would be proud — happy was the word — 
 to meet him at a social supper that evening.' When he 
 had thus accepted, there was scarcely time to get up a 
 supper (and no one but ' Mine Host of the Exchange ' 
 could have done it in such quick time) and to bid in the 
 guests. 
 
 "The subscription was not confined ' to a select few,' 
 for it was intended and desired that all who pleased 
 should participate in its pleasures. Scarcely any other 
 magician than Boz (whose readers are found everywhere) 
 could get together so many guests in so short a time." 
 
 The same issue of the Enquirer contained another 
 article in which the writer expresses his opinion on 
 Dickens's personality, and also a brief account of the 
 supper, with a promise of a further account on Thursday — 
 
 "Mr. Charles Dickens left us on Sunday morning, 
 with his lady, who received many visits from' the ladies 
 
 N 2 
 
180 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 of this city on Saturday. He had made an engagement 
 to be in Baltimore yesterday. Thence, he proceeds to 
 Pittsburgh, to Cincinnati, and down the Ohio to St. 
 Louis. He will return by the Lakes, and expects to 
 devote a week to the Cataract of Niagara. As the corre- 
 spondent of the New York Herald says, ' he will then 
 visit the Canadas, and return to New York, whence he 
 will sail on June 7, to return to ' merrie England,' 
 and publish the first number of his new work on the 1st 
 of November. Wherever he travels, he multiplies by 
 masses the host of his personal friends, where before he 
 was cherished fondly for the pure fictions of his mind's 
 creation alone." 
 
 Mr. Dickens's visit to this city has produced precisely 
 that impression. He is very young for the great fame 
 which he has already won — only thirty years and six 
 weeks old — is a man of decided and varied talents — full 
 of wit and humour, with much good sense and much 
 practical knowledge of the world, with manners of the 
 most cordial sort; his heart in his hand. We have no 
 doubt his visit was as agreeable to himself as it was to 
 the citizens of Richmond. The supper Friday night was 
 unique. In eight hours' time, about one hundred gentle- 
 men came together to pay their tribute to Dickens. 
 There was no labour of preparation in getting up the 
 Attic feast. The impulse of their feelings superseded 
 any such necessity. Many of the members of the Legis- 
 lature co-operated with the citizens of the town, and con- 
 tributed to the wit and joy of the evening. Boz was in 
 his happiest humour. But this fairy scene has vanished 
 like a dream, leaving behind it traces of light and ' plea- 
 sures of memory that can never fade away. The rose 
 has crumbled to pieces, but the perfume of the scattered 
 leaves still remains.' We have no room for further par- 
 ticulars to-day. We may be indebted to a friend who 
 took some notes of the first two speeches for a com- 
 munication, embracing some short sketches of the bril- 
 liant scene. We may give this rapid delineation on 
 Thursday; but as all the toasts, speeches, etc., were 
 entirely improvisatore, we shall lose many good things, 
 
RICHMOND 181 
 
 unless the gentlemen who gave the toasts, etc., will be 
 kind enough to put them on paper, and leave them with 
 us for the use of our correspondent. We shall publish 
 what we can save from the wreck of the evening. " 
 
 On Thursday the Enquirer published the further 
 account of the supper which is given below in full. It 
 contains a speech by Dickens which is not included 
 in the published volume of his speeches. It will be seen 
 that Mr. Ritchie, who presided at the supperj took much 
 pride in the fact that their reception of the guest was on 
 a more simple scale than those given in Boston and New 
 York. 
 
 "Charles Dickens 
 
 " The citizens of Richmond well recollect the sensation 
 which was produced among them by the arrival of 
 Charles Dickens on Thursday last. Every one seemed 
 disposed to greet him with that cordiality which is so 
 justly the pride of Virginians. It was well known, how- 
 ever, that he had declined receiving any more public 
 manifestations of welcome during his sojourn in this 
 country. On Friday, several of our citizens called on 
 him to tender the hospitalities of the place to himself and 
 lady. Among them were gentlemen who had been ap- 
 pointed by a prior meeting of the citizens to invite him 
 to a public dinner, which he had declined in a corre- 
 spondence already laid before the public. They now 
 express to him the gratification which they would receive 
 by meeting him at some festive entertainment, and he 
 finally agreed to meet a few of his friends at a social 
 supper that night at the Exchange Hotel, which was his 
 headquarters during his sojourn in Richmond. Boyden 
 was then placed in requisition and put his trumps to get 
 up an entertainment which was worthy the man and the 
 occasion. The appointed hour soon arrived (for it was 
 past midday when the petite souper was first suggested), 
 and about ninety gentlemen assembled to meet their 
 guest. 
 
 " An hour or more was spent in conversation with each 
 other and with Mr. Dickens, whose manners were open 
 
182 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 and frank, and whose kind-hearted simplicity won for 
 him the favour of all with whom he conversed. The 
 company proceeded from the drawing-room to the supper- 
 room, and then partook of the elegant and recherche 
 entertainment which had been prepared for them. Mr. 
 Thomas Ritchie presided, assisted by Mr. James Lyons, 
 General Pogram, Messrs. Faulkner and Carter and 
 Preston (of the Senate of Virginia), as Vice-Presidents of 
 the evening. The table was laid out with one broad stem, 
 running across the room, from which diverged three 
 parallel tables. The President occupied the middle of 
 the cross-table, with Mr. Dickens to his right hand, 
 and Acting-Governor Rutherford to his left, Vice-Presi- 
 dent Lyons facing him at the extreme end of the centre 
 table, and the other Vice-Presidents at the heads of their 
 respective departments. 
 
 "After the viands and substantials had been pretty well 
 cleared off, the President of the night called upon the 
 company to charge their glasses. He had a sentiment 
 to offer them. He thanked the company for the honour 
 they had done him by calling him to preside at such an 
 entertainment, but never was a man put at the head of 
 a firm with less corporate stock-in-trade than he was. 
 No plan, no organization, not a regular toast prepared, 
 not a set speech cut and dry. But he found some con- 
 solation in the capacities of the individual partners of 
 the firm. When he looked around him, when he saw 
 the hearts and heads of those who compose the associa- 
 tion, he had no fear about all of the drafts he should 
 draw upon them being duly honoured. He would, there- 
 fore, give his own sentiment, and put the ball in motion. 
 Let it roll on, and let the good things go around the 
 table. In this way we might crown our flowing cups 
 with flowers, and the circling' hours might glide on, 
 gladdening and rejoicing, until after midnight. 
 
 "Never, indeedj had there been so little labour and so 
 little preparation made in getting up an entertainment. 
 It was scarcely six hours since the note was sounded in 
 our streets that Dickens was to be at home to-night — 
 scarcely six hours since the Fiery Cross was passed from 
 hand to hand. But no labour was necessary to carry out 
 
RICHMOND 183 
 
 the good work. The impulse of our feelings had super- 
 seded all such necessity, and the name of the magician 
 who had brought us together had done the rest. And 
 now behold the effect ! Let this respectable company, 
 brought together in so brief a space of time, speak the 
 high compliment which could be paid to Mr. Dickens. 
 Scarcely had that Fiery Cross been put in motion, when 
 the clans of Roderick Dhu rush in such goodly numbers 
 to the field, not to meet an enemy, but to meet a friend. 
 " We did not come here to welcome our guest after the 
 fashion of our Northern brethren. We had no elaborate 
 magnificence, no eclat, no elegant tableau to greet him, 
 as those with which Boston and New York had received 
 him. We bring around him no boast of literary circle. 
 We have no Washington Irving to grace the chair; we 
 have no Bryant present to celebrate his praises in 
 rapturous strain. The literature of the Old Dominion 
 was generally of another character, with some brilliant 
 literary exceptions. Her forte was to be found in the 
 masculine production of her statesmen, her Washington, 
 her Jefferson, and her Madison, who had never indulged 
 in works of imagination, in the charms of romance, and 
 in the mere beauties of the belles lettres. 'But,' con- 
 tinued the President, ' we have something else to offer 
 to our guest. We may vie even with Boston and New 
 York in the warmth of our welcome. The sons of the 
 sunny South have warm hearts and a cordial reception 
 to give the man whom they admire, and who is there 
 more entitled to our thanks for his literary labours 
 than Charles Dickens? Has he not run up a debt 
 with us all, and which we are all anxious to pay? 
 Is there one among you whose saddest hours have 
 not been soothed by the productions of his pencil? 
 Is there one amongst you whose lightest hours have 
 not still been more lightened by the emanations of 
 his genius? Is there a man here to-night whose sensi- 
 bilities have not been melted into tears by the pathos of 
 the Curiosity Shop ? or who has not been excited into 
 laughter by the humours of the Pickwick Club? The 
 works of Boz are our constant companions. We take 
 him to our sick bed to cheer usj to our most private hours 
 
184 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 to amuse and comfort us. But,' said the President, 
 ' there is one charm in the writings of our guest to which 
 I delight to do justice. Mr. Dickens has passed over 
 the great, the glaring, the magnificent, in order to bring 
 out humble worth and unpretending merit. He has 
 sought the violet in its lowly bed, to give its perfume 
 to the light of day. He is no Troubadour, to sing 
 the warlike achievements of Knights ; no Poet Laureate, 
 to celebrate the praises of Kings, Princes and the titled 
 great. His excursive imagination had wandered over 
 the whole surface of human nature, and instead of invest- 
 ing wealth or power with additional attractions, it had 
 seized upon the humble points in the human landscape, 
 had lighted them up with all the fire of his genius, and 
 given them that conspicuous position to which they were 
 entitled. He had caused us to feel for the humblest not 
 less than for the highest, and all to feel for all — for the 
 youthful tenant of the workhouse and for the poor and 
 pious Nell — that enchanting picture, or whose delicate 
 touches we are so indebted to the imagination of the 
 writer. This is one of the charms of his productions, 
 that it creates in us all a sympathy for each other — a 
 participation in the interests of our common humanity, 
 which constitutes the great bond of equality, and the 
 best basis for a free form of government. It is impos- 
 sible for us not to feel respect for such a man, and not 
 to welcome him in the bosom of our society. Let us not 
 forget, too, how much we are deeply indebted to that 
 "miraculous organ " the Press for the communication of 
 these pleasures. No sooner is thought conceived and 
 transferred to Mr. Dickens's paper from his brain, in his 
 solitary chamber in distant England, than it is trans- 
 mitted by the Press, across the broad Atlantic, with the 
 rapidity of electricity. 
 
 " ' It was the Press which made us first acquainted with 
 Mr. Dickens. And now we have him in our midst 
 shall we not welcome him— tender him the hospitali- 
 ties of the Old Dominion, and give him a cordial recep- 
 tion in this city? But will Mr. D. excuse me for 
 turning my address for a moment to a graver theme ? I 
 am an older soldier, ' said the President, ' than he is, 
 
RICHMOND 185 
 
 certainly not a better. And it is one of the maxims I 
 have gathered from my own experience, one of the 
 wisest, though paradoxical, lessons which should be 
 learned both by men and by states, that it is infinitely 
 harder to bear prosperity than adversity. I will not go 
 into its philosophy, nor into the thousands of illustra- 
 tions of which it is susceptible. It was the neglect of 
 this principle which had prostrated the first genius of 
 the age, Bonaparte, who had never found the word 
 " impossibility " written in his dictionary, but who had 
 his head so much turned by his successes that he braved 
 the rigours of a Russian climate, and then perished, a 
 victim of his folly, on the rock of St. Helena. The 
 Romans were so sensible of this truth that, in the midst 
 of their triumphant processions, they stationed in the car 
 of the conqueror a monitor, whose business it was to 
 remind him of the vanity of life and the mutability of all 
 human fortunes. Nothing is better calculated to affect 
 us than the early possession of the most brilliant fame. 
 I beg my friend, therefore, ' said the President, ' to excuse 
 this digression, and to recollect that, though he has 
 already done much, it is no reason why he should not do 
 a great deal more for us. Young as you are, you have 
 won a proud distinction in the Temple of Fame. I pray 
 you not to let your success turn your head or paralyse 
 your pen. But enough ! It is my duty as well as my 
 pleasure now to greet you as you deserve, and may I not 
 (addressing the company) in your name and with all 
 your hearts, extend to him the right hand of fellowship 
 (grasping his hand)? (Cheers.) And now,' said the 
 President, ' I propose the following sentiment — 
 
 "' Charles Dickens, the Literary Guest of the Nation: 
 We welcome him to the hearths and hearts of the Old 
 Dominion.' 
 
 "After the cheering which followed the annunciation 
 of the President's toast had subsided, Mr. Dickens arose, 
 and was greeted with renewed tokens of applause and 
 welcome. 
 
 " He said : ' Mr. President and Gentlemen, I am most 
 
186 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 truly grateful and obliged to you for the kind welcome 
 which you have given me. I receive and acknowledge 
 with gratitude this testimonial of your kindly feelings 
 towards me. If it were possible to convey to you my 
 sense and appreciation of your favours, I would indeed 
 acknowledge as I receive your good wishes an hundred- 
 fold. But, as I said at a social party a few nights since 
 at Washington — a party somewhat similar to this — it is 
 my misfortune to be passing through this country with 
 almost as rapid a flight as that of any bird of the air — 
 the American eagle excepted. (Cheers.) I find, in 
 my career amongst you, no little resemblance to that far- 
 famed Sultan of the thousand-and-one nights, who was 
 in the habit of acquiring a new friend every night and 
 cutting his head off in the morning. I find another 
 resemblance to what we read in the history of that 
 Sultan, fie was diverted from his bad habit by listening 
 to the tales of one who proved a favourite above all the 
 rest, so I am stopped in my original intention by the 
 hospitalities of the Americans. (Cheers.) 
 
 " ' I say that the best flag of truce between two nations 
 having the same common origin and speaking the same 
 language is a fair sheet of white paper inscribed with the 
 literature of each. (Cheers.) If, hereafter, I think of 
 this night, if I remember the welcome which you have 
 assured me, believe me, my small corner, my humble 
 portion of that fair sheet shall be inscribed with the hos- 
 pitalities I have received of the friends I have seen and 
 made here. (Cheers.) It has been said, gentlemen, 
 that an after-dinner speech may be too long. (Laughter.) 
 If so, it may be said, with more truth, that an after- 
 supper speech cannot be too short — (laughter) — and 
 especially to those with whom to listen to a speech is no 
 novelty — (laughter) — and among whom a man of few 
 words is a rare and almost "literary phenomenon." 
 (Great laughter and cheering.) I therefore deem it only 
 necessary to say to you that I am almost deeply and 
 sincerely obliged to you for your kindness. (Cries of 
 "Goon.") 
 
 " ' In reference to the admonition tendered to me by my 
 worthy friend, your President, I will say that it has long 
 
RICHMOND 187 
 
 been a thing near my heart. But I hope that I shall 
 never need the monitor of which he reminds us. My 
 situation forbids all paralysis of my pen — as I hope you 
 will discover from November next, when I shall resume 
 my literary labours. The hospitalities of America can 
 never be forgotten among them. Your kindness, cer- 
 tainly, never. 
 
 " ' Imagine me thinking of you to-morrow ; imagine me 
 on the railroad to Fredericksburg — on that Virginia road 
 from Fredericksburg to the Potomac' (Here the 
 laughter and cheering was overpowering. The Presi- 
 dent exclaimed, ' No more of that, Hal, an you love 
 me.') ' In fact, throughout all my travels in these parts 
 I shall think of the pleasure I have enjoyed in the bosom 
 of your society.' (Great cheering.) 
 
 " In answer to the call upon him, Mr. Lyons (First Vice- 
 President) said that he rose with reluctance to utter a 
 single word after the excellent addresses which had just 
 been delivered by our distinguished guest and the vener- 
 able President of this meeting. But participating deeply, 
 as Mr. L. did, in the general feeling of gratification 
 experienced by all here at the presence among us of one 
 who, distinguished as he was when he touched our 
 shores, had added a new claim to our respect and admira- 
 tion by the modesty with which he wore his honours, 
 his gentlemanly demeanour and social temper, he could 
 not refrain from expressing that feeling. He hoped to 
 be pardoned for adding that he differed from the Presi- 
 dent in one sentiment uttered by him in his address, and 
 he felt that he did not disparage that address when he 
 said there was one sentiment in it from which he dis- 
 sented. The President had said we could not vie with 
 our Northern brethren in the offering which we could 
 make to our guest — that we had not the large room, the 
 splendid edifices and public shows, to exhibit, which 
 they had, nor had we the means of gorgeous entertain- 
 ment or literary treasures which they have. But we 
 offer to our guest the highest tribute — it is no tribute to 
 rank or title — to place or wealth — but the free homage 
 which hearts that never bent to power pay to genius ; and 
 we offer him what we in Virginia, at least, regard as 
 
188 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 equal to any other offering to a friend — a hearty Vir- 
 ginian welcome. Having said thus much, Mr. Lyons 
 would, in the spirit of the address (from Mr. Dickens) 
 to which he listened with so much pleasure, conclude by 
 offering — 
 
 " ' England and America, bound together by kindred 
 ties: May all their controversies be conducted in the 
 true "Pickwickian " spirit.' (Laughter and cheers.) 
 
 " General Pogram (being called on by the Chair) gave 
 a toast, with the usual happy vein of his remarks. But, 
 unfortunately, the General is now absent, and neither 
 the toast nor the speech can be given in detail. The 
 President having called upon Mr. Faulkner, Third Vice- 
 President, for a toast and a speech, Mr. Faulkner said 
 he would discharge the duty which devolved upon his 
 end of the table by complying with the call so far as to 
 give an unpremeditated sentiment; a speech he must 
 decline. He came there to give himself up to the full 
 enjoyment of the evening — to see, to hear, to catch the 
 accents of that youthful genius whose fame already fills 
 the world. The bare idea of making a speech would 
 drive back the genial current of his feelings to their foun- 
 tain cells. It would make him think of the Senate 
 Chamber or the bar and bring up reflections which it was 
 his purpose to bury for a few brief hours. He could not, 
 besides, so soon forget the admonition which our 
 honoured guest had just given us upon the subject of 
 ' after supper ' speeches. The sentiment which had 
 occurred to him was one suggested by the position which 
 the worthy President himself held, and by the inimitable 
 life and spirit with which he discharged the duties of the 
 Chair to the honoured individual on his right — 
 
 "'Our distinguished Quest: His reception in this 
 country shows that there is at least one kind of aristo- 
 cracy to which the sternest Republicans are proud to 
 pay the homage of their hearts — the aristocracy of genius 
 and worth.' 
 
 "Mr. Vice-President Carter being called on by the 
 Chair, gave the following toast — 
 
RICHMOND 189 
 
 " ' England and America — the parent and child — the 
 home of Dickens and Irving : May their future contests 
 be in literature and not in arms.' 
 
 "Mr. Vice-President Preston, being called on by the 
 Chair, gave the following toast — 
 
 "' The knowledge of mankind — of the springs of 
 human action, and the power to portray them, proclaims 
 their possessor a nobleman everywhere.' 
 
 " The ball was now fairly set in motion, and sentiment 
 followed sentiment, or, as the President said, ' The good 
 things went around.' Scarcely a character among 
 those depicted by ' Boz ' was left unnoticed, from old 
 Mr. Pickwick down to Little Nell. Presently one of the 
 company arose and proposed the health of that part of 
 Mr. D.'s family who were on the other side of the 
 Atlantic. He proposed the three young ones who bore 
 the name of our guest. In this he was corrected : 
 ' Four,' said a near neighbour. An amusing dispute 
 arose as to whether there were three or four. This was, 
 however, decided by an official annunciation from the 
 Chair that there were four. Accordingly, the company 
 most cordially drank the health and prosperity of the 
 four little Dickenses over the water. 
 
 "The passes of wit and sentiment between Boz and all 
 who sat within conversational distance from him were 
 frequent throughout the evening. The company were 
 all previously assured of the power of pleasing possessed 
 by their guest through the pen ; but they did not know, 
 until this occasion, that he could be so happy in the use 
 of the living faculty of speech. The sallies between him- 
 self and the President were constant and amusing. In 
 one instance, when the latter complimented a character 
 in the Curiosity Shop, Mr. D. retorted by denominating 
 him a living ' curiosity.' In a few remarks addressed 
 to the whole audience, he spoke with enthusiasm and 
 delight, and with many humorous strokes, of his having 
 met with a man who had gone through so many labours 
 and yet preserved such a green heart, with all the 
 freshness and sprightliness of a boy. 
 
 "But it is impossible for me to present the whole 
 
190 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 tableaux to your readers. ' The fairy scene has van- 
 ished ; ' but we cannot say it has not ' left a wrack 
 behind ' it. It will not be easy for any one who was 
 present to forget all that has passed. But one thing is 
 indeed a subject of regret — that so many good things 
 were said by the company at large which are lost to the 
 public; that the toasts were improvisatore, and not 
 written or taken down ; that some very happy but short 
 addresses are to be lost in oblivion for want of a his- 
 torian. We lament that the modesty of gentlemen 
 should have prevented their handing in their toasts, as 
 was requested in this paper, and none are given except 
 the toasts of the presiding officers. We shall have other 
 and joyous feasts in this good city, but no literary guest 
 can be more warmly received than has been perhaps the 
 most popular author of the day. 
 
 " It was an Attic supper, which no one present will be 
 apt to forget. 
 
 "One of the last sentiments drunk produced great 
 enthusiasm. It was in these words — 
 
 "'Charles Dickens, the Artful Dodger: He has 
 dodged Philadelphia and Baltimore, but he could not 
 dodge the Old Dominion.' " 
 
 Mr. Gales Seaton, son of Mr. W. Seaton, editor of 
 the National Intelligencer of Washington, happened to 
 be in Richmond at the time of the Dickens visit. He 
 wrote his father a very interesting letter relating to his 
 own experiences with, and his personal opinions of, 
 Dickens, and the letter is copied in full from William 
 Winston Seaton: a Biographical Sketch — 
 
 "... I wrote a hurried note last night, to advise you 
 that Mr. and Mrs. Dickens proposed going to Wash- 
 ington this morning, a delay in the departure of the boat 
 to Norfolk preventing their reaching Baltimore as soon 
 as desired; so they go no farther south. I was amused 
 at the earnestness with which he asked me if I was sure 
 St. Louis is farther north than Charleston. 
 
 "C.'s letter reached me too late to allow me to comply 
 with your wishes ; and though I should, of course, have 
 attended to your behests, it would have placed me more 
 
RICHMOND 191 
 
 in the attitude of a lion-hunter than I like. Indeed, I 
 have barely escaped as it is. I sent up my card to him, 
 anticipating that I should, find a crowd, and determined 
 to pester him with very little of my chat, after offering 
 my services. I thought I might approach him calmly, 
 and, like Malvolio, ' quenching my familiar smile with 
 an austere regard of control,' address him in the loftiest 
 style of hospitable welcome. I had only time to frame 
 an appropriate exordium, when his secretary informed 
 me that Mr. Dickens had been expecting me, and would 
 be glad to see me. Entering the room with somewhat 
 of a tremor, for I knew not whether he would ' roar as 
 gently as a sucking dove,' I was seized by the hand 
 and almost slung across the room, and a dozen remarks 
 and questions addressed me in a breath. For he was 
 entirely alone and writing. In reply, I at first could only 
 gasp, without much power of articulation ; for I suppose 
 few persons feel with more devotion the homage due to 
 the majesty of genius than I. He proposed a walk, and 
 we went to the French Gardens. I need not say that 
 I was delighted with his affable, cordial, frank and con- 
 versible manner, a strong proof of which is that in ten 
 minutes I nearly forgot his distinction as an author, and 
 conversed with him on a variety of topics as they 
 naturally arose. We discussed law, London, negro 
 songs, Richmond, etc., and, in truth, if I were to sum 
 up in one sentence the impression he left on my mind, 
 it would be that he is a thorough good fellow. As you 
 may suppose, from your own feelings, I sedulously 
 avoided the crowded streets, having no idea of being 
 pointed out as having seized Boz immediately and mono- 
 polized him. On our return, we found several gentle- 
 men, and, with Mrs. Dickens, we walked to Church Hill. 
 She spoke of the pleasure she enjoyed at our house, and 
 their hope to see you again. Afterwards we went to 
 the Capitol, but persons crowding in to see them, I made 
 my bow, after a kind invitation from him to call when- 
 ever I felt disposed. I saw that he was likely enough 
 to have people around him, and did not see him again 
 that day; though I felt unquiet and restless, I must 
 confess, and could hardly resist going again. 
 
192 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "On Saturday morning I sent up my card, and sat a 
 short time ; but he was at breakfast and expected a crowd 
 of visitors, so did not go out. He had been up late at 
 a supper the night before, and laughed at my reason for 
 not attending it, that I should have been called on for a 
 speech. He was, I hear, very happy, and every one else 
 very insipid in their efforts, except Mr. Ritchie, with 
 whom he was greatly pleased. 
 
 " At his \evie, from twelve to two, I attended to present 
 a lady and spoke a while with him. He and his wife 
 offered to bear letters, etc., to you from me, which I 
 declined and took leave. I knew last night that they 
 were receiving friends, and I could with difficulty keep 
 away from the ' Exchange.' Whether from gratified 
 vanity or a purer feeling, admiration of genius or simply 
 a liking for the man, I know not, but I do feel very 
 sorry that he has gone. I have never seen a man in 
 whom, in so brief a period, I was so greatly interested. 
 His likenesses certainly flatter him, but they cannot give 
 the charm of his face, his rich expression of humour and 
 merriment when he laughs — his whole face lights up. 
 And then if he is not a man of fine feeling, no confidence 
 is to be placed in the face as an index of the heart. I 
 do sincerely hope his life may be a happy and prosperous 
 one. . . . 
 
 " Your affectionate son, 
 
 "Gales Seaton." 
 
 Dickens left Richmond Sunday morning, March 20, 
 via Washington for Baltimore, where he arrived the next 
 evening, going to Barnum's Hotel, which he said was 
 the only hotel he stopped at in the United States where 
 he was given enough water to wash himself. 
 
 The day after his arrival the daily papers all contained 
 very brief notices announcing his arrival, of which the 
 following from the Baltimore Patriot and Commercial 
 Gazette is a sample — 
 
 "Mr. Charles Dickens and Lady arrived in this city 
 last evening from Washington, and took lodgings at 
 Barnum's Hotel. We understand it is their intention to 
 remain for several days." 
 
BALTIMORE 
 
 BARNUM S HOTEL, BALTIMORE 
 
 192 
 
BALTIMORE 193 
 
 Dickens wrote to Washington Irving in Washington 
 on Monday afternoon on his way to Baltimore. 
 
 "We passed through — literally passed through — this 
 place again to-day. I did not come to see you, for I 
 really did not have the heart to say ' good-bye ' again, 
 and felt more than I can tell you when we shook hands 
 last Wednesday. 
 
 "You will not be at Baltimore, I fear? I thought at 
 the time that you said you might be there to make our 
 parting gayer." 
 
 Dickens had a pleasant surprise at Baltimore, for, as 
 will be seen from this article from the Patriot and Ire 
 quirer, Irving did go to Baltimore. 
 
 "Charles Dickens — This distinguished author has 
 been in Baltimore for the last two days, and left this 
 morning in the Susquehanna Railroad line for Columbia. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dickens received at their rooms at the 
 City Hotel the ladies and gentlemen who extended to 
 them the courtesies of social intercourse, and were enter- 
 tained privately, as far as their limited sojourn with us 
 would admit. 
 
 " Washington Irving was also in Baltimore, and left this 
 morning for New York, whence he sails for Madrid early 
 in April. It was very pleasant to meet in the social 
 circles these distinguished representatives of American 
 and English literature. 
 
 " Mr. Dickens made a visit yesterday to the Maryland 
 Hospital and Penitentiary, as he takes a deep interest in 
 studying human nature in such receptacles of misfortune 
 and crime. The civilities extended to him in Baltimore 
 were very quiet and unostentatious, and such 1 as must 
 have been gratifying to his feelings as a man. 
 
 "He takes the Pennsylvania works at Harrisburg to 
 Pittsburgh; then to St. Louis; returns by the Lakes to 
 New York, and sails for England in June. His distin- 
 guished reception in this country is a striking illustra- 
 tion of the influence of mind over mind, of the homage 
 which all civilized nations pay to genius of the 
 
194 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 pre-eminence of that best of all nobility — the nobility of 
 nature. 
 
 " It is a fine feature in our Republican country, as indi- 
 cating our attachment to Republican institutions, that 
 this architect of his own fortune is received with ten 
 thousandfold more distinction than titled nobility. Long 
 may he live to delight and instruct the world with the 
 beautiful creations of a genius which does honour to the 
 age." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Charles Lanman, written at Wash- 
 ington, February 5, 1868, Dickens thus refers to the 
 intercourse between him and Irving in Baltimore, and 
 the famous mint-julep which they enjoyed together in 
 1842 — 
 
 " Your reference to my dear friend Washington Irving 
 renews the vivid impressions reawakened in my mind 
 at Baltimore the other day. I saw his fine face for the 
 last time in that city. He came thence from New York 
 to pass a day or two with me before I went westward, 
 and they were amongst the most memorable of my life 
 by his delightful fancy and general humours. Some 
 unknown admirer of his books and mine sent to the hotel 
 a most enormous mint-julep, wreathed with flowers. We 
 sat, one on either side of it, with great solemnity (it filled 
 a respectable-sized round table), but the solemnity was 
 of very short duration. It was quite an enchanted julep 
 and carried us among innumerable people and places 
 that we both knew. The julep held out far into the 
 night, and my memory never saw him afterwards other- 
 wise than as bending over it with his straw, with an 
 attempted air of gravity, after some anecdote involving 
 some wonderfully droll and delicate observations of char- 
 acter, and then, as his eye caught mine, melting out into 
 that captivating laugh of his, which was the brightest 
 and best I ever heard." 
 
 It will be noticed that Dickens says that the julep was 
 sent "by some unknown admirer." When he wrote the 
 letter to Mr. Lanman, twenty-six years after he and 
 Irving enjoyed the delectable drink, he had forgotten 
 
HARRISBURG 195 
 
 who the donor was; but it was a Mr. William Guy of 
 Philadelphia, as shown by a letter he wrote to Mr. Guy, 
 which is now in the possession of his grandson, Mr. 
 E. Guy Miller, and which letter he had also forgotten 
 having written. The letter is here given-r- 
 
 BarnunCs Hotel, March 23, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I am truly obliged to you for the beautiful and 
 delicious mint-julep which you so kindly sent me. I 
 have looked at it, but await further proceedings until the 
 arrival of Washington Irving, whom I expect to dine 
 with me tete-a-tete, and who will help me to drink to 
 your health. With many thanks to you, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 — Guy, Esquire. 
 
 The American and Commercial Daily Advertiser on 
 Friday, March 25, contained the following reference to 
 Dickens's and Irving's doings on Wednesday — 
 
 "The Hon. Washington Irving was in this city 
 Wednesday on his return from the National Metropolis, 
 and left here for New York yesterday evening. To a 
 private social circle Wednesday evening was afforded 
 the high gratification of having within it two of the most 
 popular literary men of the day — Charles Dickens and 
 Washington Irving." 
 
 Dickens left Baltimore on the day following for Pitts- 
 burgh, by way of Harrisburg, and the incidents of this 
 part of his journey by railroad to York, and thence by 
 stage-coach to Harrisburg, are told by him in American 
 Notes. He arrived in Harrisburg at 6.30 p.m., and, as 
 he wrote, went to "a very snug hotel, which, though 
 smaller and far less splendid than many we put up at, 
 is raised above them all in my remembrance, by having 
 for its landlord the most obliging, considerate and 
 gentlemanly person I ever had to deal with." 
 
 2 
 
196 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 The name of the snug hotel and the paragon of a 
 landlord is revealed by George H. Morgan in his Annals 
 of Harrisburg, in which he refers to Dickens's visit to 
 that city as follows — 
 
 "In the spring of 1842, the English novelist, Charles 
 Dickens, accompanied by his wife, being on a tour 
 through the United States and Canada, visited Harris- 
 burg on their way from Baltimore to Pittsburgh. They 
 remained here overnight and the following forenoon at 
 the Eagle Hotel, then kept by Henry Buehler, Esq. 
 (Now Bolton House.) The distinguished author gives 
 an amusing account of this visit in American Notes for 
 General Circulation, published after his return to Eng- 
 land, and celebrated for their severe reflection upon the 
 institutions and manners of our countrymen." 
 
 No H arr isburg newspaper files for 1842 are obtain- 
 able, but the following, from an account written by 
 Chief Justice Ellis Lewis of Philadelphia, shortly after 
 Dickens's second visit to the United States in 1868, to 
 Dr. R. S. McKensie, literary editor of the Philadelphia 
 Press, describing a meeting with Dickens at Harrisburg 
 in 1842, is interesting — 
 
 "In the year 1842 I resided at Williamsport, Lycom- 
 ing County. I had been in Philadelphia, and on arriving 
 from that city at Buehler's hotel, in Harrisburg, I found 
 quite a crowd of people in the house and surrounding it. 
 The news was circulated that the celebrated Charles 
 Dickens was at the hotel. Some alleged that he had 
 gone to the Capitol to witness the proceedings of the 
 Legislature, then in session. There was a great desire 
 to get a sight of this distinguished man. I confess that 
 my own desire was to get away from the crowd, and to 
 avoid participating in the eager anxiety which our 
 citizens generally display to pay court to distinguished 
 strangers from abroad. Accordingly, I went imme- 
 diately to the packet boat, then lying at the wharf in 
 the canal, although its time for starting for Williams- 
 port had not arrived by several hours. I found in the 
 cabin of the boat my old friend Samuel R. Wood, a 
 
OLD CAPITOL OF PENNSYLVANIA, HARRISBURG 
 
 THE BOLTON HOTEL (FORMERLY EXCHANGE), 
 HARRISBURG, PA. 
 Where Dickens stayed in 1842 
 196 
 
HARRISBURG 197 
 
 Quaker gentleman of Philadelphia, in company with a 
 lady and gentleman. To these latter my friend Wood 
 honoured me by an introduction. They were Mr. and 
 Mrs. Charles Dickens, who had come on board the 
 packet boat with the same object which had brought me 
 there — to avoid the crowd and the display of attention. 
 I need not say that I was much gratified with my new 
 acquaintance. 
 
 "One circumstance made a deep impression on my 
 mind. It happened during our intercourse on the canal 
 packet boat. I was much pleased with the social and 
 genial disposition of Mr. Dickens, and was impressed 
 with the great difference which appeared to exist, at that 
 early time in their lives, between the husband and wife. 
 She was good-looking, plain and courteous in her 
 manners, but taciturn, leaving the burthen of the con- 
 versation to fall upon her gifted husband. In the course 
 of the conversation I told him that I had a little daughter 
 at home who would be delighted if I could present her 
 with his autograph, written expressly for her. He con- 
 sented to give it. Our mutual friend, the good Quaker 
 Warden of the Eastern Penitentiary, Samuel R. Wood, 
 bustled about and prepared a sheet of foolscap, with pen 
 and ink. Mr. Dickens took up the pen, and commencing 
 at the top of the sheet, wrote — 
 
 "' Yours faithfully, Charles Dickens.' 
 
 " Mr. Wood remarked : ' Thee begins very close to 
 the top of the sheet.' 'Yes,' said Mr. Dickens; 'if 
 I left a large blank over my name somebody might write 
 a note or a bond over it.' 
 
 " ' Does thee suppose that a judge of the court would 
 do such a thing ? ' said Mr. Wood ; and Mr. Dickens 
 replied, ' I did not intimate anything of that kind. 
 The paper might soon pass out of the judge's posses- 
 sion and be made use of by others. But I do not 
 suppose that judges of courts in America are any better 
 than the judges in England.' 
 
 "The autograph was written for my daughter Juliet 
 and was delivered to her. She is the wife of Hon. 
 James N. Campbell, formerly Member of Congress, 
 
198 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 recently American Minister to Sweden and now residing 
 in Philadelphia." 
 
 The canal boat on which Dickens embarked left on 
 Friday, June 25, at 3 p.m., and his own account of the 
 trip is familiar to all who have read American Notes. 
 
 Mr. Philip Hone made the same journey five years 
 after Dickens, and the following extracts from Mr. 
 Hone's diary, written as it was by an American, will 
 show the reader how little Dickens exaggerated the 
 discomforts of the trip — 
 
 "June 11. — At three o'clock we embarked on the canal 
 boat Delaware on a canal voyage of more than two 
 hundred miles. The weather is pleasant and we have an 
 agreeable set of passengers, not too many. The day 
 does very well, but the sleeping is tolerably uncomfort- 
 able (there is not much of that, however). The delay 
 on this, the first day of the voyage, is rather dis- 
 couraging; there has been a breach in the canal which 
 has caused an accumulation of loaded boats, but the 
 scenery is splendid. Just at the sunsetting (a more 
 glorious one I never saw) we came to the junction of 
 the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, fifteen miles from 
 Harrisburg, where the boat crosses the dam, the tow- 
 path being conveyed across a long bridge of light and 
 delicate construction, on piers of massive and solid 
 masonry. At the mouth of the Juniata is a handsome 
 mansion and a fine estate of four hundred acres called 
 Duncan's Island, belonging to a lady of that name, 
 whose character seems to be worthy of such a position. 
 Here we leave the Susquehanna and follow the course of 
 the Juniata — beautiful stream, standing in romantic and 
 picturesque scenery. 
 
 "Canal: June 13. — This canal travelling is pleasant 
 enough in the daytime, but the sleeping is awful. There 
 are two cabins, in which the men-folk and women-folk 
 are separated by a red curtain. In the former apart- 
 ment the sleepers are packed away on narrow shelves, 
 fastened to the sides of the boat, like dead pigs in a 
 Cincinnati pork warehouse. We go to bed at nine 
 
HARRISBURG 199 
 
 o'clock and rise when we are told in the morning; for 
 the bedsteads are formed of the seats of the tables. ' A 
 couch by night, a chest of drawers by day ! ' If I 
 should ever be so happy as to sleep in my own bed 
 again, my comfort will be enhanced by the remembrance 
 of my present limited, hard, sheetless dormitory. 
 
 "June 14. — An extra car brought in from Holidays- 
 burg, at six o'clock this morning, to take the Portage 
 Railway across the Allegheny mountains to Johnstown 
 — thirty-six miles — which is effected by ten inclined 
 planes, five ascending and five descending. It is some- 
 what exciting, but nothing when you get used to it. 
 The scenery of these mountains is astonishingly grand, 
 wild beyond description. 
 
 "June 15. — Our canal voyage has been pleasant on 
 the whole, though tedious. We arrived at the ' Bir- 
 mingham of America' at 11 o'clock this evening. 
 I regretted the necessity of entering the city at night, 
 but its appearance was quite a novelty; bright flames 
 issuing from the foundries, glass works, rolling mills, 
 and heavy clouds of smoke making the night's darkness 
 darker, gave us a grand entry into Pittsburgh." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 PITTSBURGH, CINCINNATI, LOUISVILLE AND CAIRO 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dickens arrived in Pittsburgh at 
 9.30 p.m. Tuesday, March 29, and only one newspaper, 
 the Morning Chronicle, made any mention of their 
 arrival, and that was the following brief notice in the 
 issue of March 30 — 
 
 "Boz in Pittsburgh. — Charles Dickens and lady arrived 
 in the city last night about 9.30 on his way to St. Louis, 
 and took lodgings at the Exchange Hotel. We under- 
 stand the managers have given him an invitation to 
 visit the Theatre to-night." 
 
 And under the "List of Arrivals" at the principal 
 hotels, in the same paper is given — 
 
 "Charles Dickens and Lady — England." 
 
 It will be seen that in the papers of the Western 
 cities which Dickens visited the references to his visit 
 are much more brief than in the Eastern papers. This 
 is explained by the fact that at that time very litde 
 attention to local news was given by the papers of the 
 West, as the towns were small and the inhabitants were 
 all familiar with local affairs, and desired the news from 
 the East and from Europe. 
 
 Dickens and his party, as noted above, took up their 
 lodgings at the "Exchange," which Dickens wrote was 
 "a most excellent hotel." Dickens's opinion as to the 
 character of the "Exchange" was not undeserved, as it 
 was ranked by travellers of the day as above the average 
 of Western hotels. In a book published in Baltimore 
 in 1836, the author wrote that the hotel had "genteel 
 plate-ware and cutlery and good attendance," and that 
 
CO 
 
 oo 
 
 X 
 o 
 
 D 
 
 « 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 H 
 
PITTSBURGH 201 
 
 the "servants do not wear wooden or iron-bound shoes," 
 from which fact the author observes that "guests may 
 sleep undisturbed when late arrivals and their luggage 
 make their appearance." He also stated that their charge 
 was $i"50 per day, while other hotels charged only $i"25. 
 
 Another writer also speaks of this hotel having fine 
 cutlery with the name of the hotel stamped upon it, 
 which seems to have been an unusual thing in those 
 days. 
 
 While the Pittsburgh newspapers gave very little 
 information about Dickens's goings while here, Dickens 
 himself has given a pretty full account in American 
 Notes as to how he passed his time. 
 
 Dickens left Pittsburgh for Cincinnati on the morn- 
 ing of April i, on the steamer Messenger, and the 
 following day the editor of the Morning Chronicle rather 
 boasts of the fact that the author was not treated and 
 flattered as he had been in the East — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens and lady left our city yesterday, on 
 board the steamboat Messenger, on his westward trip. 
 As Birney Marshall said he would be treated in the 
 West, so he was treated in Pittsburgh. He was not 
 bespattered with that fulsome praise with which he was 
 bedaubed in the East, and which, we have not the least 
 doubt, was as disagreeable to himself as it was sicken- 
 ing to all sensible men. In the words of the editor of 
 the Louisville Gazette, we admired his genius, and were 
 prepared to greet him with warm and friendly hearts, 
 to grasp him by the hand, and give it a good Republican 
 shake; we let him see us as we were, and if he chooses 
 to ' write us in his book, ' it will be no fault of ours if 
 we are classed among the Dogberries who beset his first 
 arrival. Many of our citizens called upon him, and 
 were delighted with the man whose writings had con- 
 tributed so greatly to their enjoyment. We doubt not 
 he was better pleased with the quiet hospitality of his 
 reception in Pittsburgh, than he would have been if 
 we had got up a ' Boz Ball ' or any other ' Gnome Fly ' 
 to welcome him." 
 
 The following are extracts from the private diary of 
 
202 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Mr. Charles B. Scully, who was a prominent attorney 
 of Pittsburgh at the time of Dickens's visit — 
 
 "Monday, March 28 — Mr. Charles Dickens arrived 
 to-night at the Exchange Hotel. 
 
 "Tuesday, March 29 — At 12 noon a remarkable 
 event, a thing I never expected, happened to-day. Went 
 to the Exchange Hotel and was shown up to room 
 No. 12, and, on announcing our name to Mr. Putnam 
 and Mr. D'Almaine, was introduced to Mr. Charles 
 Dickens, the greatest author of the age. He gave us 
 a cordial hand-shake. I wished him welcome and he 
 thanked me most politely. I was then introduced to 
 Mrs. Dickens, who very easily and in a friendly manner 
 reached out her hand. I took a seat beside her and 
 spoke of her fortune in having such good weather. She 
 said this was a remarkable country of ours and she 
 was delighted with it. I told her she would admire its 
 vastness more when on the broad waters of the Ohio 
 and Mississippi. She said she hoped she would not be 
 too nervous, as she was alarmed at the dreadful accidents 
 on our rivers from boiler explosions. I recommended 
 her to take a boat with Evans's safety valves, and she 
 said she would. She told me Mr. D'Almaine was an 
 old friend of her husband. I told her that Mr. Dickens 
 had as many admirers of his literary productions here 
 in proportion as in the East, although we showed it in 
 a more plain and less extravagant way than our Eastern 
 brethren, and were more democratic. She smiled very 
 graciously. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens is much like his portrait, or likeness, as 
 published in his works, a full, thoughtful face, a round 
 dark eye, large mouth, wavy hair, and sparse whiskers. 
 I never saw an English woman (Mrs. D.) like her, a 
 modest and diffident demeanour, fair hair, blue eye and 
 round features. Both are very pleasant, in their appear- 
 ance. Mr. Dickens stood while I was in the room and 
 is very fidgety, as it struck me, and quick. He appears 
 to see everything that is going on : for instance, when 
 I was speaking to Mrs. D., in a low tone, of boats with 
 safety valves, he ran over to the window where I wag 
 
PITTSBURGH 203 
 
 sitting and said, ' What is that you say of safety 
 valves ? ' We then talked a few minutes about boats, 
 and I bowed and shook hands and left. Afterwards went 
 to the ' Exchange ' and serenaded Mr. Dickens. 
 
 "Friday, April i — Mr. Dickens left our city on the 
 steamboat Messenger for the great West. Saw him 
 alight from his carriage and go aboard. There was a 
 considerable crowd waiting to see him." 
 
 The Mr. D'Almaine whom Mr. Scully met in Dickens's 
 room at the " Exchange," was the English portrait-painter 
 mentioned in one of Dickens's letters to Forster describ- 
 ing his stay in Pittsburgh. In this letter he wrote : 
 "We were there received by a little man (a very little 
 man) whom I knew years ago in London. He rejoiceth 
 in the name of ' D.G.,' and when I knew him was in 
 partnership with his father in the Stock Exchange and 
 lived handsomely in Dalton. ... I lost sight of him 
 nearly ten years ago, and he turned up t'other day, as 
 a portrait-painter in Pittsburgh. ... He dined with us 
 every day of our stay in Pittsburgh (there were only 
 three), and was truly gratified and delighted to find me 
 unchanged — more so than I can tell you." 
 
 The only other item to be found in the Pittsburgh 
 Chronicle relating to Dickens is the following from the 
 issue of April 4 — 
 
 "M. G. Searle, Esq., had the distinguished honour 
 of attending the last distinguished visitors to our city — 
 Mr. Charles Dickens and lady — on board the steamer 
 Messenger, Captain Baird. Mr. Searle is the regular 
 agent for all respectable steamboats coming to and 
 departing from Pittsburgh." 
 
 It will be noticed that this item does not state whether 
 the Messenger was equipped with Evans's safety Valves 
 or not. Dickens, in American Notes, has described the 
 trip down the Ohio river to Cincinnati as "miles and 
 miles and miles " of solitude " unbroken by any sign of 
 human life or trace of human footsteps." It is not 
 uninteresting to compare Dickens's account of the Ohio 
 
204 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 river with another account by a fellow-countryman, 
 Mr. Archibald Prentice, editor of the Manchester 
 Times, who made the trip six years later on the 
 Messenger, the same boat on which Dickens made the 
 journey. Mr. Prentice had read Dickens's account, 
 and referred to it in his own as follows — 
 
 "What might be expected after this description, but 
 an unbroken solitude and an eternal monotony relieved 
 by an occasional deformity? The map of the country 
 through which the river flows might show that a con- 
 siderable population and immense tracts of cultivated 
 land are close upon its banks ; a look at a ' river grade ' 
 might show that between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati 
 there are no fewer than forty-seven landing-places, most 
 of them at rising towns and villages ; and it might thence 
 be concluded that the solitude is not exactly such as 
 Daniel Boone and Charles Dickens found it. But still 
 there might be expected the absence of all beauty ; still 
 it might be expected from Dickens's description that the 
 eye would be more strongly arrested by the mere dry 
 grisly skeletons of trees than by luxuriant foliage; still 
 it might be expected that, so far as the beautiful and 
 picturesque were concerned, there was nothing to be 
 found between the ' Dan of Pittsburgh ' and the ' Beer- 
 sheba ' of Cincinnati — nothing to tempt the passenger 
 to leave the ladies' cabin for the roof of the deck. The 
 passengers do not sit sociably after dinner in the cabin 
 — don't they? Why, no man with any eye in his head 
 would sit still to pass unseeing a single turn in this 
 belle riviere, as the French truly named it. Con- 
 stantly winding, every quarter of a mile presents a new 
 form of beauty. At one place we have steep hills on 
 each side clothed with trees growing as if they never 
 could grow old; at another the ends of ridges, with 
 magnificent monarchs of the forest filling the hollows 
 between them; at another the high banks receding half 
 a mile or a mile on each side, presenting a combination 
 of lawns and trees as might be expected around an Eng- 
 lish nobleman's seat; at another, islands of surpassing 
 beauty; clearings which indicate the cultivation that is 
 
204 
 
CINCINNATI 205 
 
 going on behind. I grudged every moment spent at 
 the breakfast, dinner or tea tables. I spent hours alone 
 at the highest elevation where the steersman, perched 
 aloft for a good look-out, steered the long light steamer 
 through its tortuous course; and after a brief twilight, 
 I felt as one might feel after listening a whole day to 
 the grandest and most beautiful strains of music — sorry 
 that it was over, yet fatigued with the very intensity of 
 the pleasure enjoyed. The next day was Sunday, and 
 we enjoyed the same succession of splendid pictures. 
 . . . Early next morning we found the vessel lying in 
 shore in a fog, so dense that we could not see ten yards 
 on either side — strange contrast to the preceding night. 
 Perhaps in such a mist Charles Dickens might have 
 come down the river, only he does not say so. The sun 
 soon dispelled the fog, and then the river was before 
 us again in all its glory, winding, and its high banks 
 receding — the white houses and villages and small cities 
 increasing in number as we went onwards." 
 
 While the six years that had elapsed between the 
 time of Dickens's trip and Mr. Prentice's may have 
 been long enough for the change in scenery, so far as 
 to allow the white houses, villages and small cities to 
 have been built, it would hardly account for the "trees 
 growing as if they never could grow old," so that 
 possibly the difference in the two accounts may be 
 explained by the mist, as suggested by Mr. Prentice. 
 
 Dickens, in describing his arrival at Cincinnati, 
 writes of " the broad wharf where the boat was moored ; 
 with other boats and flags and moving wheels, and hum 
 of men around it, as though there were not a solitary 
 rood of ground within the compass of a thousand miles." 
 
 The broad paved wharf is still there, but the number 
 of steamboats has diminished. In fact, the glory of the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers has departed so far as 
 passenger boats are concerned owing to both these 
 rivers being now paralleled with railroads. 
 
 Dickens arrived at Cincinnati on the morning oi 
 Monday, April 4, and took up his quarters at the Broad- 
 way Hotel, only a short distance from the steamboat 
 
206 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 landing. Dickens's opinions of the American news- 
 papers was fully expressed in one of his letters to 
 Forster, in which he wrote : " Of course I can do nothing 
 but in some shape or other it gets into the newspapers. 
 All manner of lies get there, and occasionally a truth so 
 twisted and distorted that it has as much resemblance to 
 the real fact as Quilp's leg to Taglioni's." 
 
 This was hardly true with regard to the newspapers 
 of Cincinnati, as they published nothing of his doings 
 except the bare fact of his arrival, as shown by the 
 following — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens and his lady have, we are informed, 
 arrived in the city." — Daily Chronicle, April 4, 1842. 
 
 "Mr. Dickens and Lady arrived in our city yester- 
 day morning and have taken rooms at the Broadway 
 Hotel. We understand that they will be at home to-day 
 from 11 o'clock until 3 o'clock." — Daily Republican, 
 April 5, 1842. 
 
 "Charles Dickens. — This gentleman reached our city 
 yesterday and took lodgings at the Broadway Hotel." — 
 Cincinnati Gazette, April 5, 1842. 
 
 There were certainly no lies in these three items, and 
 a careful search of succeeding issues of these news- 
 papers fails to show that they even made any mention 
 of his doings in the city, or of his leaving the city on 
 the following Wednesday morning. That the Cincin- 
 nati newspapers made absolutely no mention of him, or 
 his attire, or any personalities whatever, may partly 
 explain his very favourable opinion of that city, for he 
 wrote : "Cincinnati is a beautiful city, cheerful, thriving 
 and animated. . . . The society in which I mingled was 
 intelligent and agreeable," etc. Surely the people of 
 the city, when they read American Notes, might have 
 said: "This is indeed 'praise from Sir Hubert,' and 
 so far as we are concerned, we have no fault to find 
 with the book." 
 
 Dickens, writing to Forster from Cincinnati on the 
 morning of his arrival, said : " About half after eight 
 we came ashore and drove to the hotel, to which we 
 
j ■ j|H 
 
 
 CINCINNATI LANDING 
 
 9 ****misi*r 
 
 i|f |^j;;t; i:S:il|^llli;i 
 
 BROADWAY HOTEL, CINCINNATI 
 206 
 
CINCINNATI 207 
 
 had written on from Pittsburgh, ordering rooms, and 
 which is within a stone's throw from the wharf. Before 
 I had issued an official notification that we were ' not 
 at home,' two judges called . . . and we fixed for an 
 evening party to-morrow night at the home of one of 
 them." 
 
 The judge at whose house the party was held was 
 Judge Timothy Walker, and the following is an extract 
 from his manuscript diary — 
 
 "April 5, 1842. — Had a visit from Charles Dickens 
 and Lady. Rode with them around the city and gave 
 them a party in the evening. Liked them much. Have 
 read all his works and with great interest. Felt intimate 
 with him before I saw him. Like him still better now." 
 
 That the feeling was mutual is shown by an extract 
 from one of Dickens's letters to C. C. Felton, from 
 Montreal, May 21 — 
 
 "I saw a good deal of Walker at Cincinnati. I like 
 him very much. We took to him mightily at first, 
 because he resembled you in face and figure, we think." 
 
 While Dickens liked Judge Walker, he did not seem 
 to like the judge's friends, for he wrote Forster con- 
 cerning the party : " In the evening we went to a party 
 at Judge Walker's and were introduced to at least one 
 hundred and fifty first-rate bores, separately and singly." 
 That one of the bores was disappointed in Dickens is 
 shown by a description of the party by a young lady, 
 which is copied from Mackenzie's Life of Charles 
 Dickens. 
 
 "I went last evening to a party at Judge Walker's, 
 given in honour of the hero of the day, Mr. Charles 
 Dickens, and with others had the honour of an intro- 
 duction to him. M had gone to a concert and we 
 
 awaited her return, which made us late. When we 
 reached the house, Mr. Dickens had left the crowded 
 rooms and was in the hall, with his wife, about taking 
 his departure when we entered the door. We were 
 introduced to him, and in the flurry and embarrassment 
 
208 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 of the meeting one of the party dropped a parcel con- 
 taining shoes, gloves, etc. Mr. Dickens, stooping, 
 gathered them up and restored them with a laughing 
 remark, and we bounded upstairs to get our things off. 
 Hastening down again, we found him with Mrs. 
 Dickens, seated upon a sofa, surrounded by a group of 
 ladies, Judge Walker having requested him to delay his 
 departure for a few moments, for the gratification of 
 some tardy friends who had just arrived, ourselves 
 among the number. Declining to re-enter the room 
 where he had already taken leave of the guests, he 
 seated himself in the hall. He is young and handsome, 
 has a mellow, beautiful eye, fine brow, and abundant 
 hair. His mouth is large, and his smile is so bright it 
 seems to shed light and happiness all about him. His 
 manner is easy and negligent, — but not elegant. His 
 dress was foppish; in fact he was overdressed, yet his 
 garments were worn so easily they appeared to be a 
 necessary part of him. He had a dark coat, with lighter 
 pantaloons ; a black waistcoat embroidered with coloured 
 flowers; and about his neck, covering his white shirt 
 front, was a black neckcloth, also embroidered in 
 colours, on which were two large diamond pins con- 
 nected by a chain ; a gold watch-chain, and a large red 
 rose in his button-hole completed his toilet. 
 
 "Mrs. Dickens is a large woman, having a good deal 
 of colour and is rather coarse, but she has a good face 
 and looks amiable. She seemed to think that Mr. 
 Dickens was the attraction and was perfectly satisfied 
 to play second, happy in the knowledge that she was 
 his wife. She wore a pink silk dress trimmed with a 
 white blond flounce, and a pink cord and tassel wound 
 round her head. 
 
 " He appeared a little weary, but answered the remarks 
 made to him — for he originated none — in an agreeable 
 manner. Mr. Beard's portrait of Fagin was so placed 
 in the room that we could see it from where we stood 
 surrounding him. One of the ladies asked him if it 
 was his idea of the Jew. He replied, ' Very nearly.' 
 Another laughingly requested that he would give her 
 the rose he wore as a memento. He shook his head, and 
 
LOUISVILLE 209 
 
 said, ' That would not do ; he could give it to no one— 
 the others would be jealous.' A half-dozen then in- 
 sisted on having it, whereupon he proceeded to divide 
 the leaves among them. In taking the rose from his 
 coat, either by design or accident, the leaves loosened 
 and fell upon the floor, and amid considerable laughter 
 the ladies stooped and gathered them. He remained 
 some twenty minutes, perhaps, in the hall, then took his 
 leave. I must confess to considerable disappointment 
 in the person of my idol. I felt that his throne was 
 shaken, although it could never be destroyed." 
 
 Dickens left Cincinnati on Wednesday morning, 
 April 6, on the steamer Pike, as the Messenger, on 
 which he had arrived, had gone on to St. Louis. He 
 arrived at Louisville about midnight and put up at the 
 Gait House, which he says in American Notes is "a 
 splendid hotel, and we were as handsomely lodged as 
 though we were in Paris, rather than hundreds of miles 
 beyond the Alleghanies." 
 
 The Louisville Courier Journal said in 1870 that when 
 Mr. Dickens came to that city in 1842, he stopped at the 
 Gait House, whose landlord, Throckmorton, was a high- 
 strung Southerner of much character and influence, the 
 intimate of Clay, Crittenden and all the worthies. Mr. 
 Dickens had not been there long when Mr. Throck- 
 morton visited him and offered his services in introduc- 
 ing him to the first families of Kentucky. "Sir, are 
 you the publican who keeps this inn ? " inquired Mr. 
 Dickens. "Yes, sir," he replied. "Then," said Mr. 
 Dickens, "when I have need for your services, I will 
 ring for you." 
 
 This story is given for what it is worth, and it is 
 probably not worth much, for while it might not have 
 been customary in England for the landlord of an hotel 
 to offer to introduce his guests to the best people of the 
 town, still, Dickens was always considerate of others, 
 and knowing as he did that the manners and customs 
 of the United States at that time were different from 
 those of England, it is certain that he would have recog- 
 nized that the landlord's offer was made in all serious- 
 
216 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 ness and kindness to the stranger, and that he would 
 have taken the offer in the spirit in which it was meant, 
 and would not have met the offer with such a super- 
 cilious reply. 
 
 Dickens left Louisville the next day by the steamer 
 Fulton for St. Louis, boarding the boat at Portland, a 
 suburb of the city. In American Notes Dickens men- 
 tions a visitor to the boat in the person of a man named 
 Porter, who was seven feet eight inches in his stockings. 
 Mr. Philip Hone in his diary also mentions Porter, 
 whom he saw on a trip from Pittsburgh to St. Louis 
 in 1847 — 
 
 "At the last dock, the new passengers all went ashore 
 to see Porter, the Kentucky giant. He keeps an hotel 
 and makes a good living out of the curiosity of travellers 
 who stop to drink with him. The Captain introduced 
 me to him. This mighty piece of humanity is seven 
 feet eight inches in height, thirty-five years of age. I 
 stood by his side, he stretched out his arm at right angles 
 to his body, and it was six inches over my head. I 
 fear that this last one of the race of giants will have run 
 his earthly race ere long." 
 
 Mr. Prentice, whose description of the Ohio river is 
 previously quoted, also saw the Kentucky giant, and 
 wrote concerning him — 
 
 "He is much respected and has been one of the 
 councilmen of the city. He told me that Lord Morpeth 
 called upon him at his coffee-house, and that he was 
 much pleased with his lordship's plain, unpretending 
 manner. He did not like Dickens, who had sent for 
 him. ' He had a double gold chain outside his waist- 
 coat,' said Porter, ' and such breastpins, that I thought 
 he looked like one of our river gamblers,' a class of 
 persons who, it seems, particularly affect a show of 
 jewelry." 
 
 The Fulton, on its journey down the Ohio, passed 
 Cairo on the morning of Saturday, April 9, and it 
 is pretty certain that Dickens was up early to get 
 a view of the Eldorado on which he and so many of 
 
VIEW ON THE OHIO RIVER BETWEEN CINCINNATI AND 
 LOUISVILLE 
 
 LOUISVILLE 
 
CAIRO 211 
 
 his countrymen had invested their funds. Here is what 
 he wrote in American Notes describing his first view of 
 Cairo — 
 
 "At length, upon the morning of the third day, we 
 arrived at a spot so much more desolate than any we 
 had yet beheld, that the forlornest places we had passed 
 were, in comparison with it, full of interest. At the 
 junction of the two rivers, in ground so flat and low 
 and marshy that at certain seasons of the year it is 
 inundated to the housetops, lies a breeding-place of 
 fever, ague, and death, vaunted in England as a mine 
 of Golden Hope, and speculated in, on the faith of 
 monstrous representations, to many people ruin. A 
 dismal swamp, on which the half-built houses rot away ; 
 cleared here and there for the space of a few yards, and 
 then teeming with rank unwholesome vegetation, on 
 whose baneful shade the wretched wanderers who are 
 tempted hither, droop and die and lay their bones; the 
 hateful Mississippi circling and eddying before it, and 
 turning off upon its southern course a slimy monster, 
 hideous to behold; a hotbed of disease, an ugly sepul- 
 chre, a grave uncheered by any gleam of promise; a 
 place without one single quality, in earth or air or water, 
 to commend it — such is the dismal Cairo." 
 
 On the return trip from St. Louis to Cincinnati he 
 passed Cairo the second time, and he again wrote — 
 
 "In good time next morning, however, we came 
 again in sight of the detestable morass called Cairo, and 
 stopping there, to take on wood, lay alongside a barge, 
 whose starting timbers scarcely held together. It was 
 moored to the bank, and on its side was painted ' Coffee 
 House,' that being, I suppose, the floating paradise to 
 which people fly for shelter when they lose their houses 
 for a month or two beneath the hideous waters of the 
 Mississippi. But looking southward from this point, 
 we had the satisfaction of seeing that intolerable river 
 dragging its slimy length and ugly freight abruptly off 
 towards New Orleans, and passing a yellow line which 
 stretched across the current, were again upon the clear 
 p 2 
 
212 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Ohio, never, I trust, to see the Mississippi again save 
 in troubled dreams and nightmares." 
 
 If any good American thinks to-day that this descrip- 
 tion of Cairo was overdrawn or exaggerated, let him 
 look at the picture "High Water at Cairo" (1844), and 
 read the following description of that flood which 
 occurred just two years after Dickens saw the place — 
 
 "In 1844 the houses at Cairo, at the confluence of the 
 Ohio and Mississippi, were nearly submerged. The 
 swollen rivers were fourteen miles wide between the 
 opposite shores of Kentucky and*Missouri. Movable pro- 
 perty of every kind, fences, cattle, lumber, furniture and 
 entire houses (wooden ones of course) were floated down 
 the Mississippi and other rivers. A building was seen 
 driving down the Mississippi while several persons from 
 the windows were calling for assistance, which on 
 account of the torrent-like velocity of the stream could 
 not be afforded them. Many lives were lost, and the 
 amount of property destroyed by the flood is beyond all 
 estimate. Many people and dead bodies floated down 
 the Mississippi. A house, with a whole family inside 
 it, went over the falls of the Ohio. Boats passed over 
 fields and plantations, far beyond the limits of the river, 
 and took the frightened from the upper stories and 
 roofs of their houses, to which they had been driven for 
 refuge from the waters. The levels or embankments 
 made at different places, as defences against the river, 
 were broken through." 
 
 Can any one say after reading this description of the 
 1844 flood that Dickens, in writing Martin Chuzzlewit, 
 had drawn on his imagination in describing Eden ? It 
 would almost seem that his picture might with truth 
 have been made darker. Can any reader of the present 
 day be surprised that Dickens never wanted to see Cairo 
 again ? 
 
 The following is a description of Cairo written in 
 1856, and reprinted from Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, 
 published in Cincinnati in that year. It will be seen 
 that even fourteen years after Dickens saw the place it 
 
CAIRO 213 
 
 had only one thousand inhabitants, and that although it 
 was the terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad at that 
 time, the largest in the United States, it might still have 
 been, without exaggeration, the prototype of Eden — 
 
 "Cairo is advantageously situated in Alexandria 
 County, Illinois, at the southern extremity of the State, 
 on a point of land formed by the confluence of the Ohio 
 and Mississippi rivers, one hundred and eighty-four 
 miles below St. Louis, and one thousand miles above 
 New Orleans. The situation at the junction of these two 
 great rivers affords one of the finest positions for a com- 
 mercial city that can be found in the Western States; 
 but owing to some natural defects in the locality, the 
 growth has been less rapid than it would have been in 
 more favourable circumstances. The banks of the Ohio 
 at this point are low, and the surrounding country is 
 still lower. These occasional overflows and the marshy 
 nature of the soil are supposed to affect the health of the 
 neighbourhood; but by the industry and ingenuity of 
 man these natural disadvantages have already been 
 removed, to some extent, and there is no reason to doubt 
 that all such obstacles to the improvement of the place 
 will, in the course of time, be entirely removed. A level 
 or embankment, twenty-six feet high, has been erected 
 at a cost of $1,000,000 to protect the town and adjacent 
 country from overflows. Since this great work was 
 completed, Cairo has improved very rapidly. It is the 
 southern terminus of the Illinois Central Railroad (the 
 longest railroad in the United States), which extends to 
 Chicago and Rock Island. A line of first-class steamers 
 will soon be in operation between Cairo and New Orleans, 
 leaving each place daily and conveying the United States 
 mail. When we consider what New Orleans has effected 
 in order to overcome the natural disadvantages of soil 
 and situation, we cannot question the ability of Cairo to 
 obviate those minor inconveniences which at one time 
 threatened to interfere with her prosperity. Judging 
 from what has been done already, we may safely predict 
 that this place will soon become a flourishing emporium, 
 and command the immense trade of the West, North- 
 
214 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 west, and South. The tardy growth of Cairo, in earlier 
 times, has been ascribed in a great measure to the 
 illiberal policy of the English Company which purchased 
 the land some years ago, and attempted to establish a 
 monopoly of the whole ground, of which they retained 
 the ownership, and making mere tenancy of all the 
 settlers. A better system now prevails; another com- 
 pany, of far more progressive character than the pre- 
 ceding one, has obtained possession of the land, men of 
 energy and pecuniary means have been induced to settle 
 on the place ; improvements of various kinds have been 
 carried into effect, and still greater ones are in con- 
 templation. Two .excellent papers have been estab- 
 lished. The population at present is iooo, and is 
 rapidly increasing." 
 
 The "View of Cairo," facing this page, is also pro- 
 duced from the same book as the description of the 
 town. 
 
VIEW OF CAIRO, 1856 
 
 '%:%$ j|pfe ^^ pfPP' 
 
 :«S#J 
 
 *rk&M*h%- 
 
 HIGH WATER, CAIRO, 1844 
 
 214 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 
 
 Dickens wrote Forster from Richmond on the 17th of 
 March, referring to his contemplated visit to St. Louis — 
 
 "I am going to break my resolution of accepting no 
 more public entertainments in favour of the originators 
 of the printed document overleaf. They live upon the 
 confines of the Indian territory, some two thousand miles 
 or more west of New York ? Think of my dining there ! 
 And yet, please God, the festival will come off — I should 
 say about the 12th or 15th of next month. . . ." 
 
 The printed document, Forster wrote, was a series of 
 resolutions moved at a public meeting attended by the 
 principal citizens, judges, professors and doctors, 
 urgently inviting to that city of the Far West the dis- 
 tinguished writer, then the guest of America, and tender- 
 ing to him their warmest hospitalities. 
 
 A search of the existing files of the St. Louis news- 
 papers fails to discover any account of the meeting at 
 which the invitation to Dickens was extended or any 
 copy of the printed documents to which he referred ; but 
 on April 6 the St. Louis Republican contained the 
 following brief notice of further action by the Com- 
 mittee — 
 
 "The Committee formed some time since to invite 
 Mr. Dickens to this city have agreed to tender him, 
 upon his arrival, a public ball and such other hospitalities 
 as may be in accordance with his wishes and present 
 mode of travelling." 
 
 Dickens arrived in St. Louis after a journey by water 
 from Pittsburgh of 1,230 miles, having travelled the 
 
 215 
 
216 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 entire length of the Ohio River and up the Mississippi 
 River from Cairo. The day after his arrival the Repub- 
 lican, noting his arrival, said — 
 
 "Boz — The veritable Charles Dickens and Lady- 
 arrived last evening on board the Fulton from Louis- 
 ville. They took us a little by surprise, for we did not 
 expect them before Tuesday ; but no matter, he will find 
 a cordial welcome in this far land of the West. Though 
 our fare may be homely, it will not be given with stint 
 or grudging, but from honest hearts, though uncourtly. 
 Rooms have been taken for them at the Planter's 
 House." 
 
 The Planter's House was one of the hotels which 
 Dickens was surprised to find 2000 miles west of the 
 Atlantic Ocean, and in one of his letters to Forster had 
 this to say about it — 
 
 "The inns in these outlandish corners of the world 
 would astonish you with their goodness. The Planter's 
 House is as large as the Middlesex Hospital, and built 
 very much on our hospital plan, with long wards abun- 
 dantly ventilated and plain whitewashed walls. They 
 had a famous notion of sending up at breakfast-time 
 large glasses of new milk with blocks of ice in them as 
 clear as crystal. Our table was abundantly supplied at 
 every meal. One day when Kate and I were dining 
 together in our room, we counted sixteen dishes on our 
 table at the same time." 
 
 Monday, the day after their arrival, was spent looking 
 around the city and receiving the calls of some of the 
 citizens. 
 
 On Tuesday the Republican contained the following 
 with regard to the programme for the entertainment on 
 that and the next day — 
 
 "Boz — Yesterday a number of our citizens, we under- 
 stand, paid their respects to Mr. Dickens and his lady. 
 Those who called speak in the highest terms of the 
 gratification afforded them by the visit. To-day the 
 Committee which had in charge his entertainment treat 
 
ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 217 
 
 him to a view of the prairie, a sight which he seems 
 very desirous of enjoying. To-morrow evening he is to 
 be treated to a soiree. This mode has been adopted in 
 preference to a ball, as it furnishes to all an opportunity 
 of gratifying their feelings, which call them together, 
 and will not interfere with the scruples of propriety of 
 any." 
 
 There must have been at that time some of the good 
 people of the city who looked upon dancing as the 
 amusement of the wicked, so, as the Republican said, 
 a soiree was given, in order not to interfere with the 
 "scruples of propriety of any." 
 
 Dickens has given his own version of the trip to the 
 prairie, but Dr. J. F. Snyder, who was a boy residing 
 in Belleville, Illinois, at the time, and saw the arrival 
 of the party in that town, has written a very interesting 
 account of his recollection of the event for the Journal of 
 the Illinois Historical Society, from which the following 
 extracts are taken — 
 
 "Beside Mr. Dickens and the drivers of the four 
 teams, there were nine men and no ladies in the party, 
 only two of whom I could identify and can now remem- 
 ber. These were John J. Anderson, a banker, and 
 George Knapp of the Missouri Republican. They were 
 all young men connected with the newspapers and busi- 
 ness interests of St. Louis, bent upon affording their 
 famous guest a glimpse of the grandeur of Illinois, the 
 ' two large baskets and two large demi-johns, ' with ice 
 and other extras, taken along, indicating the picnic 
 aspect of the ' jaunt,' and intent to make it as pleasant 
 for him as possible. Seated in the several conveyances 
 with one of their number on horseback as guide, they 
 crossed the Mississippi in the early morning on one of 
 the Wiggins Company ferry-boats. At that season of 
 the year the miry road across the seven miles of soft 
 loamy soil of the American bottom, and the succeeding 
 seven miles of sticky clay uplands to Belleville, usually 
 rendered travelling over it slow and difficult, and was, 
 in fact, at times almost impassable. 
 
 "Returning home at about eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 
218 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 noon of that 15th day of April from an errand upon 
 which I had been sent to the eastern part of the village, 
 I had reached the public square when the line of car- 
 riages came pulling through the mud up Main Street 
 from the West. In doubt as to whether they formed a 
 funeral procession or transported some kind of show, I 
 stopped to see them pass by. Just then Philip B. 
 Foulke, editor of the Belleville Advocate, and in later 
 years our Congressman, came down the street to the 
 court-house, and I asked him who those travelling 
 strangers were. He had, a few minutes before, inter- 
 viewed the horseman who had arrived in advance of them 
 to have luncheon prepared for the party, and was hurry- 
 ing into the court-house — circuit court being in session 
 — to inform the bench and bar the object and purpose of 
 the novel expedition that had excited my curiosity. 
 Startled by hearing that Boz, the author of the Pickwick 
 Papers, was actually there, I turned about and, keeping 
 abreast of the first carriage, followed it up the street 
 until it stopped at the door of the Mansion House. On 
 the way I was joined by several other boys, my daily 
 associates, not one of whom perhaps had ever heard of 
 Charles Dickens, but attracted by the unusual appear- 
 ance of so many strange vehicles, went along gazing at 
 them with open-mouthed wonder. 
 
 "When the barouche conveying Mr. Dickens halted 
 at the curbstone, he was the first of its four inmates to 
 step from it to the sidewalk, and did so with a look of 
 evident relief. It was a perfect day ' overhead, ' warm 
 for the middle of April, with clear sky and the refreshing 
 air of early spring. The landlord, Mr. McBride, came 
 bustling out, bareheaded, to receive the company, and 
 was introduced to the famous writer by one of his travel- 
 ling companions. The man introduced as ' Mr. Dickens ' 
 was (to me) a disappointing surprise. In fact, my youth- 
 ful ideal of the genius who created Mr. Pickwick, Sam 
 Weller and the Widow Bardell was badly shattered. It 
 is natural for the average man, woman or boy, when 
 hearing about any noted individual, to form a definite 
 idea of that person's appearance; or, upon reading an 
 interesting book, to draw an imaginary portrait of its 
 
ST. LOUIS 
 
 PLANTER S HOUSE, ST. LOUIS 
 2l8 
 
ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 219 
 
 author. Mr. Dickens was, on that day, a very ordinary- 
 looking man indeed, with no external indication of true 
 greatness. In the estimation of ' us boys ' he compared 
 very unfavourably with Col. Richard M:. Johnson of 
 Kentucky, the slayer of Tecumseh, and late vice-presi- 
 dent, who had, a short time before, visited Belleville, 
 and had been given a grand reception with brass band 
 accompaniment. 
 
 "The ' Mansion House,' on the north-east corner of 
 Main and High Streets, is still there. Solid and sub- 
 stantial, though a dingy-looking relic of a past age in 
 the midst of modern progress, it is yet (1910) serviceable 
 as a business house, and, with pride, is pointed out to 
 strangers by the older residents as the hostelry where 
 Mr. Dickens was entertained in 1842. Of it he says : 
 ' There was an hotel in this place ... an odd, sham- 
 bling, low-roofed outhouse, half cowshed and half 
 kitchen, with a coarse brown canvas tablecloth, and tin 
 sconces stuck against the walls to hold candles at supper- 
 time.' The Mansion House was really a large, roomy 
 brick building, fully up to date in all respects, two 
 storeys high, with long two-storey frame addition, 
 erected only three years before by the Rev. Thomas 
 Harrison, and was well arranged, well furnished and 
 conducted in first-class style by his daughter and her 
 husband, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. J. McBride. 
 
 " Mr. Dickens and companions on arrival were escorted 
 by the landlord up-stairs and to rooms provided with 
 water, towels, etc., where they might perform their 
 ablutions and ' dress for dinner ' ; and the carriages, 
 from which the horses were unhitched and taken to the 
 stable, were left standing in front of the hotel. 
 
 " Court having adjourned for the noon recess, Colonel 
 Niles, Governor Koerner, Phil Foulke and two or three 
 other members of the bar, with several citizens, came up 
 to the Mansion House to pay their respects to the famous 
 guest. Judge Breese and Jo. Gillespie declined to 
 accompany them. 
 
 " With boyish curiosity and eagerness to see all that was 
 going on, I followed Mr. Dickens unasked, and no doubt 
 unwanted, to the foot of the stairs, and waited there 
 
220 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 until he came down and was introduced to the lawyers 
 and some of the other visitors. I was in close proximity 
 to his coat-tail when he was presented to ' Dr. Crocus,' 
 and was an interested witness to that interview which, 
 as narrated in Chapter XIII of the American Notes, 
 is substantially correct, with the exception that the land- 
 lord, Mr. McBride, was not addressed as ' Colonel.' He 
 was a quiet, unobtrusive, upright man, an exemplary 
 citizen and rigid Methodist, but not a colonel. The man 
 portrayed as 'Dr. Crocus ' was an adventurer calling 
 himself Dr. Angus Melrose — perhaps an assumed name 
 — who had a few months before alighted in Belleville 
 as a lecturer on phrenology, then a very popular fad, 
 and incidentally offering his professional services for 
 the healing of all known diseases. 
 
 "To Mr. Dickens's question, ' Do you think soon of 
 returning to the old country ? ' Mr. Melrose answered, 
 ' Not yet awhile, sir, not yet. You won't catch me at 
 that just yet, sir. I am a little too fond of freedom 
 for that, sir. Ha, ha ! It's not so easy for a man to 
 tear himself from a free country such as this is, sir. 
 Ha, ha ! No, no ! Ha, ha ! None of that till one's 
 obliged to do it, sir. No, no ! ' In this grandiloquent 
 declaration the doctor was very evidently, as Mr. 
 Dickens intimated, 'playing to the galleries,' but he 
 also intended Mr. Dickens to understand that he was 
 speaking ironically and, by innuendo, expressing his 
 contempt for American institutions. With proverbial 
 English obtuseness of perception, however, Mr. Dickens 
 failed to catch the doctor's covert meaning. 
 
 "Dr. Melrose was over six feet in height, and robust 
 in proportion, with florid face and long nose. Of 
 friendly, social disposition, he was a fluent talker, speak- 
 ing correct English with broad Scotch accent. To Mr. 
 McBride he stated that he had recently graduated in 
 medicine at the Edinburgh University, and having but 
 limited means, to gratify his desire to see America he 
 had recourse to the lecture platform, phrenology and the 
 practice of medicine to defray expenses of touring the 
 country. He remained in Belleville several months, but 
 
ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 221 
 
 though immortalized as ' Dr. Crocus ' by the American 
 Notes, very few persons now living retain the slightest 
 recollection of him. 
 
 "For half-an-hour or more Mr. Dickens was sur- 
 rounded by a throng of citizens, to several of whom he 
 was formally introduced, but to none of whom he 
 addressed anything more than curt, commonplace 
 remarks. It was plain that he was both bored and 
 amused by the curiosity and evident disappointment of 
 the crowd inspecting him, and seemed glad when the 
 dinner-bell ended the impromptu reception. The 
 glimpse obtained of him from the open dining-room 
 door, when all were seated at the long table, left no 
 doubt as to the ample justice he was doing to the 
 ' chicken fixings ' specially prepared for him. Dinner 
 over, he strolled out on the sidewalk in front of the 
 hotel, viewing part of the town in the range of his vision, 
 while conversing with his St. Louis friends until the 
 horses were brought from the stable and all was ready 
 to move on again. 
 
 "'From Belleville,' says Mr. Dickens, 'we went 
 through the same desolate kind of waste, and constantly 
 attended, without the interval of a moment, by the same 
 music ' (the croaking of bullfrogs). Here again, with 
 the American bottom vaguely in mind, he drew upon 
 his memory and it failed him. The road from Belle- 
 ville to Lebanon — then almost the entire twelve miles 
 through dense woods, broken here and there by the 
 farms of Governor Kinney and other old settlers — is 
 over high, undulating and beautiful country, remote 
 from sloughs or swamps or other habitats of the festive 
 mosquito or musical frog. 
 
 "The hotel at Lebanon was more fortunate than the 
 one in our town in catching the fancy of the novelist, 
 and he accorded it this dubious praise : ' In point of 
 cleanliness and comfort, it would have suffered by no 
 comparison with any English ale-house, of a homely 
 kind, in England.' It was a large barn-like frame build- 
 ing, called the Mermaid Hotel, with a large square sign 
 on a tall post in front, on which was painted a full-sized 
 
222 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 mermaid standing on her tail on the waves, holding a 
 looking-glass before her with one hand and combing her 
 golden tresses with the other. The house was owned 
 and conducted as an inn and stage by Captain Lyman 
 Adams, a retired New England sea captain of kind and 
 genial disposition who ended his days there, highly 
 respected and esteemed by all who knew him. 
 
 "After dining on the prairie, Mr. Dickens and party 
 returned to Lebanon and passed the night at the Mer- 
 maid Hotel. The next morning he arose at five o'clock, 
 and after a short walk about the village, returned to the 
 tavern and amused himself for some time in the inspec- 
 tion of its public rooms and backyard, which seems to 
 have afforded him more genuine enjoyment than his 
 view of the prairie." 
 
 The party arrived in St. Louis on their return on 
 Wednesday afternoon, and the following from the Belle- 
 ville Advocate of April 21 is a fair sample of American 
 journalism, as practised in the average country news- 
 paper at that time — 
 
 " Mr. Charles Dickens (the renowned English novelist) 
 passed through this town on Monday the 12th inst. to 
 take at least a bird's-eye view of the Looking-Glass 
 Prairie, or the Reflecting Mirror, as it may be truly 
 termed, of our whole prairie region. After which when 
 he returned to St. Louis, and while on the evening of 
 the 1 2th was participating with the literati of St. Louis 
 in a splendid entertainment given him at the Planter's 
 House, Governor Kinney, being then in the city, sent 
 a respectful letter of welcome to him as a visitor to the 
 Far West ; enclosing therein, as a specimen of his own 
 writing, his answer to ' an old friend, ' a farmer, on the 
 subject of taking and reading the newspapers, etc. In 
 answer to which letter, the next day previous to his 
 departure, Mr. Dickens left the following note to the 
 Governor, at the Planter's House, which I have obtained 
 permission to publish. We understand that Boz, alias 
 the old Dickens, was much enraptured with the scenery 
 which this short romantic tour opened to his view, and 
 
ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 223 
 
 does not regret, in the least, the time occupied to gratify 
 the curiosity which led him to perform it. 
 
 " ' Planter's House, St. Louis, April 14, 1842. 
 
 " ' My dear Sir, 
 
 " ' I am truly obliged to you for your letter of 
 welcome and congratulation, which has given me real 
 pleasure. Accept my cordial thanks, and believe me, 
 " ' Faithfully yours, 
 "' (Signed) Charles Dickens.' " 
 
 The same issue of the Advocate contained the follow- 
 ing communication — 
 
 "Mr. Editor, 
 
 "It is understood that Mr. Dickens, after visiting 
 the Looking-Glass Prairie and taking a view of the 
 scenery thereof (which may be considered an index to 
 the whole prairie volume of Illinois), intimated an inten- 
 tion on his return to his native country, to give a pictur- 
 esque view of the novelty, real beauty and sublimity of 
 our whole prairie system ; which, we have no doubt, will 
 be both instructive and entertaining to his readers at 
 home and to his admirers in the Far West. 
 
 "Should he be able, with his pen, to give the public, 
 and particularly the old bachelors who are fond of novels, 
 a more lucid and enchanting description than Governor 
 Kinner did at the celebration on the last 8th of January 
 in this place, we must acknowledge that he can beat the 
 extemporaneous effusion of a Sucker." 
 
 On the evening of the return from the prairie the 
 soiree at the Planter's House occurred, and Dickens, 
 on writing to Forster, refers to it — 
 
 "We had a crowded levee at St. Louis. Of course 
 the paper had an account of it. If I were to drop a 
 letter on the street it would be in the newspaper the 
 next day, and nobody would think its publication an 
 outrage. The editor objected to my hair as not curling 
 sufficiently. He admitted an eye, but objected again to 
 my dress as being somewhat foppish and indeed rather 
 flash." 
 
224 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Here is evidently the article to which Dickens referred, 
 and the reader can judge whether it was so objectional 
 as to warrant such strong condemnation as he gave it — 
 
 " We knocked at the door, gave our name to a gentle- 
 man usher, and were introduced to Charles Dickens and 
 his Lady. Dickens stands very straight, is of medium 
 length, and has a good figure. His manner of intro- 
 duction is free and easy, frank. His head shows large 
 perceptive faculties,, a large volume of brain in front of 
 the ears, but not a large causality. His eye is to our 
 perception blue, dark blue and full. It stands out 
 slightly and is handsome — very beautiful. It is the 
 striking feature of his physiognomy. 
 
 "His hair has been described as very fine. We did 
 not find it remarkably so. It is slightly wavy, and has 
 a glossy soft texture. We had thought from his portraits 
 that it was thick, but did not find it so. He wore a 
 black dress coat, with collar and facings of velvet, a 
 satin vest with very gay and variegated colours, light 
 coloured pantaloons, and boots polished to a fault. His 
 neck was covered by a low rich satin stock, with a small 
 bow and large appendages, which were arranged rather 
 carelessly, and fastened with a double pin united by a 
 chain, and so disposed as to hide his shirt bosom 
 entirely. 
 
 "No shirt collar appeared, but the wristbands were 
 turned back over the cuffs of his coat. Small thin 
 whiskers run along in front of his ears. One or more 
 rings ornamented his fingers. Dickens is thirty years 
 and one or two months old. He does not look older. 
 No one would suspect From inspection that he is the 
 genius his works prove him to be. The world has 
 scarcely furnished an example of a man who has written 
 his way to so widespread a fame as his in so short a 
 time." — Si- Louis Organ. 
 
 The Republican on Friday, April 15, contained only 
 the following very brief note on the soiree — 
 
 "Boz. — A large number of ladies and gentlemen paid 
 
I 
 
 'tat! 
 
 
 MANSION HOUSE, BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS 
 Where Dickens stayed in 1842 
 
 NEIL HOUSE, COLUMBUS, OHIO, 1844 
 
 224 
 
ST. LOUIS AND THE PRAIRIE 225 
 
 their respects to Mr. Dickens and lady at a soiree given 
 at the Planter's House on Wednesday night. Yesterday 
 they left St. Louis on the Messenger for Louisville and 
 Cincinnati. From the latter place they will proceed to 
 Portsmouth, and from there by the Ohio Canal to the 
 lakes, visiting Niagara Falls, and return to the east." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE RETURN TRIP — ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 
 
 As stated in the previous chapter, Dickens left St. 
 Louis Thursday, April 14, on the return journey east, 
 on the steamer Messenger, on which he had travelled 
 from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, and in American Notes 
 he has told of his trip down the Mississippi and his 
 opinion of that "filthy river," and how he took his last 
 look at "the detestable morass called 'Cairo.'" The 
 boat arrived at Louisville on Sunday the 17th, and he 
 remained over night at the Gait House, leaving there 
 the next day on the Ben Franklin, which he said was "a 
 beautiful mail steamboat," and arrived at Cincinnati at 
 1 a.m. on Tuesday. The following are the only notices 
 that can be found in the Cincinnati newspapers referring 
 to his return to that city — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens arrived in town yesterday and took 
 lodgings at the Broadway Hotel. He leaves to-day for 
 New York, via Columbus." — Cincinnati Gazette. 
 
 "Charles Dickens, Esq., and Lady arrived yesterday 
 by the mail boat Ben Franklin and took rooms at the 
 Broadway Hotel. He leaves this morning via Colum- 
 bus and the Lakes, for the Falls of Niagara, on his 
 route to New York." 
 
 Dickens has given a very full account in American 
 Notes of the trip to Niagara Falls, but his secretary, 
 Mr. Putnam, in his account has told of some incidents 
 of the journey which are not related by Dickens. It is 
 interesting to compare Dickens's story with Putnam's, 
 and the latter is therefore copied in full. 
 
 "The coach was crowded with passengers, and, as 
 usual, Mr. Dickens secured his favourite seat on the 
 
 226 
 
ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 227 
 
 box with the driver. We travelled all night, and a weary 
 journey it was. Mrs. Dickens sat on the back seat, and 
 my place was on the middle seat by the window in front 
 of her. Opposite me, through the night, sat a well- 
 dressed man ; but all night long he poured out a rain 
 of tobacco spittle which, from the motion of the coach, 
 fell on us in showers. I tried to screen Mrs. Dickens, 
 but notwithstanding my efforts, and the aid of a thick 
 veil, she could not escape the disgusting results. 
 
 "Arriving at Columbus, we stopped at the Neil House, 
 an excellent hotel; a few hours were given to rest and 
 sleep, and afterwards Mr. Dickens received for an hour 
 or two the ladies and gentlemen who called upon him. 
 The plan of travel was to get to Sandusky City on Lake 
 Erie, take a steamer to Buffalo, thence go to Niagara, 
 and thence to Canada. 
 
 "At Columbus we hired a stage-coach exclusively for 
 our party, and the stage company sent an agent with 
 the driver to go through with us. The upper portion 
 of Ohio was largely at that time an unbroken forest, and 
 the accommodations for travellers were very poor. 
 Nothing but corn-bread and bacon could be obtained at 
 the log cabins on the road, and so our good landlord of 
 the Neil House had a basket of provisions put up for us 
 to dine upon. The road was pretty good at first, but 
 did not improve as we went on. We had, however, a 
 good stage-coach to ourselves and a good team and 
 driver. So for many miles we went on quite well. The 
 driver, at intervals of a dozen miles or so, would com- 
 mence blowing his horn, to give notice at the station a 
 mile or more ahead, that a relay of horses was to be 
 ready. It was evidently unusual for an ' extra ' to go 
 through on that road, and while we changed horses all 
 the people in the log tavern and its neighbourhood 
 would assemble to look at us, and they generally found 
 out by questioning the driver that it was ' Boz ' who 
 was travelling with an ' extra ' toward the lake. Soon 
 after noon we came to a pleasant nook in the woods, not 
 far from a log-cabin, and our basket of provisions was 
 opened and the cloth spread upon the grass. I obtained 
 a pitcher of cool water at the cabin near by, and dinner 
 
 Q2 
 
228 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 was ready. I trust I shall be excused if I mention here 
 a little instance of the kindness of heart always shown 
 by Charles Dickens. The driver and his friend, who 
 were now waiting with the coach a little distance, had 
 dined at the log tavern which we passed a half-hour 
 before. But before we dined, Mr. Dickens, heaping up 
 a large quantity of oranges, apples, nuts and raisins, 
 which we had brought for dessert, and a quantity of 
 wine added, requested me to take them to the driver 
 and his companion, which I did. It was a little incident ; 
 but it was characteristic of that man throughout life to 
 remember others. 
 
 "After dinner I returned the pitcher, taking the 
 basket and dishes with me to the log cabin, and the 
 people were greatly pleased and surprised when I made 
 them a present of the whole. We hurried off again, as 
 the road was constantly growing worse and night not 
 far distant. 
 
 "At the next place for changing horses — a log cabin 
 and stable standing all alone in the forest — we alighted 
 for a few moments and went in. An elderly woman 
 received us and gave us seats. In an adjoining room 
 there were two tall, good-looking young girls, her 
 daughters, spinning. They seemed quite desirous to 
 know, and were too bashful to ask, who the strangers 
 were. Being curious to see if, in the midst of the almost 
 unbroken forests of Northern Ohio, the inmates of that 
 lone cabin had ever heard of Charles Dickens, I inci- 
 dentally mentioned his name. ' Is it indeed ! ' said the 
 girls, and with brightened eyes and looks of pleasure 
 on their handsome faces they came and sat down where 
 they could see Mr. and Mrs. Dickens. The coach was 
 soon ready, and with a few words and a kind ' good- 
 bye ' to the woman and her daughters from Mr. and 
 Mrs. Dickens, we went on our way. I told Mr. Dickens 
 that the girls had read his books and were happy to 
 have seen him ; and the incident seemed to gratify him, 
 as well it might. 
 
 "We soon began to know something of the exquisite 
 softness of 'corduroy roads.' Some dozen miles of this 
 kind of road now lay before us, and as they talked of 
 
ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 229 
 
 ' building a good road there some time or other ' no 
 repairs had for a long interval been made in the 
 ' Corduroy ' ; consequently holes nearly large enough 
 to bury coach, horses and all were constantly occurring, 
 which, however, the driver managed with great skjll to 
 avoid. It was a wondrous talent that put the wood and 
 iron of that coach together, for it did not seem possible 
 that it could long remain unbroken. 
 
 "Mrs. Dickens had the back seat to herself; as the 
 terrible jolting increased, Mr. Dickens, taking two 
 handkerchiefs, tied the ends of them to the door-posts 
 on each side, and the other ends Mrs. Dickens wound 
 around her wrists and hands. This contrivance, to 
 which was added the utmost bracing of the feet, enabled 
 the kind and patient lady to endure the torture of 
 the ' Corduroy.' Mr. Dickens and myself occupied the 
 middle seat, with our arms wound tightly around the 
 other door-posts, and Mrs. Dickens's maid Ann occupied 
 the front seat facing us. Mr. Dickens on his side, and 
 I on mine, kept a sharp look-out ahead as well as we 
 could, and when we saw — as we did almost every minute 
 — an uncommonly large hole into which the wheels must 
 go, we shouted ' CordurOy ! ' and prepared ourselves 
 for the shock. But preparation was of little avail, for 
 with all our strength we found it impossible to keep our 
 places, but were constantly tumbling upon each other 
 and picking ourselves up from the bottom of the coach. 
 At last we got through the swamp, and thankfully left 
 the ' Corduroy ' behind us. As night came on a smart 
 thunder-shower passed over us, and by the gleams of 
 lightning we followed the winding forest road. The 
 driver told us we should reach Upper Sandusky a little 
 before midnight and stop there till morning. This was 
 good news, for perhaps there never yet was a set of 
 travellers more utterly worn out than ourselves. We 
 looked forward with pleasure to supper, good clean 
 beds and a ,few hours' sleep. The time seemed very 
 long, but at last, about eleven o'clock, when yet a mile 
 or more from the place, our driver began to blow his 
 horn to rouse the people at the tavern. In due time we 
 arrived. The log tavern was a long, low structure, a 
 
230 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 storey and a half high. We got out of the coach, sore and 
 lame, and soon sat down to a supper of bacon, bread and 
 butter and hot tea. Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had a room 
 on the ground floor, and into it all the trunks and 
 baggage— including overcoats and shawls — were carried. 
 Mr. Dickens called my attention to the fact that there 
 were no fastenings to either of the doors of his room, 
 but said, ' I can pile all the trunks up against the doors, 
 and no one can possibly get in without waking us.' Mrs. 
 Dickens was naturally rather nervous, for the place 
 certainly looked new and strange. We heard that an 
 ' Indian Council ' had just been held at the lodge near 
 by and there were hundreds of Indians at that time in 
 the vicinity, and everything looked like being in a wild 
 and uncivilized country. 
 
 "So ' Boz ' and his wife went thankfully to rest, and 
 the landlord, lighting a tallow candle, showed me up a 
 flight of outer stairs into the chamber or loft of the 
 cabin. There were two beds in the room, and one was 
 already occupied by a man who snored in splendid 
 style. I was too tired to mind that, and got into bed 
 as soon as possible. But it was useless to try to sleep. 
 The bed literally swarmed with bugs, and I found it 
 impossible to close my eyes. After trying in vain for 
 some time to endure the torment, I dressed and went 
 down the stairs again out doors. It was in April, and 
 the night air was piercing cold. I could not obtain an 
 overcoat or shawl, for they were all in Mr. Dickens's 
 room and I would not alarm Mrs. Dickens by trying to 
 get in. So I took to the coach. It was better than- 
 standing out doors, but as it was lined with leather, it 
 was not very warm. I spent the night in useless attempts 
 to catch a nap. 
 
 " As daylight began to glimmer ' I crowed ' very 
 loudly several times, hoping that the old darkey who did 
 the chores would think it was morning and get up and 
 light the fires. But the ruse didn't succeed, though the 
 ' crowing ' was very well done, indeed. 
 
 "As soon as it was light, I got out and crept to the 
 cabin. While I was standing there, Mrs. Dickens, with 
 a face full of trouble, and rubbing her wrists and handSj 
 
ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 231 
 
 came from her room to the tin wash-basin provided for 
 the public, which stood upon a stump near the door. I 
 bade her good morning and asked how she had rested. 
 ' Oh, Mr. P.,' said she, ' I have been almost devoured 
 by the bugs ! ' I then related my ' experience,' which 
 excited both her mirth and sympathy, and calling to 
 her husband, said, ' Charles, Charles, just come here 
 and listen to what Mr. P. suffered last night ! ' I then 
 told my experience again without any embellishments — 
 none were needed — and with laughter and kind words 
 Mr. Dickens heard it and has duly chronicled it in his 
 ' notes.' 
 
 "We had breakfast, and, the coach being ready, we 
 all got in and were on the point of starting, when the 
 landlord mentioned that the ' Bill wasn't paid ! ' ' The 
 bill not paid ? Good heavens ! Mr. P., the bill not 
 paid, sir ! Why, how is this ? I hope you have not 
 neglected it before, have you ? ' 
 
 " I apologized to the landlord and explained that I had 
 never before forgotten to pay all bills ; but having spent 
 the night in the coach, I had no consciousness of having 
 stopped anywhere or owing anything; with which ex- 
 planation Mr. Dickens nodded and smiled his satis- 
 faction. The landlord, however, seemed not well 
 pleased, but received his money sullenly, and we went 
 on our way. 
 
 "Our stage-coach ride across Ohio ended at Tiffin, a 
 small town which we reached about noon, from whence 
 was a railroad to Sandusky City on Lake Erie. The 
 good landlord at Tiffin, finding who were his guests, did 
 his best to please, and also to let the entire town know 
 that ' Dickens was at his hotel.' And when we left the 
 house for the depot, he had a large kind of wagon on 
 springs, with seats very high, on which Mr. and Mrs. 
 Dickens were placed. I think the driver was instructed 
 to pass through all the principal streets of the place 
 before he reached the railroad station, for we went at 
 a slow pace and were a long time going; and the people 
 awaited us in groups, as if by appointment, at the street 
 corners and at the windows and doors of the houses; 
 and if the inhabitants of Tiffin, Ohio, did not on that 
 
232 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 occasion see ' Boz ' and his wife, it certainly was not the 
 fault of that good landlord or of his carriage driver. 
 
 " The change from coach and corduroy to the rail was 
 most grateful, and in the evening we reached Sandusky 
 City. A lake steamer made her appearance in the 
 harbour the next day, and we embarked for Buffalo. 
 
 "At Buffalo our travellers gladly welcomed their 
 letters from home which were awaiting them there, and 
 it was here that Mr. Dickens received from Carlyle and 
 other eminent English writers the letters endorsing his 
 views upon the subject of ' International Copyright 
 Law.' 
 
 "It was but a short ride from Buffalo to Niagara. 
 Mr. Dickens had been repeatedly warned not to expect 
 too much of Niagara and told that people were often 
 disappointed in their anticipation of the grandeur of the 
 scene. 
 
 "As we crossed on the ferry-boat, Dickens gazed at 
 the falls in astonishment ! When midway over, he 
 looked around for a few moments and said solemnly, as 
 if to himself, ' Great God ! How can any man be 
 disappointed at this ! ' 
 
 "Rooms had been engaged at the Clifton House, and 
 now the tired travellers looked forward to a season of 
 perfect rest and quiet. In this they were not disap- 
 pointed. It was much too early in the season for visitors, 
 and with the exception of a few English officers and 
 gentlemen residing in the neighbourhood, there was no 
 company to call upon them. The time allotted to be 
 spent at Niagara was full of pure enjoyment, and when 
 it was over they started for Toronto, thence to Kings- 
 ton, Montreal and Quebec. At all these places Mr. 
 Dickens and his wife were most cordially received by 
 the government officials, officers of the army, and the 
 resident English population. The time was pleasantly 
 passed in rides and visits, and also in some private 
 theatricals, in which Mr. Dickens and several English 
 officers took part." 
 
 Dickens left for Niagara Falls on the afternoon of 
 Tuesday, April 26, and remained in Canada until 
 
ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 283 
 
 Monday, May 30, when he left Montreal for New York, 
 and as everything in Canada was entirely to his satis- 
 faction no effort has been made to collect the newspaper 
 accounts of his stay in British America. 
 
 He arrived in New York on the afternoon of Wed- 
 nesday, June 1, where he remained that night, and the 
 next morning went back up the Hudson River to visit 
 the Shaker village, Lebanon and West Point, returning 
 to New York on Monday. The stay in Canada and 
 return trip to New York are all fully described in 
 American Notes and in his letters to Forster. 
 
 Dickens left New York for home on Tuesday, June 7, 
 on the sailing vessel George Washington. The New 
 York newspapers made no mention other than the simple 
 fact that he had sailed. Mr. Philip Hone, who was 
 one of a number of American friends who went aboard 
 the boat to bid the Dickens party farewell, writes in his 
 diary under date of June 8 as follows — 
 
 "Yesterday was quite a day of jubilee with me. On 
 coming down to breakfast I found a kind note from 
 Mr. James G. King, to attend, with one of my lady 
 folk, a parting breakfast given at Highwood, to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Charles Dickens. Margaret and I went over 
 at ten o'clock, where we found the Boz and Bozzess, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Gracie, Miss Wilkes and the 
 Doctor, Mr. and Mrs. Colden, Miss Ward and the 
 charming family of our host and hostess. We had a 
 breakfast worthy of the entertainers and the enter- 
 tained ; and such strawberries and cream ! The house 
 and the grounds and the view, and the library and the 
 conservatory were all more beautiful than I have ever 
 seen them. Having been favoured with an invitation 
 from Grinnell, Minturn & Co., the owners of the ship 
 George Washington, to accompany Mr. and Mrs. 
 Dickens to Sandy Hook, I left Margaret to take Mrs. 
 Colden and Miss Wilkes in the barouche to town and 
 was driven down to Jersey City, where by previous 
 arrangements a steamboat was sent to take us aboard, 
 and we embarked with a ' hurrah ' from the people 
 assembled on the dock. We found on board the steam- 
 
234 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 boat a large party of gentlemen, among whom were the 
 owners, Rev. Dr. Wainwright, Drs. Francis Cornell 
 and Wilkes ; Mr. Chapman of Boston ; Judge Warren 
 of New Bedford, Mr. Crittendon, the distinguished 
 Kentucky Senator; Charles King, D. C. Colden, 
 Simeon Draper, James Bowen, Harry Carey, J. Prescott 
 Hall, R. M. Blatchford and his son, and other gentle- 
 men — a right pleasant merry company. We went de- 
 lightfully down to Sandy Hook, where the ship lay at 
 anchor. Soon after we came aboard a cold collation was 
 spread, to which, and to an infinite number of bottles of 
 champagne wine, the utmost justice was done. Speeches 
 and toasts and bright sayings went round, of all which 
 Dickens was the most fruitful theme. I gave his health 
 in the following toast : ' Charles Dickens — the welcome 
 acquired by literary reputation has been confirmed and 
 justified by personal intercourse.' At the conclusion 
 of this jolly repast, we took leave of the passengers with 
 many hearty shakings of the hands and good wishes, 
 returned to the steamer, towed the ship to the point off 
 Sandy Hook, and, having cast her off and given three 
 cheers, returned in proper style. She went ' on her 
 journeying ' and was soon out of sight, and our party 
 returned to the city about six o'clock." 
 
 About the middle of August there appeared in some 
 of the New York newspapers a letter dated "July 15 — 
 Devonshire Terrace, Parkgate," addressed "To the 
 Editor of the Morning Chronicle," and signed "Charles 
 Dickens." A search of the obtainable files of the New 
 York newspapers fails to discover this letter, but Mr. 
 Hone in his diary gives the following extract from it — 
 
 "Though in my travels from city to city I,- of course, 
 found much to be pleased with and astonished at, yet 
 the total difference between our good old English 
 customs and the awkwardness, the uncouth manners 
 and the unmitigated selfishness which you meet every- 
 where in America, made my journey one of a good deal 
 of annoyance. I do not think Americans, as a people, 
 have much good taste. To a person brought up among 
 
ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK 235 
 
 them, and in their own way, of course, the glaring faults 
 that strike a stranger do not appear; but to any well- 
 bred man from abroad, the effect of the prevalent 
 features of the American character is by no means 
 agreeable. 
 
 "It may be said that I, of all persons, ought to be 
 blind to the dark spots of American character, treated 
 as I have been by the American people. I do not agree 
 with this view of the case. I did not seek their atten- 
 tion, their dinners and their balls. On the contrary, 
 these things were forced upon me; many times to the 
 serious inconvenience of myself and my party. The 
 kindness of a friend, if it is troublesome and officious, 
 often annoys as much as the injuries of an enemy. The 
 Americans have most of the faults of both the English 
 and the French, with very few of their virtues. I never 
 thought that I was petted merely for myself ; but as a 
 kind of a monster, to look at, and imbue my keepers 
 with somewhat of the notoriety that enveloped myself. 
 I can freely and confidently say that this was the case, 
 almost without exception." 
 
 Mr. Hone could not believe that a guest who had been 
 so recently honoured to such an extent as Dickens could 
 be guilty of such "wilful unappreciation " and "gross 
 ingratitude," and wrote a letter to him calling for his 
 "avowal or denial of this unworthy piece of splendid 
 impudence," and on October 6 he received the following 
 reply — 
 
 Broadstairs, Kent, England, 
 
 September 16, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I am very much obliged to you for your friendly 
 letter, which I have received with real pleasure. It 
 reached me last night, being forwarded from London to 
 this seaside fishing town, where we are enjoying our- 
 selves quietly until the end of the month. I answer it 
 without an hour's delay, though I fear my reply may 
 lie at the post office some days before it finds a steam 
 packet to carry it across the ocean. 
 
 The letter to which you refer is, from beginning to 
 
236 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 end, in every word and syllable, the cross of every t and 
 the dot of every i, a most wicked and nefarious forgery. 
 I have never published one word or line in reference to 
 America in any quarter, except the copyright circular, 
 and the unhung scoundrel who invented that astounding 
 lie knew this as well as I do. It has caused me more 
 pain, and more of a vague desire to take somebody by 
 the throat, than such an event should perhaps have 
 awakened in an honourable man. But I have not con- 
 tradicted it publicly, deeming that it would not become 
 my character or elevate me in my own self-respect to 
 do so. I shall hope to send for your acceptance, next 
 month, my American Notes. Meanwhile, and always, 
 and with cordial remembrance to all friends, 
 I am, my dear sir, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 
 
 It may seem to the reader that, as the question of an 
 International Copyright between the United States and 
 Great Britain having been settled in 1891, any extended 
 reference to it at the present time might be considered 
 something in the nature of a post-mortem held long 
 after the corpse had been interred. That the subject, 
 however, was one to which Dickens referred in no un- 
 certain words whenever the opportunity presented, not 
 only while in the United States, but also after his return 
 to England, and as it was a subject on which the 
 American papers in 1842 had much to say both for and 
 against, — these seem to the writer sufficient reasons for 
 including a chapter on the subject in this book. 
 
 Dickens himself, in a letter to one of his sons, has 
 said that whatever he put his hands to he did with all 
 his powers, and it will be seen later that while in the 
 United States in 1842, so far as the subject of Inter- 
 national Copyright was concerned, he was instant in 
 season ; and also, as some of his critics believed, out 
 of season. 
 
 There can be no doubt as to the abstract justice of 
 an International Copyright Law, and that at the time of 
 his first visit to America, Dickens himself believed he 
 had suffered personally by reason of the piracy of his 
 books by publishers in the United States, as he himself 
 said, "Of all men living, I am the greatest loser by it." 
 He wrote to Mrs. Pardoe referring to the "American 
 robbers," as he called the publishers : "The existing law 
 allows them to reprint any English book without any 
 communication whatever with the author or anybody 
 
 337 
 
238 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 else. My books have all been reprinted on these agree- 
 able terms." This statement was literally true, as all of 
 Dickens's works were reprinted in the United States, 
 most of them in monthly parts, just as soon after the 
 arrival of the original numbers from England as pos- 
 sible, and some of these reprints sold at as low a price 
 as six cents a copy. The writer believes that while this 
 resulted in a temporary loss to the author, the final 
 result, although he did not reap the benefit till 1868, 
 was that his books were more widely read in the United 
 States than in England, where the price of the monthly 
 parts was one shilling, almost twenty-five cents, or five 
 dollars for the bound volume. It is doubtful whether 
 Dickens would have had so many readers in the United 
 States if it had not been for those cheap reprints. 
 
 Horace Greeley said in the New York Tribune, during 
 Dickens's visit in 1868 : "The fame as a novelist which 
 Mr. Dickens had already created in America, and which, 
 at the best, has never yielded him anything particularly 
 munificent or substantial, is become his capital stock in 
 the present enterprise," a statement which his biographer 
 Mr. Forster said was faithfully and truly put. This 
 capital stock, as Greeley called it, earned Dickens such 
 dividends that he was able to return to England after 
 his second visit with about ,£20,000 pounds ($100,000) 
 in his pockets as the result of his readings. This amount 
 was considered at the time so enormous for a lecturer or 
 reader to receive that some of the comic papers published 
 cartoons showing Dickens carrying home his profits in 
 a carpet bag. 
 
 Many American authors were also strongly in favour 
 of an International Copyright for the reason that they 
 believed it increased the number of pi'rated editions and, 
 of course, the number of readers of the works of foreign 
 authors, for as long as publishers would reprint the 
 novels of such authors as Dickens, Charles Lever, Lytton 
 Bulwer and others without paying any royalty, there 
 was little show for the American authors' works being 
 printed when the authors required a royalty. Mr. Cor- 
 nelius Mathews, in his speech at the Dickens dinner in 
 New York, said on this phase of the subject — 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 239 
 
 " What is the present condition of the Field of Letters 
 in America? It is in a state of desperate anarchy — 
 without order, without system, without certainty. For 
 several years past, it has been sown broadcast with 
 foreign publications of every name and nature; what 
 growth has ensued? No single work, so far as I can 
 see, has sprung up as its legitimate result ; no addition to 
 the stock of native poetry or fiction ; no tree has blos- 
 somed; no solitary blrde struck through the hard and 
 ungrateful turf. Wha aver has been produced has been 
 in spite of opposition from within and without ; has been 
 the bright exception, not the rule. Instead of being 
 fostered and promoted, as it should be, our domestic 
 literature is borne down by an immethodical and unre- 
 strained republication of every foreign work that will 
 bear the charges of the compositor and paper-maker." 
 
 Several of Dickens's biographies written since his 
 death have stated that the prime object of his visit in 
 1842 was to agitate the passage of an International Copy- 
 right Law. Some of the English critics, in reviewing 
 the American Notes, made the same statement, and when 
 the writer of a review of the book in the Edinburgh 
 Review gave the same reason for the trip, Dickens not 
 only asked the editor of that periodical to correct it, but 
 he also wrote the following letter, published in The 
 Times, January 16, 1843, emphatically denying the 
 statement — 
 
 "Devonshire Terrace, Sunday, January 15. 
 
 " To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 "Sir, 
 
 " In your paper of Saturday you thought it worth 
 while to refer to an article on my American Notes, pub- 
 lished in the recent number of the Edinburgh Review, 
 for the purpose of commenting on a statement of the 
 reviewer's in reference to the English and American 
 Press, with which I have no further concern than that I 
 know it to be a very monstrous likening of unlike things. 
 
 "I am anxious to give to another misrepresentation 
 
240 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 made by the same writer, whoever he may be — which is 
 personal to myself — the most public and positive con- 
 tradiction in my power, and shall be really obliged to 
 you if you will allow me to do this through the medium 
 of your columns. 
 
 " He asserts ' That if he be rightly informed, I went 
 to America as a kind of missionary in the cause of 
 International Copyright.' He is wrongly informed, and 
 reports without inquiry a piece of information which I 
 could only characterize by using one of the shortest and 
 strongest words in the language. Upon my honour, the 
 assertion is destitute of any futile aspect or colouring 
 of truth. 
 
 " It occurred to me to speak (as other English travellers 
 connected with literature have done before me) of the 
 existing laws — or want of laws — on the subject of inter- 
 national copyright, when I found myself in America, 
 simply because, unexperienced at the time in the 
 American public, I believed they would listen to the 
 truth, even from one presumed to have an interest in 
 stating it, and would not long refuse to recognize a 
 principle of common honesty, even though it happened 
 to clash with a miserably short-sighted view of their own 
 profit and advantage. 
 
 "I am, Sir, your obliged servant, 
 
 "Charles Dickens." 
 
 When Dickens, after his first speech at the Boston 
 dinner, found that his remarks on the subject had been 
 met with so much opposition by some of the editors 
 and publishers, he came to the conclusion that he would 
 keep up the agitation and strike while the iron was hot, 
 with the result that in nearly every speech he made 
 thereafter he referred to the subject, and with added 
 argument and fire. 
 
 Dickens, in his speech at the Hartford dinner, again 
 spoke in very strong terms, voicing his indignation on 
 the subject ; and, referring to the speech, he wrote Forster 
 from New York on February 24, saying : " I had no 
 sooner made my second speech than such an outcry 
 began, for the purpose of deterring me from doing the 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 241 
 
 like in this city, as an Englishman can form no notion 
 of." The following is an extract from the Hartford 
 Times, which is an example of the "outcry" Dickens 
 refers to — 
 
 "Mr. Dickens alluded in his remarks to an Inter- 
 national Copyright Law. In Boston he also alluded to 
 the same subject, intimating that England had done her 
 duty and it now remained for the United States to follow 
 suit. It happens that we want no advice on the subject, 
 and it will be better for Mr. Dickens if he refrains from 
 introducing the subject hereafter, but it is not pleasant 
 to pursue the subject further at this time." 
 
 In the letter to Forster above quoted, Dickens wrote 
 referring to the New York dinner : " The dinner com- 
 mittee here (composed of the first gentlemen in America, 
 remember that) were so dismayed that they besought 
 me not to pursue the subject, although they every one 
 agreed with me. I answered that I would. That nothing 
 would deter me; that the shame was theirs, not mine; 
 and that I would not spare them when I got home, I 
 would not be silenced here. Accordingly, when the 
 night came, I asserted my right, with all the means I 
 could command to give it dignity, in face, matter or 
 words," etc. 
 
 It will be noted from the date of this letter (February 
 24) that it was written after the dinner, which occurred 
 February 19, and from the absence of any reference to 
 any remarks by any of the other speakers, the inference 
 would be that the subject was ignored by them, and that 
 Dickens himself was the only one who said anything at 
 all on the subject which he had so much at heart. Just 
 why Dickens did not tell Forster that the President, 
 Washington Irving, proposed the sentiment "Inter- 
 national Copyright," which was responded to by Mr. 
 Cornelius Mathews, is difficult to understand, for in 
 other letters he had written that the best people amongst 
 the authors and editors were in accord with him. The 
 facts are, however, that Mr. Mathews made a very 
 strong plea for the copyright, as shown by the following 
 brief quotation from his address — 
 
242 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 "Standing here to-night, the representative, in some 
 humble measure, of the interests of American authors 
 on the question, I say they have been treated by this 
 people and government as no other of its citizens; that 
 an enormous fraud practised upon their British brethren 
 has been allowed so to operate upon them as to blight 
 their hopes and darken their fair fame. . . . 
 
 "By what casuistry or jurisprudence does that which 
 is property in one latitude in one civilized country cease 
 to be property when transferred within the limits of 
 another ? " 
 
 Mr. Mathews spoke for nearly twenty minutes on the 
 subject, and concluded : " I offer you, Mr. President, 
 An International Copyright — the only honest turnpike 
 between the readers of two great nations." 
 
 It is difficult, at this late day, to understand how the 
 dinner committee should beg Dickens not to speak on 
 the subject, although they every one agreed with him, 
 and then have the very subject he says they wished him 
 to keep silence upon put on the programme as one of 
 the set subjects to be spoken upon by one of the guests 
 who was himself an American author. The only reason- 
 able explanation that can be given for Dickens ignoring 
 this in his letter to Forster is that his treatment by some 
 of the newspapers, not only on account of his advocacy 
 of the copyright, but also on account of their remarks 
 about his personality, manners and attire, had so 
 angered him that it was impossible for him at that time 
 to speak or write on the subject in a fair or impartial 
 manner. 
 
 As an indication of how the better class v of newspapers 
 treated the subject, the following editorial from the New 
 York Tribune, February 14, probably written by Horace 
 Greeley himself, is given — 
 
 "We have heard rumours that Mr. Dickens has 
 ventured to allude, in his replies to complimentary 
 addresses, to the gross injustice and spoliation to which 
 he and foreign authors are exposed in this country, from 
 the absence of an International Copyright or some other 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 248 
 
 law protecting the rights of literary property. We trust 
 he will not be deterred from speaking the frank, round 
 truth by any mistaken courtesy, diffidence or misappre- 
 hension of public sentiment. He ought to speak out on 
 this matter, for who shall protest against robbery if 
 those who are robbed may not? Here is a man who 
 writes for a living, and writes nobly; and we of this 
 country greedily devour his writings, are entertained 
 and instructed by them, yet refuse to protect his rights 
 as an author that he may realize a single dollar from all 
 their vast American sale and popularity. Is this right? 
 Do we look well offering him toasts, compliments and 
 other syllabub while we refuse him naked justice — while 
 we say that every man may take from him the fruits of 
 his labours without recompense or redress ? 
 
 " It does very well in a dinner speech to say that fame 
 and popularity and all that are more than sordid gold; 
 but he has a wife and four children, whom his death 
 may very possibly leave destitute — perhaps dependent 
 for their bread — while publishers who have grown rich 
 on his writings roll by in their carriages; and millions 
 who have been instructed by them contribute not one 
 farthing to their comfort. But suppose him rich, if you 
 please, the justice of the case is unaltered. He is the 
 just owner of his own productions as much as though 
 he had made axes or horseshoes; and the people who 
 refuse to protect his right ought not to insult him with 
 the mockery of thriftless praise. Let us be just, and 
 then generous. Good reader ! if you think our guest 
 ought to be enabled to live by and enjoy the fruits of 
 his talents and toil, just put your names to a petition 
 for an International Copyright Law, and then you can 
 take his hand heartily if he comes your way and say, 
 if need be, ' I have done what is in my power to protect 
 you from robbery ! ' The passage of this act of lOng- 
 deferred justice will be a greater tribute to his worth and 
 achievements than acres of inflated compliments soaked 
 in champagne." 
 
 This editorial speaks entirely in favour of the copy- 
 right solely on the grounds of the personal injustice to 
 Dickens, but a week later (February 21) the Tribune 
 r 2 
 
244 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 contained another editorial, presumably writtenby Horace 
 Greeley, the editor, arguing in favour of the law for a 
 very different reason : that of the injustice to American 
 authors. 
 
 "Justice to Authors. — We publish on our last page 
 the speech of Mr. Mathews in regard to International 
 Copyright, for which we especially ask the consideration 
 of our readers. The question is one of universal, and 
 by no means trifling, interest, and is destined to attract 
 attention more largely than hitherto. We must be 
 permitted to add a few words in support of its positions. 
 
 "How shall it be contended by any unwarped, in- 
 genuous mind that the author has not a clear, absolute, 
 indefeasible right of property in his own productions in 
 every part of the world? What possible act of human 
 wit or effort shall give a clear title if his does not ? How 
 shall it be maintained that the man, whether citizen or 
 alien, who slays the deer in the common forest, who lures 
 the fish from the wild mountain stream or tracks the bee 
 to his secret hive, shall have exclusive property in the 
 spoils which he has appropriated from the common 
 stores of the race, while the author who builds out into 
 infinite space — who peoples dreary chaos with the bright 
 and beautiful creations of his genius, shall have none, 
 but be left the prey of all who covet, and whose covet- 
 ousness will, of course, be just in proportion to the 
 value and productiveness of the fruit of his labours. 
 The denial of protection to the rights of authors is 
 not even impolitic and unjust, but a positive and flagrant 
 robbery. 
 
 "More absurd is the cavil which affirms the. intangi- 
 bility of literary property, the impossibility of defining 
 and securing it. 
 
 "Society submits to Law and Government mainly to 
 ensure the protection of those rights which stretch out 
 beyond reach of the individual's sword-arm — beyond the 
 range of his rifle. It is emphatically because the rights 
 of the author are easily subverted that we invoke for him 
 the protection of that shield which should be as broad 
 as the domain of civilized existence. 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 245 
 
 "We loathe to speak of this matter in the light of 
 policy when the demand of justice is so clear and urgent. 
 All who are in literary vocations well know that our 
 robbery of the foreign author dooms the American to 
 neglect and want; for what bookseller will buy his 
 manuscript when he can reprint the last popular London 
 novel from fair type and shining paper without even 
 the ceremony of saying * By your leave ' ? Thus ten 
 British books to one American are read by our people, 
 and the intellect and taste of the country kept intermin- 
 ably in colonial vassalage. 
 
 "The author should hold his book by the same tenure 
 as his wheat, if he were a farmer, or his axes if a black- 
 smith. The copyright is at best a grudging restoration 
 of part of what society has unjustly taken. Barnaby 
 Rudge belongs to Boz, and Bracebridge Hall to Irving, 
 just as clearly and perpetually as the Astor House to 
 Mr. Astor or the ox to the grazier. If justice were done 
 by our laws, Genius would no longer be forced by 
 hunger to pander to the depravity of the age, to the 
 narrow prejudice of a nation. We should no longer 
 pamper Ainsworths and Marryats while famishing 
 
 Coleridges and Wordsworths But we have hot 
 
 space to pursue this theme. People of the United 
 States : We ask you to petition Congress for Justice 
 to Authors. We appeal to you to urge upon our Govern- 
 ment that true and lofty National Policy which aims to 
 nerve the heart that beats, the arm that strikes for the 
 Elevation of Man ! " 
 
 Having started the agitation and begun the fight in 
 his Boston speech, and seeing the manner in which the 
 discussion was carried on in the American Press, 
 Dickens was not the man to let the matter drop. One of 
 the means which he adopted to add fuel to the flame is 
 shown by the following extract from a letter to Forster — 
 
 "I will tell you what I should like, my dear friend, 
 always supposing that your judgment concurs with mine, 
 and that you would take the trouble to get such a docu- 
 ment. I should like to have a letter addressed to me by 
 
246 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 the principal English authors who signed the Inter- 
 national Copyright Petition, expressing their sense that 
 I have done my duty in the cause. I am sure I deserve 
 it, but I don't want it on that ground. It is because its 
 publication in the best journals here would unquestion- 
 ably do great good. As the gauntlet is down, let us 
 go on." 
 
 Forster's judgment did agree with Dickens, and he 
 procured the joint letter which Dickens desired addressed 
 to him personally, and also a second, with the same 
 signatures, addressed "To the American People." 
 
 The principal agitation against the Copyright Law 
 came from the publishers who had been reprinting 
 Dickens's works, and on April 26 a convention was 
 held in Boston for the purpose of taking action on a 
 memorial to Congress asking that a duty be placed on 
 foreign books, and also protesting against the passage 
 of an International Copyright Law. The following 
 extract from the Boston Mercantile Journal gives briefly 
 an account of the action taken at this meeting, and a ' 
 synopsis of the memorial — 
 
 "Convention of the Book Trade. — The Convention of 
 persons engaged in the manufacture of books was held, 
 last evening, at the hall beneath the Boston Museum. 
 There were printers, publishers, type-founders, paper- 
 makers, book-binders, engravers, etc., present. The 
 meeting was called to order by Charles A. Wells, and 
 was subsequently organized by the choice of Samuel G. 
 Goodrich, President, John Prentiss of Keene (N. H.), 
 and Harrison Gray of Boston, Vice-Presidents, and 
 Samuel D. Warren, Secretary. 
 
 "Mr. Goodrich, on taking the chair, said that the 
 committee had taken pains to collect facts and obtain 
 specific information on the subject referred to them, 
 which they had incorporated in a general form into the 
 Memorial, which he then accordingly read. 
 
 "The Memorial sets forth that in fixing duties on 
 foreign books, regard should be had, firstly, to the 
 revenue ; secondly, to the various arts and trades depen- 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 247 
 
 dent on their production; thirdly, the effort which may 
 follow, considering books as instruments for the diffusion 
 of knowledge. 
 
 "The Memorial then takes up the subject of our Inter- 
 national Copyright Law — and undertakes to show by 
 various arguments and reasons that the enactment of 
 such a law would be impolitic, would be injurious to the 
 interests of the country, is not required by justice, and 
 ought not at this time to be carried into effect. Some 
 interesting statistics are embodied in the Memorial, from 
 which it appears that the number of persons employed 
 in the various arts connected with printing and publish- 
 ing is not less than 41,000 — and those who are depen- 
 dent upon them for their support amount to four times 
 that number. The capital invested is almost $15,000,000, 
 and the total productions not short of $27,000,000. 
 
 "After the Memorial was read, Mr. Bowen of Cam- 
 bridge rose and objected to the Memorial as embracing 
 two subjects not necessarily connected with each other, 
 viz. Protection to American Industry and International 
 Copyright. He believed that many persons who would 
 cheerfuTly agree to the sentiments expressed in the first 
 part of the Memorial would disapprove of the views con- 
 tained in the latter part — and he therefore would move 
 that the document be recommitted, with instructions to 
 report one Memorial relating exclusively to the subject 
 of the protection of books, printing materials, etc., and 
 another, if it should be thought necessary, relating to an 
 International Copyright. 
 
 "On this question a protracted debate ensued, in which 
 several gentlemen took part — among them were Mr. 
 Brown, Mr. Goodrich, Harrison Gray, Colonel Parker, 
 J. H. Jenks and G. W. F. Mellen. The motion was 
 rejected. A motion was then made by another gentleman 
 to strike out that part of the Memorial relating to the 
 International Copyright Law. This was also rejected by 
 an overwhelming vote. The Memorial was finally 
 adopted with only a trifling modification." 
 
 Dickens, on February 24, wrote Forster a letter in 
 which he said regarding the proposed law : "Washing* 
 
248 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 ton Irving, Prescott, Hoffman, Bryant, Halleck, Dana, 
 Washington Allison, every man who writes in this 
 country, is devoted to the question, yet not one of them 
 dares to raise his voice and complain of the law." 
 
 Dickens's agitation of the subject, however, must have 
 given these authors courage and overcome their timidity, 
 for later they all signed a memorial to Congress in favour 
 of the proposed law, and Dickens himself carried this 
 memorial to Washington to Henry Clay, who was to 
 present it to the Senate. Dickens wrote Forster regarding 
 this memorial, that he was going to assist Mr. Kennedy, 
 the Chairman of the Committee of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, in writing the report favouring its passage. 
 
 On April 29 Dickens wrote from Niagara Falls to his 
 Boston friend, Mr. C. C. Felton, a letter enclosing four 
 copies of some document relating to International Copy- 
 right, in which he said : " My first idea was, publicity 
 being the object, to send one to you for a Boston news- 
 paper, another to Bryant for his paper, a third to the 
 New York Herald (because of its larger circulation), and 
 a fourth to a highly respectable journal at Washington 
 (the property of a gentleman and a fine fellow named 
 Seaton, whom I know there), which I think is called the 
 Intelligencer. . . . 
 
 "Whether to limit its publication to one journal, or 
 to extend it to several, is a question so very difficult of 
 decision to a stranger that I have finally resolved to 
 send these papers to you and ask you (mindful of the 
 conversation we had on this head one day in that 
 renowned oyster cellar) to resolve the point for me. . . . 
 If you see Sommer, take him into our council. The 
 only two things to be borne in mind are, first, that if 
 they are to be published in several quarters, they must 
 be published in all simultaneously ; secondly, that I hold 
 them in trust, to put them before the people." 
 
 Dickens also wrote the next day (April 30) to the "fine 
 fellow" at Washington, who was Mr. W. W. Seaton, 
 the editor of the National Intelligencer of that city, 
 advising him of the important documents, of which the 
 following is an extract— 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 249 
 
 "I have received some documents from the greatest 
 writers of England, relative to the International Copy- 
 right, which they call upon me to make public imme- 
 diately. They have taken fire at my being misrepresented 
 in such a matter, and have acted as such men should. 
 
 "They consist of two letters, and a memorial to the 
 American people signed by Bulwer, Rogers, Hallam, 
 Talfourd, Sydney Smith, and so forth. Not very well 
 knowing, as a stranger, whether it would be best to 
 publish them in newspapers or in a literary journal, I 
 have sent them to some gentlemen in Boston and have 
 begged them to decide. In the event of their recommend- 
 ing the first-mentioned course, I have begged them to 
 send a manuscript copy to you immediately." 
 
 It will be noticed that Dickens did not tell either Mr. 
 Felton or Mr. Seaton that he himself had, through his 
 friend Forster, procured the writing of these letters and 
 memorials. The manner in which Dickens obtained 
 these manuscripts, and procured their publication in the 
 newspapers, shows that he was equally as adept in the 
 means by which public sentiment is created through 
 the public press as any press agent or "publicity man " 
 of the great corporations of the present day. 
 
 Felton and Seaton evidently decided to publish the 
 documents in the newspapers, as they appeared in 
 Bryant's paper, the New York Evening Post on May 9, 
 1842, and probably in the other papers which Dickens 
 mentioned, and they are here reprinted as they appeared 
 in the Evening Post. 
 
 "Niagara Falls, April 30, 1842. 
 " To the Editor of The Evening Post. 
 
 "Sir — I found awaiting me in the post office in 
 Buffalo certain letters from England, of which the 
 following are copies. I ask the favour of you that you 
 will publish them in your columns; and I do so in 
 order that the people of America will understand that 
 the sentiments that I have expressed on all public occa- 
 
250 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 sions since I have been in these United States, in refer- 
 ence to a law of International Copyright, are not merely 
 my individual sentiments, but are, without any qualifica- 
 tion, statement or reserve, the opinions of the great body 
 of British authors represented by the distinguished men 
 whose signatures are attached to these documents. 
 
 "That they are also the opinions of the native writers 
 of America they have sufficiently shown in their earnest 
 petitions in the legislatures upon this subject. 
 
 "I would beg to lay particular stress upon the letter 
 from Mr. Carlyle ; not only because the plain and manly 
 truth it speaks is calculated, I should conceive, to arrest 
 attention and respect in my country, and most of all in 
 this, but because his creed in this respect is, without the 
 abatement of one jot or atom, mine. And because I have 
 never considered, and never will consider, this question 
 in any other light than as plain right or wrong — justice 
 or injustice. 
 
 " I am, sir, your faithful servant, 
 
 "Charles Dickens." 
 
 "London, March 28, 1842. 
 
 "Dear Dickens, 
 
 "The deep interest we take in the efforts you have 
 been making for the cause of International Copyright 
 impels us to express to you our earnest sympathies with 
 your cause and cordial wishes for its success. Our 
 feeling, like your own, is not prompted by a desire that 
 authors on this side of the Atlantic should obtain some 
 palpable reward of their industry from the mighty public 
 who enjoy its fruits — but is established by the conviction 
 that on the issue depends the question whether the intel- 
 lect of America shall speedily be embodied in a literature 
 worthy of its new-born powers — or shall be permitted 
 to languish under disadvantages which may long deprive 
 the world of the full development of its greatness. 
 Assured that in promoting this object you will make 
 the best return for that generous appreciation which 
 your genius has received from our Transatlantic 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 251 
 
 brethren, and which we have learned with grateful and 
 unmingled delight, 
 
 " We are your obliged and grateful servants — 
 " Edward Lytton Bulwer. Henry Hallam. 
 Thomas Campbell. Sydney Smith. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. H. H. Milman. 
 
 T. N. Talfourd. Samuel Rogers. 
 
 Thomas Hood. John Forster. 
 
 Leigh Hunt. Barry Cornwall. 
 
 "To Charles Dickens, Esquire, 
 " United States." 
 
 "To the American People. 
 
 "We, the undersigned, in transmitting to one of 
 our most eminent English authors the following 
 memorial for an International Copyright between the 
 United States and Great Britain, are willing that our 
 claims should be considered part of our interests in 
 urging them. 
 
 "Addressing a great nation — chiefly united to us by 
 a common ancestry; speaking the same language and 
 indebted to the same hereditary sources for models in 
 literature and authorities in science, we venture to hope 
 that a prayer which asks for labours not less useful to 
 America than Great Britain, those rewards which can 
 only be proportionate to the estimation in which, by 
 Americans, the labours may be held, will need little 
 argument to advance it with the legislature and people 
 of the United States, provided that no counterbalancing 
 disadvantage can be proved to arise from its concession. 
 
 " Independently of grace or generosity to ourselves, we 
 conclude that the question of International Copyright 
 can only be viewed by enlightened Americans — first, 
 as affecting the interests of American authors ; secondly, 
 as influencing those of the American reading public. 
 
 "With regard to the first, we respectfully submit 
 that a greater curse cannot be inflicted on American 
 authors nor a more serious injury on American litera- 
 ture than a state of law which admits gratuitously the 
 works of foreign authors in the same language. It is 
 
252 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 impossible that an American writer can hope for 
 adequate remuneration in any branch of literature so 
 long as he can be met by the publishers with a declara- 
 tion that they can publish the best English works with- 
 out paying a farthing for the copyrights. The necessary 
 consequence must be that the energy of American 
 industry and genius, so remarkable in every other 
 department of human intellect, will be greatly chilled 
 and oppressed in the general departments of literature. 
 Against all possible exertion of native authors is arrayed 
 a wholesale system of competition existing only by 
 means of piracy and smuggling. And we are con- 
 vinced that the ultimate consequences of inundating the 
 American market with English works, for which no 
 remuneration is paid to the author, must be the 
 extinction of American literature as an adequate, 
 honourable and independent profession. 
 
 "With regard to the second — the only interest the 
 American public have is in the supply of English works 
 in as cheap a form as at present, and there can be no 
 doubt that this would continue to be the case were a 
 copyright established. Works are sold at a low or high 
 price, not in proportion as there is a copyright or not, 
 but in proportion as they can obtain a larger or smaller 
 community of readers. The noble cultivation of the 
 American people, which forms a reading public almost 
 commensurate with the entire population, renders it 
 the obvious interest of every author (and every pub- 
 lisher), to adapt his price to the means of all his readers, 
 and we venture to predict that were an International 
 Copyright vestablished not one popular English work 
 would be sold in the United States at a higher price 
 than at present. So far, if this be true, the American 
 public will be no losers. But will they be no gainers 
 if they have removed from their own writers and men 
 of genius the great impediment to a purely national 
 literature ? 
 
 "We do not pause to inquire if there be any separate 
 or oligarchical interests against us in this great ques- 
 tion ; because we venture to trust that in a country, the 
 institutions of which are based on foundations so broad, 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 258 
 
 the minor and selfish interests which cannot be sup- 
 ported by simple justice are not suffered to prevail. 
 And also, because we cannot conceive that concession 
 to our prayer would disturb or invade one solitary 
 vested right. 
 
 "On the other hand, in our sanguine anticipations 
 from a legislature willing to be just to others, and 
 honourably jealous of the fame of the people it repre- 
 sents — in arts and letters, no less than in arms and 
 commerce — we look forward with pleasure to the new 
 and firm bond that the law we pray for must establish 
 between our American brotherhood and ourselves. Such 
 a law must naturally and obviously bind the large body 
 of our writers to peace and amity with the public they 
 may then justly consider as their own, and whatever 
 tends to connect the intelligence of one country with 
 that of another must exert a deeper and more permanent 
 influence than they who superficially regard this ques- 
 tion as one of mere pecuniary profit to English authors 
 can foresee upon the tranquillity and civilization of the 
 world. 
 
 "Edward Lytton Bulwer. Henry Hallam. 
 
 Thomas Campbell. Sydney Smith. 
 
 Alfred Tennyson. H. H. Milman. 
 
 T. N. Talfourd. Samuel Rogers. 
 
 Thomas Hood. John Forster. 
 
 Leigh Hunt. Barry Cornwall." 
 
 " Templeland {for Lonaon), 
 " March 26, 1842. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 "We learn by the newspapers that you every- 
 where, in America, stir up the question of International 
 Copyright, and thereby awaken huge dissonance where 
 all else were triumphant unison for you. I am asked 
 my opinion of the matter — and requested to write it 
 down in words. 
 
 "Several years ago, if memory err not, I was one 
 of the many English writers who, under the auspices 
 of Miss Martineau, did sign a petition to Congress 
 
254 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 praying for an International Copyright between the 
 two nations, which properly are not two nations — but 
 one — indivisible by Parliament, Congress or any kind 
 of human law or diplomacy, being already united by 
 Heaven's act of Parliament and the everlasting law of 
 Nature and fact. To that opinion I still adhere and 
 am like to continue it. 
 
 "In discussion of the matter before any Congress or 
 Parliament, manifold considerations and argumenta- 
 tions will arise which are to me not interesting nor 
 essential for helping me to a decision. They respect 
 the time and manner in which the thing should be, not 
 at all whether the thing should be or not. In an ancient 
 Book, reverenced, I should hope, on both sides of the 
 ocean, it was thousands of years ago written down in 
 the most decided and explicit manner, ' Thou shalt not 
 steal.' That thou belongest to a different ' nation ' and 
 can steal without being certainly hanged for it gives 
 thee no permission to steal. Thou shalt not in any 
 wise steal at all ! So it is written down for Nations and 
 for Men in the Law Book of the Maker of this universe. 
 Nay, poor Jeremy Bentham and others step in here and 
 would demonstrate that it is actually our true con- 
 venience and expediency not to steal. Which I, for my 
 share on the great scale, and on the small, and in all 
 conceivable scales and shapes, do also firmly believe it 
 to be. For example, if nations abstained from stealing, 
 what need were there of fighting — with its butcherings 
 and burnings, decidedly the most expensive thing in 
 this world? How much more two nations which, as I 
 said, are but one nation, knit in a thousand ways by 
 Nature and Practical Intercourse, individual brother 
 elements of the same great Saxondom to which in all 
 honourable ways be long life ! 
 
 "When Mr. Robert Roy Macgregor lived in the 
 district of Menteith on a Highland border two centuries 
 ago, he, for his part, found it more convenient to supply 
 himself with beef by stealing it alive from the adjacent 
 glens than by buying it killed in the Stirling Butcher's 
 Market. It was Mr. Roy's plan of supplying himself 
 with beef in those days, this of stealing it. In many a 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 255 
 
 little ' Congress ' in the district of Menteith there was 
 debating, doubt it not, and much specious argumenta- 
 tion this way and that before they could ascertain that, 
 really and truly, buying was the best way to get your 
 beef, which, however, in the long run, they did with 
 one assent find it indisputably to be, and accordingly 
 they hold by it to this day. 
 
 "Wishing you a pleasant voyage and a swift and 
 safe return, I remain always, 
 "My dear Sir, 
 
 "Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "Thomas Carlyle. 
 "To Charles Dickens, Esquire, 
 "In the United States." 
 
 The same issue of the Evening Post also contained 
 the following editorial, which is a plea not only for 
 justice to English authors and publishers, but also for 
 the authors and publishers of the United States — 
 
 " We publish in this sheet several papers received this 
 morning from Mr. Dickens relating to the subject of an 
 International Copyright. The ' Address to the American 
 People,' with so many illustrious names among its 
 signatures — Campbell and Hallam and Rogers, Bulwer 
 and others worthy to be placed by their side — will be 
 read with a strong and respectful interest. The letter 
 of Mr. Carlyle to Mr. Dickens is highly characteristic 
 of the writer. 
 
 "It is a mistake to suppose that if we refuse to make 
 an arrangement for securing to the authors of America 
 and Britain a copyright in both countries, the advantage 
 of the injustice would be on our side ; that if wrong be 
 committed for want of such an arrangement, the profits 
 of the wrong will go into the pockets of American 
 publishers. American authors are every year producing 
 more and more works for the republication of which 
 there is a demand in England. Within the last year 
 the number of books written by American authors which 
 have been successful in Britain is greater than that of 
 foreign works which have been successful in this 
 
256 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 country. Robertson's work on Palestine, Stephens' 
 Travels in Central America, Caltin's book on the North 
 American History, Cooper's Deerslayer, the last volume 
 of Bancroft's American History, several works prepared 
 by Anthon for the schools — here is a list of American 
 works republished in England within the year which 
 we might easily enlarge, and for which we should be 
 puzzled to find an equivalent in works written in Eng- 
 land within the same time and republished here. Our 
 eminent authors are still engaged in their literary 
 labours. 
 
 "Cooper, within a fortnight past, has published a 
 work stamped with all the vigour of his faculties, 
 Prescott is occupied in writing the History of Peru, 
 Bancroft is engaged in continuing the annals of his 
 native country, Sparks is still employed in his valuable 
 historical labours, and Stephens is pushing his 
 researches in Central America with a view of giving 
 their results to the world. We were told the other 
 day of a work prepared for the press by Washington 
 Irving, which would have appeared ere this but for 
 the difficulties in the way of securing a copyright for 
 it in England as well as here. He has done this, how- 
 ever, we presume, on his way to Spain. 
 
 "The success of so many of our authors will have 
 the effect of raising up a host of literary adventurers 
 among us. In no part of the world are hope and emula- 
 tion so easily awakened as here. There is no part of 
 the world where a few brilliant examples have so power- 
 ful an influence in calling up rivals and competitors in 
 the same path to fortune or to fame as in this republic. 
 We shall have men preparing themselves by intense 
 study, and exercising their faculties to the utmost to 
 reach the same eminence which has been attained by 
 other authors, their countrymen, and, if possible, to go 
 beyond it. In a conversation which we had the other 
 day with an eminent American author, now abroad, he 
 remarked that if American literature continued to make 
 the same progress as it had done for twenty years past, 
 the day was not very far distant when the greater 
 
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT 257 
 
 number of books designed for readers of the English 
 language would be produced in America. 
 
 "If we look back to the year 1820 and compare the 
 state of authorship in our country at that time to what 
 it is now; if we consider how barren our literature was 
 then and how prolific it has now become; if we look at 
 the quality of the works produced at the two different 
 periods, and the reward received by their authors, we 
 shall find ourselves obliged to admit that the prediction 
 is a very probable one. 
 
 "The plea against an international copyright, that it 
 gives our publishers an advantage over those of Great 
 Britain, is not true, or if true, is true for the present 
 moment only. If our publishers enrich themselves at 
 the expense of British authors, British publishers enrich 
 themselves at the expense of ours, and will continue to 
 do so from year to year until the advantage will be 
 shifted from our side to theirs. The policy of our 
 country is to secure for its authors the benefit of an 
 International Copyright before that time arrives." 
 
 Notwithstanding all this agitation for the copyright 
 law by both English and American authors in 1842, 
 it was not till 1891, nearly fifty years later, that an 
 International Copyright between Great Britain and 
 America was put into effect. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 
 
 [The account which follows is copied from the New York Tribune, 
 Monday, April 20, 1868.] 
 
 Over two hundred members of the Press of the 
 United States, on Saturday evening at Delmonico's, 
 united in a testimonial dinner to Mr. Dickens, previous 
 to his departure for England. The following is the 
 preliminary correspondence on the subject — 
 
 New York, Jan. 22, 1868. 
 
 Mr. Charles Dickens — Dear Sir : On behalf of the 
 members of the Press of New York, we beg to solicit the 
 pleasure of your company to dinner at such time as may 
 suit your convenience, upon your return to this city in 
 the coming spring. Inasmuch as Saturday evening is 
 the one of all the week that the largest number of our 
 busy journalists are free from business, we venture to 
 suggest the appointment of that evening for the proposed 
 meeting, but trust that you will not allow this suggestion 
 to prevent you from designating another. 
 
 We beg to add that it has been a rule of our meetings 
 thus far that no mention be made of them in the public 
 prints ; but remembering that previous to your departure 
 from England to the United States you accepted an 
 invitation to a dinner of which the London Press made 
 notice, we shall be happy to waive our rule in case you 
 should so desire, since our sole wish is to arrange the 
 entertainment as may best accord with your convenience 
 and preference. 
 
 Permit us to ask the favour of an early reply to this 
 note, and at the same time to tender you the sincerely 
 
 258 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 259 
 
 good wishes of those in behalf of whom we write, and of 
 ourselves individually. 
 
 Believe us, dear sir, very cordially your friends, 
 
 David G. Croly and others, Committee. 
 
 The reply of Mr. Dickens was as follows — 
 
 Philadelphia, February I, 1868. 
 
 Dear Sirs — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter of the 22nd of last month, and to explain 
 to you that I should have done this sooner but that I 
 could not until now be sure of my engagements. 
 
 It will give me very great pleasure to accept your 
 invitation, provided that Saturday, the 18th of April 
 (the only day at my disposal before my departure), 
 should suit your convenience. 
 
 In reference to your kind suggestion of your readi- 
 ness to depart from your usual rule of privacy, if I 
 should desire it, I assure you that I have no such wish, 
 and that I leave the matter wholly in your hands. 
 
 Very cordially reciprocating your good wishes, I am 
 always, dear sirs, faithfully your friend, 
 
 Charles Dickens. 
 
 The hour appointed was 5 o'clock p.m., at which 
 time the company assembled in the parlours adjoining 
 the large dining-room, appropriated to the event. At 
 6 o'clock Mr. Dickens appeared, though suffering 
 from a temporary illness; and, escorted by the Hon. 
 Horace Greeley, who had been selected to preside, 
 proceeded to the dining-hall. This room was decorated 
 with the arms and flags of England and the United 
 States. The guest of the evening sat at the right hand 
 of the president at a table which was placed on an 
 elevated dais at one side of the room; while several 
 other tables were stationed at right angles with this. 
 A fine band of music was in attendance in an adjoining 
 room, and favoured the company with choice selections, 
 and the national airs of the two countries represented by 
 the distinguished guest and his entertainers. The deco- 
 ration of the tables and the room was in exceedingly 
 
 5 2 
 
260 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 good taste, and the rare flowers that graced the board 
 filled the room with the genial breath of spring. The 
 bill of fare was excellent, and by an ingenious nomen- 
 clature the different dishes were made to compliment 
 some well-known personages in the walks of literature. 
 Among the names of gentlemen present were the 
 following : Horace Greeley, Henry J . Raymond, Samuel 
 Bowles of the Springfield Republican ; W. H. Hurlbut, 
 George William Curtis, James Parton, M. Hal- 
 stead of Cincinnati, Charles Eliot Norton, George H. 
 Boker, J. T. Fields, Charles F. Briggs, Putnam's 
 Magazine; D. G. Croly, New York World; Richard 
 D. Kimball, Oliver Johnson, The Independent ; Charles 
 Nordhoff, The Evening Post; John Russell Young, 
 New York Tribune; John R. G. Hassard, New York 
 Tribune; Professor E. L. Youmans, C. P. Dewey, 
 Commercial Advertiser ; General Joseph R. Hawley, 
 Hartford Courant; G. W. Demars, Albany Evening 
 Journal; the Reverend H. N. Fields, E. C. Stedman, 
 Samuel Sinclair, New York Tribune; A. J. Schen, 
 New York Tribune; F. J. Ottarson, New York Tribune; 
 Colonel T. B. Thorpe, D. W. Judd, Commercial Adver- 
 tiser; Dr. William A. Hammond, J. W. Simonson, 
 Augustus Maverick, Evening Post; S. S. Conant, 
 New York Times; George Sheppard, New York Times; 
 W. W. Hardy, Philadelphia Inquirer; A. D. Richard- 
 son, R. S. Chilton, C. B. Seymour, New York Times; 
 F. E. Carpenter, Henry E. Sweetser, New York World; 
 Charles H. Sweetser, Evening Mail; Thomas Mac- 
 Elrath, J. F. Cleveland, the Hon. William Orton, 
 % Thomas Nast, Harper's Weekly; E. H. Clement, New 
 York Tribune; Edwin De Leon, New York Citizen; 
 J. Smith Homans, Banker's Magazine; Whitelaw Reid, 
 Cincinnati Gazette; B. C. Howard, Evening Mail; 
 W. W. Warden, Philadelphia Inquirer; William 
 Stuart, Lester Wallack, J. H. Hackett, Leonard W. 
 Jerome, John Bonner, J. H. Osgood, John R. Thomp- 
 son, William Young, Howard M. Ticknor, J. D. 
 Lippincott, Philadelphia; and S. S. McClure. 
 
 At about 9 o'clock the president arose amid loud 
 applause, and upon the restoration of silence, said — 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 261 
 
 Speech of Mr. Greelev 
 
 Gentlemen of the American Press : — It is now a little 
 more than twenty-four years since I, a young printer, 
 recently located in the City of New York, had the 
 audacity to undertake the editing and publishing a 
 weekly newspaper for the first time. Looking around 
 at that day for materials with which to make an en- 
 gaging appearance before the public, among the London 
 magazines which I purchased for the occasion was The 
 Old Monthly, containing a story by a then unknown 
 writer — known to us only by the quaint designation of 
 "Boz." (Great applause.) That story, entitled, I think, 
 at that time "Delicate Attentions," but in its present 
 form entitled ."Mr. Watkins Tottle," I selected and 
 published in the, first number of the first journal with 
 which my name was connected. (Applause.) Pickwick 
 was then an uncomical, if not uncreated character. 
 (Laughter.) Sam Weller had not yet arisen to increase 
 the mirth of the Anglo-Saxon race. (Cheers.) We had 
 not heard as we have since heard of the writer of those 
 sketches, whose career then I may claim to have in 
 some sort commenced with my own — (great laughter) ; 
 and the relation of admirer and admired has continued 
 from that day to the present. (Applause.) I am one 
 of not more than twenty of the present company who 
 welcomed him in this country on an occasion like this 
 a quarter of a century ago. When I came to visit 
 Europe, now seventeen years ago, one of my most 
 pleasant experiences there, and one of my pleasantest 
 recollections of Europe, is that of buying in one of the 
 furthest cities I visited — the city of Venice on the 
 Adriatic — an Italian newspaper, and amusing myself 
 with what I could not read — (laughter) — a translation of 
 David Copperfield, wherein the dialogue between Ham 
 and Peggotty, with which I was familiar in English, 
 was rendered into very amusing Italian. (Laughter and 
 applause.) And so, friends, I claim a sort of humble 
 connection with the prophet and priest of humanity 
 
262 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 who is our guest this evening — (applause) — the man 
 who, best in this generation when many have worthily 
 attempted to preach from that magnificent text of the 
 ploughman-poet of the world, "A man's a man for a' 
 that," has preached the best sermon from that text, and 
 perhaps, I may say the most also — whose works from 
 first to last have been instinct with not only the still, 
 sad music of humanity such as one — only one strain of 
 the great epoch of the time; but with the cheering, 
 hopeful, triumphant music of humanity also; the 
 humanity of the future, the elevated, enlightened and 
 glorified humanity which must and shall yet be. 
 (Applause.) Friends and fellow-labourers, we honour 
 ourselves to-night in honouring the most successful, 
 the most thoroughly successful, literary man of, our 
 time. (Applause.) A man who, we may say, is not 
 ashamed of having come up, as most of us have come 
 up, from the lower rounds of the ladder of the Press, 
 and though none of us have reached such a height as 
 he has, still, I say his success is a sign of hope and 
 encouragement to every one of us. We are successful 
 in his triumph. We have each in seeing what he has 
 done, how nobly, how worthily he has done it, with 
 what thorough success he has preached the gospel of 
 humanity, until even nobles and kings have listened in 
 admiration — I say we have in this success of his an 
 encouragement to every one of us, saying, "Go up 
 higher " ; do not fear to say your best, for there has 
 been created a public (if there was not a public thirty 
 years ago) ready and eager to listen to the noblest and 
 most humanizing thoughts which the best of us is now 
 prepared to put before the public. Friends and fellow- 
 labourers, as I am to set you an example to-night of a 
 short speech^ I will, without further prelude, ask you 
 to join me in this sentiment : " Health and happiness, 
 honour and generous, because just, recompense to our 
 friend and guest, Charles Dickens." (Tremendous 
 applause and three hearty cheers for Charles Dickens.) 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 263 
 
 Response of Mr. Dickens 
 
 Gentlemen, I cannot do better than take my cue 
 from your distinguished president, and refer in my first 
 remarks to his remarks in connection with the old 
 natural association between you and me. When I 
 received an invitation from a private association of 
 working members of the Press of New York to dine 
 with them to-day, I accepted that compliment in grate- 
 ful remembrance of a calling that was once my own, 
 and in loyal sympathy for the brotherhood which, in 
 the spirit, I have never quitted. (" Good, good ! " and 
 applause.) To the wholesome training of severe news- 
 paper work when I was a very young man I constantly 
 refer my first successes; and my sons will hereafter 
 testify of their father that he was always steadily proud 
 of that ladder by which he rose. (Great applause.) If 
 it were otherwise, I should have but a very poor opinion 
 of their father, which, perhaps, upon the whole, I have 
 not. (Laughter and cheers.) Hence, gentlemen, under 
 any circumstances, this company would have been 
 exceptionally interesting and gratifying to me. But, 
 whereas I supposed that, like the fairies' pavilion in 
 the Arabian Nights, it would be but a mere handful, 
 and I find it turns out, like the same elastic pavilion, 
 capable of comprehending a multitude, so much the 
 more proud am I of the honour of being your guest; 
 for you will readily believe that the more widely repre- 
 sentative of the Press in America my entertainers are, 
 the more I must feel the goodwill and the kindly 
 sentiments toward me of that vast institution. 
 (Applause.) Gentlemen, so much of my voice has 
 lately been heard in the land, and I have, for upwards 
 of four hard winter months, so contended against what 
 I have been sometimes quite admiringly assured was 
 a " true American catarrh " — (laughter) — a possession 
 which I have throughout highly appreciated — (renewed 
 laughter) — though I might have preferred to be natural- 
 ized by any other outward and visible signs — (shouts 
 
264 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 of laughter) — I say, gentlemen, so much of my voice 
 has lately been heard that I might have been contented 
 with troubling you no further from my present standing- 
 point, were it not a duty with which I henceforth charge 
 myself, not only here, but on every suitable occasion, 
 whatsoever and wheresoever, to express my high and 
 grateful sense of my second reception in America, and 
 to bear my honest testimony to the national generosity 
 and magnanimity. (Great applause.) Also, to declare 
 how astounded I have been by the amazing changes 
 that I have seen around me on every side, changes 
 moral, changes physical, changes in the amount of land 
 subdued and peopled, changes in the rise of vast new 
 cities, changes in" the growth of older cities, almost out 
 of recognition, changes in the graces and amenities of 
 life, changes in the Press, without whose advancement 
 no advancement can take place anywhere. (Applause.) 
 Nor am I, believe me, so arrogant as to suppose that 
 in the five-and-twenty years there have been no changes 
 in me, and that I have nothing to learn and no extreme 
 impressions to correct when I was here first. (A voice, 
 "Noble ! " and applause.) 
 
 And, gentlemen, this brings me to a point on which 
 I have, ever since I landed here last November, observed 
 a strict silence, though tempted sometimes to break it, 
 but in reference to which I will, with your good leave, 
 take you into my confidence now. (Laughter and 
 applause and cries of "Silence.") Even the Press, being 
 human — (laughter) — may be sometimes mistaken or mis- 
 informed, and I rather think that I have in one or two 
 rare instances known its information to be not perfectly 
 accurate with reference to myself. (Laughter and 
 applause.) Indeed, I have now and again been more 
 surprised by printed news that I have read of myself, 
 than by any printed news that I have ever read in my 
 present state of existence. (Laughter.) Thus, the 
 vigour and perseverance with which I have for some 
 months past been collecting materials for, and hammer- 
 ing away on a new book on America, has much 
 astounded me — (renewed laughter) — seeing that all that 
 time it has been perfectly well known to my publishers 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 265 
 
 on both sides of the Atlantic that I positively declared 
 that no consideration on earth should induce me to 
 write one. But what I have intended, what I have 
 resolved upon (and this is the confidence I seek to place 
 in you) is, on my return to England, in my own person, 
 to bear, for the behoof of my countrymen, such testi- 
 mony to the gigantic changes in this country as I have 
 hinted at to-night. (Immense applause.) Also, to 
 record that wherever I have been, in the smallest places 
 equally with the largest, I have been received with 
 unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet temper, hos- 
 pitality, consideration, and with unsurpassable respect 
 for the privacy daily enforced upon me by the nature 
 of my avocation here and the state of my health. 
 (Applause.) This testimony, so long as I live, and so 
 long as my descendants have any legal right in my 
 books, I shall cause to be republished as an appendix 
 to every copy of those two books of mine in which I 
 have referred to America. (Tremendous applause.) 
 And this I will do and cause to be done, not in mere 
 love and thankfulness, but because I regard it as an 
 act of plain justice and honour. (" Bravo ! " and cheers.) 
 Gentlemen, the transition from my own feelings 
 toward and interest in America to those of the mass 
 of my countrymen seems to be a natural one; but 
 whether or no I make it with an express object. I was 
 asked in this very city, about last Christmas-time, 
 whether an American was not at some disadvantage in 
 England as a foreigner. The notion of an American 
 being regarded in England as a foreigner at all, of his 
 ever being thought of or spoken of in that character, 
 was so uncommonly incongruous and absurd to me 
 that my gravity was, for the moment, quite over- 
 powered. (Laughter.) As soon as it was restored, I 
 said that for years and years past I hoped I had had 
 as many American friends, and had received as many 
 American visitors, as almost any Englishman living- 
 applause) — and that my unvarying experience, forti- 
 fied by theirs, was that it was enough in England to 
 be an American to be received with the readiest respect 
 and recognition anywhere. Hereupon, out of half-a- 
 
266 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 dozen people, suddenly spoke out two, one an American 
 gentleman with a cultivated taste for art who, finding 
 himself on a certain Sunday outside the walls of a 
 certain historical English castle famous for its pictures, 
 was refused admission there, according to the strict 
 rules of the establishment on that day; but who, on 
 merely representing that he was an American gentleman 
 on his travels, had not to say the picture gallery — but 
 the whole castle was placed at his immediate disposal. 
 (Laughter.) The other was a lady who, being in 
 London, and having a great desire to see the famous 
 Reading Room of the British Museum, was assured by 
 the English family with whom she stayed that it was 
 unfortunately impossible, because the place was closed 
 for a week and she had only three days there. Upon 
 that lady's going to the Museum, as she assured me, 
 alone to the gate, self-introduced as an American lady, 
 the gate flew open, as it were magically. (Laughter 
 and applause.) I am unwillingly bound to add that 
 she certainly was young and extremely pretty. Still, 
 the porter of that institution is of an obese habit — 
 (laughter) — and according to the best of my observation 
 of him not very impressible. (Great laughter and cheer- 
 ing.) Now, gentlemen, I refer to these trifles as a 
 collateral assurance to you that the Englishman who 
 shall humbly strive, as I hope to do, to be in England 
 as faithful to America as to England herself, has no 
 previous conception to contend against. ("Good, 
 good ! ") Points of difference there have been, points 
 of difference there are. Points of difference there 
 probably will be between the two great peoples. But 
 broadcast in England is sown the sentiment that these 
 two peoples are essentially one — (great applause) — and 
 that it rests with them jointly to uphold the great 
 Anglo-Saxon race, to which our president has referred, 
 and all its great achievements before the world. 
 ("Bravo ! " and applause.) If I know anything of my 
 countrymen — and they give me credit of knowing some- 
 thing — if I know anything of my countrymen, gentle- 
 men, the English heart is stirred by the fluttering of 
 those stars and stripes as it is stirred by no other flag 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 267 
 
 that flies except its own. (Tremendous applause and 
 three cheers.) 
 
 If I know my countrymen, in any and every relation 
 toward America, they begin, not as Sir Anthony Abso- 
 lute recommended that lovers should begin with a 
 little aversion, but with a great liking and a profound 
 respect — (great applause) ; and whatever little sensitive- 
 ness of the moment, or the little official passion, or the 
 little official policy now or then here or there may be, 
 take my word for it that the first enduring great popular 
 consideration in England is a generous construction of 
 justice. (" Bravo ! " and cheers.) Finally, gentlemen, and 
 I say this subject to your correction, I do believe from 
 the great majority of honest minds on both sides there 
 cannot be absent the conviction that it would be better 
 for this globe to be ridden by an earthquake, fired by 
 a comet, overrun by an iceberg, and abandoned to the 
 Arctic fox and bear, than that it should present the 
 spectacle of those two great nations, each of whom has, 
 in its own way and hour, striven so hard and success- 
 fully for freedom, ever again being arrayed the one 
 against the other. (Tumultuous applause, the company 
 rising to its feet and greeting the sentiment with en- 
 thusiasm.) Gentlemen, I cannot thank your president 
 -enough, or you enough, for your kind reception of my 
 health and of my poor remarks; but believe me, I do 
 thank you with the utmost fervour of which my soul 
 is capable. (Great applause.) 
 
 The band then played "God Save the Queen," the 
 company joining with enthusiastic voices. 
 
 The President then said : Gentlemen, our great New 
 York poet — whereby I do not designate Bryant nor 
 Halleck, they are Yankee poets — (laughter) ; I speak, of 
 course, of our New York poet, Walt Whitman — 
 (laughter) — commences his great epic with this striking 
 line — 
 
 [ "I celebrate myself" 
 
 (laughter) — in that spirit which I may designate the 
 spirit of the age (laughter). This being a dinner of 
 
268 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 the Press, I perceive that the Press proposes to celebrate 
 itself — (laughter); and first and foremost, as the New 
 York Press was the instigator of this dinner, and is 
 largely represented therein, the New York Press pro- 
 poses to speak for itself. (Applause.) I ask you then, 
 gentlemen, to join in the sentiment: "The New York 
 Press," and I ask the Hon. Henry J. Raymond to 
 respond to it. (Three cheers for Henry J. Raymond.). 
 
 Speech of Mr. Raymond 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, it seems to me, as 
 I have no doubt it seems to every one of you, that 
 the Press of America ought to respond, at this moment, 
 through some appropriate organ, to the noble and 
 generous sentiments expressed by our guest to-night. 
 I have no commission and claim no right to speak 
 for the Press of the United States. (A voice: "Yes, 
 you have.") I am here officially, and only officially, 
 to speak for a section, a segment of that great Press. 
 ("No, no.") But on behalf of that section, and I think 
 with the assdnt of the whole Press with which that 
 section is so closely, so constantly, so intimately, and 
 so proudly connected, I may say that we deem it an 
 honour to us, the Press of New York and the Press 
 of America, that we have had an opportunity to greet 
 on this occasion the guest who sits at my left hand. 
 (" Bravo, bravo ! ") The Press of New York, from its 
 geographical position, to say nothing else, maintains a 
 quasi prominence among the Press of the country. 
 That Press has maintained an independent existence, 
 not only in itself, but through its organization. For 
 many years (if I may say many in speaking of the few 
 years during which I have been connected with it) it 
 has had an organization in form as a " Press Club " ; 
 and it is among the most pleasant of my recollections 
 in connection with the Press of New York that in that 
 form of organization it has been our good fortune at 
 various times to greet as guests, and to entertain, with 
 whatever hospitality we were able to extend to them, 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 269 
 
 gentlemen of distinction and position who did us the 
 honour to visit us from the countries of Europe. I 
 remember almost the first of those occasions when that 
 truly great man, then recently expelled from the office 
 of Governor of Hungary, Kossuth, the exile — (applause) 
 — came to this country, and charmed so many of our 
 people by the seashore and in the depths of the densest 
 wilderness of the West, and in great cities, and every- 
 where he went, by the silver voice in which he uttered 
 such sweet words in behalf of liberty and freedom, and 
 by that sad, solemn eye with which, as our eloquent 
 orator Rufus Choate has said, "he seemed constantly 
 to be beholding the sad procession of unnamed demi- 
 gods who had died for their native land." He was one 
 of the most honoured guests of the New York Press. 
 Then came to us and honoured us by his presence, as 
 he had honoured England and the world by his services, 
 that great statesman whom your people serve [turning 
 to Mr. Dickens], now honour as they honour few among 
 their dead or their living, Richard Cobden. (Great 
 applause.) Then, too, came to us, and greeted us with 
 the right hand of brotherhood, your great brother in 
 literature, William M. Thackeray. (Renewed applause.) 
 And, I may say, of the many things that touched the 
 hearts of our people, none touched them more nearly, 
 or struck home more closely, than the feeling and 
 eloquent words 'of the heart in which he spoke to us 
 of his brother in letters, Charles Dickens. (Great cheer- 
 ing.) We did not need, sir, that he should tell us how 
 much that name was cherished by the lovers of humanity 
 all the world over, wherever the English tongue was 
 spoken or read ; but he never said one word in praise 
 of that name that did not meet with as hearty a response 
 here as human words ever brought from human hearts. 
 He told us then, what was true then, and what has 
 been growing more and more true ever since, that the 
 writings of that illustrious brother of his in the world 
 of letters had done more than any other event or occur- 
 rence — more than any other service, which he could call 
 to mind. — to make the men of the world feel that they 
 were brothers, that they had common interests, that 
 
270 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 they were all sons of one father, striving and mounting 
 toward one end, and that each deserved and ought to 
 have the love, the sympathy, the cordial good offices 
 and kindly feeling of every other. (Applause.) These, 
 sir, are among the felicities of the New York Press. 
 The Press of other parts of the country have enjoyed 
 them also to a greater or less extent, and I know they 
 have all sympathized with the feelings which pervaded 
 our hearts at our good fortune in meeting such men, 
 and hearing them speak such words of brotherly kind- 
 ness and love. The president, the honourable, the 
 distinguished and honoured president on this occasion 
 has spoken in words which I know came from his heart, 
 as they reached all our hearts, of the service rendered 
 the causes of humanity by our guest this evening. We 
 are all labouring in a common cause. I think it may 
 be truly said that the Press, the free Press, all over 
 the world, has but one common mission — to elevate 
 humanity. It takes the side of the humble, the lowly 
 and the poor — always of necessity, a necessity of its 
 own existence — as against those who from mere position 
 and power hold in their hands the destinies of the lowly 
 and the poor for whom the Press is instituted. We are 
 all of us more or less directly, more or less exclusively, 
 connected with the movements of governments — govern- 
 ments of various forms in different parts of the world, 
 and through different agencies and ways in that common 
 effort to elevate the great mass of our fellow-men, to 
 improve their material condition, and give them a higher 
 ground to stand upon and a stronger foot to go through 
 the weary task that all of us, in some degree, have to 
 undergo before we fulfil our pilgrimage here on earth. 
 But it often strikes me when I think of the labours of 
 governments and the labours of those who try to aid 
 governments, and when I contrast them with the fruits 
 of the efforts and the machinery through which literary 
 men labour for the same common end — it often strikes 
 me how coarse and crude and ineffective is the whole 
 machinery of government to accomplish the great end 
 of elevating humanity. It is not through machinery, 
 it is not through organizations, through forms, through 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 271 
 
 constraints, through laws, that we touch the real strings 
 of human action. (Applause.) It is not through those 
 agencies that we learn what it is that elevates humanity, 
 what it is that purifies it, what it is that brings all men 
 to think themselves brothers and act toward each other 
 as brothers. It is those who deal with the secret springs 
 of actions, who through the channels of fiction or of 
 congenial and sympathetic history touch the springs of 
 the human heart, and make us feel, as well as convince 
 our intellect; it is those who do most who carry the 
 world on to what we all believe to be its ultimate destina- 
 tion. (Applause.) And certainly in the Press, or out 
 of the Press, in government or out of government, 
 nowhere on the face of the earth, in any form or in 
 any shape, or through any agency, have there lived 
 many men — I might make it stronger if I did not 
 dislike to appear extravagant — have there lived many 
 men who have touched so nearly the secret springs of 
 action and of character of the human heart, and have 
 done so much in that way to bring about that unanimity 
 of human feeling, that cordiality of human brotherhood, 
 as the distinguished guest whom we have here to-night. 
 Everything that he has ever written — I say it without 
 the slightest exception of a single book, a single page, 
 or a single word that has ever proceeded from his pen — 
 has been calculated to infuse into every human heart 
 the feeling that every man was his brother and that 
 the highest duty he could do to the world, and the 
 highest pleasure he could confer upon himself, and the 
 greatest service he could render to humanity was to 
 bring that other heart, whether high or low, as close to 
 his own as possible. (Applause.) What he has accom- 
 plished in that way, how many human hearts he has 
 thus brought together, how much of kind feeling he has 
 infused throughout society, among all men, of all 
 classes, high and low, rich and poor, powerful and weak 
 — how much he has done to infuse into them all the 
 spirit of brotherhood, I know too well the poverty 
 of any language I could use to attempt to describe. 
 (Applause.) But I know there is not a man here, and 
 there is not a man who has known any man here, who 
 
272 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 knows anything of his writings, who has made himself 
 familiar with their spirit, or has yielded to their 
 influence, who has not been made thereby a better as 
 well as a wiser and prouder and kinder, nobler man. 
 (Loud cheering.) Excuse the prolixity into which I 
 seem to be running. I will not prolong my remarks. 
 I only desire to return thanks, on behalf of the New 
 York Press, for the compliment which has been paid 
 it by the assembled Press of the United States. ("Go, 
 go on.") I think I may fairly claim that the New 
 York Press— and I know no higher claim that I could 
 put in for it here to-night than this — that the New York 
 Press from the very beginning, from the time when 
 words first dropped from the pen of our illustrious 
 guest, the New York Press has appreciated them, and, 
 I may add, appropriated them — (laughter) ; and that the 
 fruits thereof are apparent in some of the changes, the 
 improvements, the advances which he has been good 
 enough to speak of here to-night. We all know his char- 
 acters. They seem like persons. We cherish them as 
 friends. I feel as well acquainted with some of them — 
 yes, a great deal better acquainted with some of them 
 --than I do with many of the men whom I meet here 
 on the streets every day of my life. I know I have 
 derived more good from some of them than from any, 
 or at least many, of the friends whom I meet every day. 
 They do everybody good, for they are always cheerful, 
 always hopeful, always earnest, always kind to every 
 one ; and, in spite of all we may claim for our republican 
 institutions and our equality of rights, humanity in this 
 country — I say it fearlessly — owes more of its sub- 
 stantial advances to the writings of Mr. Dickens than 
 even to the Press of New York. (Laughter and 
 applause.) His is a kind of public service, which is 
 done without consciousness and sometimes without 
 intent. Such a man writes what he knows of men, and 
 what he writes addresses itself to all men. It reaches 
 their hearts, and through their hearts governs their 
 conduct; and that is the only government of conduct 
 worth a straw anywhere. (Applause.) I think often 
 of these things in connection with the noble lines of 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 273 
 
 one of our own poets, speaking of the unconscious work 
 done by the great architect of Rome in the building of 
 St. Peter's; and if you will allow me to quote those 
 lines (and I am sure you will thank me for substituting 
 them for anything that I could say myself), I will close 
 therewith. I mean that beautiful passage in Emerson 
 where he says — 
 
 " The hand that rounded Peter's dome 
 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome, 
 Wrought with a sad sincerity. 
 Himself from God he could not free, 
 He builded better than he knew ; 
 The conscious stone to beauty grew.'' 
 
 The band here gave the "Star-spangled Banner," and 
 the audience joined in the chorus. 
 
 The President then said : Gentlemen, when we speak 
 of the Press of New York we are too apt — we gentlemen 
 of the daily journals are too apt — to monopolize the 
 phrase as peculiarly, if not exclusively, our own. The 
 Daily Press has a certain conspicuous position in the 
 public eye. By means of the telegraph and its con- 
 nections it seems more directly related to the leading 
 minds of the country than any other portion of the 
 Press; but we must remember that where one man 
 reads a daily journal there are several who read a weekly 
 journal — {laughter) — and that the position of the Daily 
 Press, though important, is certainly not solitary. I 
 propose the "Weekly Press," and I call upon George 
 William Curtis to respond. (Great applause.) 
 
 Speech of Mr. George William Curtis 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, as I now look around 
 upon this cheerful company, I like to think that this 
 pleasant feast is not merely a tribute to an author whose 
 books have made all his readers his friends, but is a 
 fraternal greeting of welcome and farewell from us who 
 are all, in various ways, reporters, to our comrade, a 
 late reporter of the London Morning Chronicle, who 
 
274 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 shall here and now, and at no other time, and nowhere 
 else in the world, be nameless. He has ceased, indeed, 
 to write for the Morning Chronicle, but he has not 
 ceased to be a reporter. He is a famous story-teller, 
 but I ask this table of experts whether that shows him 
 to be no longer a reporter ? (Laughter.) He is a great 
 novelist, but what are novelists? They are men com- 
 missioned by Nature to see human life and the. infinite 
 play of human character and write reports upon them. 
 So a certain Spaniard inspected the grotesque aspect 
 of decaying chivalry and wrote his famous report Don 
 Quixote. (Applause.) So a certain Scotchman beheld 
 the romantic splendour of the Crusader and called his 
 report Ivanhoe. So a sad-eyed countryman of ours saw 
 a tragic aspect in early New England life and called 
 his marvellous report The Scarlet Letter. And so our 
 nameless friend of the Morning Chronicle, with the 
 same commission as that of Cervantes, of Scott, of 
 Hawthorne, observing the various aspects of life in his 
 own time, has written his prodigious series of reports, 
 which have become "household words" "all the year 
 round." (Loud cheering.) They have not only revealed 
 wrongs, but have greatly helped to right them. One he 
 called, for instance, Nicholas Nickleby, and with 
 hilarious indignation Dotheboys Hall was laughed and 
 cried away. Perhaps he called another Oliver Twist, 
 and the cold poor house was turned inside out and 
 warmed with the sun of human charity. Upon another 
 I read Bleak House; and as I turn the pages, the 
 long, bitter winter of the law's delay lies exposed. He 
 turns his eye backward, and it seems to me nobody 
 truly understands the terrible form and spirit of the 
 French Revolution, although you may have read all 
 the historians, if he has not read that wonderful report, 
 The Tale of Two Cities. (Applause.) And, thank 
 Heaven, the good work still goes on. (Renewed 
 applause.) The eye and the heart and the hands are 
 untiring. The eager world reads and reads and reads; 
 and the reporter's genial magic makes it a great good- 
 natured Oliver asking for more. (Cheers.) If in the 
 pursuit of his calling he came to us who loved and 
 
PRESS DINNERS AT DELMONICO'S 275 
 
 honoured him, he still faithfully and frankly reported 
 his observations. The old proverb says nobility 
 obliges. But genius obliges still more. (Applause.) 
 Fidelity through his own observations is all we can 
 ask of any reporter. However grateful he may be for 
 our hospitality, we cannot insist that he shall pour our 
 champagne into his eyes so that he cannot see — (great 
 laughter) — nor stuff our pudding into his ears so that 
 he cannot hear. (Laughter, applause.) He was obliged 
 to hear and see and report many things that were not 
 pleasant nor flattering. It is the fate of all reporters. 
 I do not remember that those very competent observers, 
 Mr. Emerson and Mr. Hawthorne, whom we sent to 
 England, represented that country as altogether a para- 
 dise and John Bull as a saint without blemish. 
 (Laughter.) They told a great deal of truth about 
 England, as it seems to me our friend told a great many 
 and valuable truths about us. Naturally we did not find 
 every part of his report very entertaining; but neither, 
 I suppose, did Sir Leicester Dedlock find Bleak House 
 very amusing, and I am sure to this day neither 
 Serjeant Buzfuz nor Mr. Justice Stareleigh have ever 
 been able to find the least fun in Pickwick. (Bursts 
 of laughter and cheers.) For my undivided thirty- 
 millionth part of the population I thank the reporter 
 with all my heart, and I do not forget that if his touch, 
 like the ray of a detective's lantern, sparkled for a 
 moment upon some of our defects, the full splendour 
 of its light has always been turned upon the sins and 
 follies of his own country. (Applause.) If I seem to 
 have wandered from my text, Mr. Chairman, it only 
 seems so. (Cheers.) The members of the Weekly Press, 
 for whom I have the honour of speaking, pursue litera- 
 ture as a profession; and I know not where we could 
 study the fidelity, the industry, the conscience, the care, 
 and the enthusiasm which are essential to success in 
 our profession, more fitly than in the example of the 
 editor of All the Year Round. M. Thiers, in a recent 
 speech, says "that the world now needs every day a 
 new book, written every day." Hence the newspaper. 
 The responsibility of the authors of that book is enor- 
 
 T2 
 
276 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 mous. The world is governed by public opinion, and 
 nothing moulds that opinion more powerfully than the 
 Press. Its great divisions are two — the literary and the 
 political. The paramount duty of the literary Press is 
 purity; of the political Press, honesty. Our Copyright 
 Law, as you are aware, Mr. Chairman, inflicts a fine 
 for every repetition of the offence, so that the fine is 
 multiplied as many times as there are copies of the book 
 printed. So the man who, as a writer for the Press, 
 says what he does not believe, or defends a policy that 
 he does not approve, or panders to a base passion or 
 a mean prejudice for a party purpose, is so many times 
 a traitor to the fact represented at this table as there 
 are copies of his newspaper printed; and, as honest 
 or dishonest difference of opinion is entirely compatible 
 with courtesy, as even denunciation is a thousandfold 
 more stinging and effective when it is not vituperation, 
 decency of manner no less becomes the Press than 
 decency of matter. (Applause.) When the manners 
 of the Press become those of Tombs pettifoggers or 
 Old Bailey shysters, or the Eatanswill Gazette — 
 (laughter) — its influence will have to be revealed by a 
 coarse and brutal opinion. While we boast of the 
 tremendous power of the Press, let us remember that 
 the foundations of that power as a truly civilizing 
 influence are, first, purity, then honesty, then sagacity 
 and industry. It may sometimes seem otherwise; but 
 it is an illusion. A man may build up a great journal 
 as he may amass any other great fortune, and seem to 
 be a shining miracle of prosperity, but if he have neither 
 love, nor honour, nor troops of friends, his prosperity 
 is a fair orchard bearing only apples of Sodom. It is 
 a curious and interesting fact that at an official 
 investigation made a few years since in England, a news- 
 paper dealer, in reply to a question of Mr. Cobden, 
 gave it as the result of twenty years' experience that 
 objectionable newspapers, daily or weekly, were short- 
 lived; while the publications of the highest intellectual 
 and moral quality constantly increased in circulation. It 
 is impossible to determine the limits or the merits of 
 individual agency, but there is no doubt that among 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 277 
 
 the most vigorous forces in the elevation of the char- 
 acter of the Weekly Press have been Household Words 
 and All the Year Round, and since the beginning of 
 the publication of Household Words the periodical 
 literature of England has been born again. Mr. Chair- 
 man, the obligation that, in the name of the Weekly 
 Press, I wish to express to our guest is for his example 
 of high fidelity and of honourable pride in his profession 
 of letters. His career illustrates what Charles Lamb 
 called the sanity of true genius. He has never debased 
 it to unworthy ends. He has shown us that it is not a 
 denizen of Bohemia only, but a citizen of the world. 
 He has always honoured his profession by asserting 
 its dignity in his own person. If Dr. Johnson was 
 content to wait humbly, hat in hand, in Lord Chester- 
 field's ante-room ; if Sir Walter Scott — he of all men ! — 
 was proud to preserve the glass out of which George 
 Fourth drank his toddy; the late reporter of The Morn- 
 ing Chronicle, when the Queen invites him to the palace 
 to amuse her company, respectfully replies that he 
 cannot come as an actor where he is not welcome as a 
 guest. (Great applause.) In that spirit of common 
 respect for a noble calling upon whose roll are written 
 the best beloved names in history, a calling of which 
 the technical Press, whether daily or weekly or monthly 
 or quarterly, is but a department, let us take the hand 
 of our friend at parting. Wherever he may be, what- 
 ever fate befall, his name will be a kind of good tidings. 
 It will always have a pleasant Christmas sound. Old 
 Ocean, bear him safely over ! English hedges, welcome 
 him with the blossoms of May ! English hearts, he is 
 ours as he is yours ! We stand upon the shore ; we 
 say farewell ; and, as he sails away, we pray with love 
 and gratitude, May God bless him ! 
 
 The President : — Gentlemen, our friend who spoke 
 for the Press of New York, remarked that the writings of 
 our guest had not merely been appreciated but appro- 
 priated here. (Laughter.) That is true, to some extent, 
 of the Daily Press, to a greater extent of the Weekly 
 Press. (Laughter.) But a very large section of the 
 Press still remains. I have already stated that his 
 
278 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 writings which caught the attention of the western hemi- 
 sphere appeared in a monthly periodical, and the 
 monthly periodicals of both continents printed in the 
 English tongue have for thirty years been largely sus- 
 tained and commended to support by his contributions. 
 I, therefore, propose the sentiment of the "Monthly 
 Press," and require William Henry Hulbert to respond. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 Speech of William Henry Hulbert 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, the Emperor Gal- 
 lienus once gave a prize to a marksman because he had 
 never hit a mark. I can't help thinking that this wily 
 prince must have been in the minds of the committee 
 when they asked me to respond to the toast which has 
 just been read. For I have certainly not written, and 
 I don't think I have read, a magazine article for seven 
 years past. (Laughter and applause.) But if there be 
 no special fitness in my responding to the toast, there 
 certainly is a special fitness in the toast itself. For all 
 who find comfort and value in monthly literature owe a 
 great debt, both directly and indirectly, to our illus- 
 trious guest. There were magazines, we all know, long 
 before Boz took up his formidable pen to sketch the 
 manners and customs of his fellow-creatures. But it is 
 certain the range of English serial literature has been 
 greatly widened and its quality greatly enriched by his 
 influence. (Applause.) To those of us who were boys 
 when Mr. Dickens first visited America, serial literature 
 must always seem to have been in a manner his inven- 
 tion. We counted time in our boyhood by dear Old 
 Master Humphrey's Clock, we knew the first day of the 
 month by a new number of Oliver Twist or Nicholas 
 Nickleby, just as we knew the last day of the week by 
 a holiday. Insatiable urchins that we were, we had no 
 sooner devoured this new number which we got than, 
 like Oliver, we clamoured for "more." (Laughter.) 
 But unlike Oliver, we got more. We have been 
 getting more ever since — and I am sure I speak for all 
 who hear me when I say that we are as far off now as 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 279 
 
 we were then from getting enough. And that we hope 
 we may keep on getting more, not for months, but for 
 years to come. (Immense applause.) Perhaps it would 
 hardly be fair to say that we owe Mr. Dickens to 
 monthly literature, as we owe Shakespeare to the theatre. 
 And yet I like to believe of Mr. Dickens, as I am sure 
 I believe it of Shakespeare, that he would never have 
 given himself the trouble of being an author if he had 
 not been tempted by opportunity. (Cheers.) The 
 theatre was the opportunity of Shakespeare, and 
 monthly literature of Mr. Dickens. But if monthly 
 literature played the witch with Mr. Dickens, he has 
 returned the compliment by playing the dickens with 
 monthly literature. (Cheers.) The traces of his 
 influence are over it all *since first he touched its hem, 
 always for good, shall I say ? — no, not always for good, 
 since the best of styles seduces simpletons into imitations 
 which do the author more discredit than his own worst 
 foibles (and the cleverest of men have their foibles) 
 deserve. But by enlarging the scope, by elevating the 
 range of literature in its relations with life, Mr. Dickens 
 has wrought a real and positive good to English letters, 
 and for this, monthly literature has rewarded him by 
 miscellaneously and mercilessly cribbing, at least on 
 this side of the Atlantic, all that he has written. Now 
 this, speaking as I do, by warrant of this committee, 
 for monthly literature, I hold to be a wrong demanding 
 redress. If I had no other audience than the editors 
 and publishers of monthly magazines, I might, I sup- 
 pose, appeal in vain. (Laughter.) But I see before me 
 the most complete representation which has for years 
 past been assembled, or which for years to come may 
 be assembled, of the real working men of the American 
 Press, of the men who make, night after night and day 
 after day, the broad sheets which are reeled off from the 
 hundred armed giants who do our work in caves, go 
 forth to all the world bearing their mingled messages 
 of truth and falsehood, of the probable and improbable. 
 These at best know, I am sure, and will testify, that the 
 "labourer is worthy of his hire." I appeal to them 
 henceforth to see to it that in season and out of seaspn 
 
280 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 they lose no occasion of supporting that just and 
 righteous and reasonable cause of an International Copy- 
 right, of which our distinguished guest has for years 
 been so faithful a defender — (immense applause) — and 
 by the arrested, I will not say the defeated, progress of 
 which not he alone has been a sufferer, but every man 
 in England and America, whom his example might else 
 have stimulated to authorship. (Cheers.) If the 
 monthly magazines did not mean to plead for this cause, 
 so much the worse for them that I am their spokesman. 
 If they did, let them be grateful. And so I yield my 
 place not to a worthier sentiment, but to more eloquent 
 men. (Cheers.) 
 
 The President : — Gentlemen, there is a place on the 
 eastern border of our continent which a high authority 
 among us would probably describe as "hanging on the 
 verge" of the continent — (laughter) — called "The Hub." 
 (Laughter and cheers.) That town is known to some of 
 you by description, or possibly by observation. It is 
 the place where our friend and guest had the bad taste 
 to land when he came here. In deference to our guest 
 and his taste I propose "The Boston Press," and require 
 Mr. Charles Eliot Norton to respond to it. (Applause.) 
 
 Speech of Charles Eliot Norton 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, I feel as embarrassed 
 as the last speaker said he felt when he rose, in respond- 
 ing to a toast to which I have little claim to answer. I 
 am only indirectly connected with the Boston Press, and 
 therefore I cannot speak for it as one of its members, 
 who are engaged night and day in the work of preparing 
 those newspapers which send out the ideas which are 
 generally understood to be the governing ideas of 
 America. I know that many of our notions are deri- 
 sively called "Boston notions"; but I find that after 
 a time a good many of those notions become embedded 
 in the civilization of the country, through what may be 
 called the common schools, and also through the 
 churches which everywhere mark the first springs of 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 281 
 
 American civilization. (Applause.) I am not worthy 
 to speak for the Boston Press except in one regard, and 
 that is in the cordial unanimity with which that Press 
 would join you to-night, will join you always, in doing 
 honour not only personally to our guest, but to the 
 principles which he has represented and which, in their 
 real essence, I claim to be "Boston notions." There 
 is one notion wrought into the very nature of every true 
 New Englander and Bostonian, which is, the equal rights 
 of man — the claim of man upon man — the broad claim 
 of humanity ; and I know not any one, either in America 
 or England, who has done more to secure respect for 
 that "notion" than the guest whom we honour in our 
 heart of hearts to-night. We claim him as by right a 
 citizen of Boston, a citizen of the world — (applause) ; the 
 Hub of the Universe depends on him for inspiration. 
 There was a humorous friend of mine who said the 
 other day that if Mr. Dickens started with ten cents in 
 his pocket from Cambridgeport — and Cambridgeport, 
 you know, is hardly allowed to be "hanging upon the 
 verge " of the United States — it is to Boston the "abom- 
 ination of desolation " — this friend of mine said that 
 Mr. Dickens might start from Cambridgeport with ten 
 cents in his pocket, and travel round the world, and he 
 would come back no richer than when he started. 
 (Laughter.) But there is something I would desire to 
 say for New England, if I may consider Boston a part 
 of New England, and so gain a right to speak for it. 
 And what I desire to say is this, that we are glad and 
 proud to bear the name of the old land which gave birth 
 to Charles Dickens. (Repeated cheers.) There are two 
 Englands. There is the actual England; there is the 
 England of The Times newspaper; the England of 
 Thackeray's Book of Snobs; well, the England which 
 we do not like. And there is the real England; the 
 England of the imagination and of the heart; the Eng- 
 land to which no American can go without feeling a 
 rapture in his heart as he thinks of the old and glorious 
 memories of our race. And when he wakes in the 
 morning and with keen ears hears the lark singing at 
 heaven's gate, and when he takes a walk in the fields 
 
282 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 he sees the very haystack under which "Little Boy 
 Blue " laid down to sleep, and the very meadows, too, 
 where he ought to have sounded his horn but forgot to 
 sound it ; he will see the England which he has believed 
 in and dreamed of; and it will seem to him that it is 
 some old, old place where he has been in his boyhood. 
 It is as familiar to him as his grandmother's garden? 
 There he will see the daisies and the cowslips which he 
 has never seen since he grew up, but which belonged 
 to the dreams of his youth. He will see the old, the 
 real, the dear England — (great cheering) — transmuted 
 in "the light that never was on sea or land, the con- 
 secration, and the poet's dream." He will see the 
 England of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of 
 Dickens. (Cheering.) He will recognize that there is 
 a responsive drop in his heart which beats quicker and 
 warmer because the life which is in him springs from 
 the dear old England, mother of us all. (Great 
 applause.) He will return home the better, the more 
 patriotic, for having seen the home of all his ancestors. 
 He will return home with more faith in America, because 
 he will have seen where America started; because he 
 will be able to appreciate the solid foundation of right, 
 the impregnable rock of justice on which all that is 
 glorious in the real England of the imagination rests. 
 He will come here with fresher convictions in his own 
 heart, prepared to do his best for his own part, and for 
 those who work with him, in carrying out those glorious 
 principles which England hides in her heart, places first 
 in her faith, first in her religion — the principles of 
 justice, of liberty, of humanity. I will not attempt to 
 repeat the sentiments which we have heard from the 
 eloquent lips which have preceded me, in saying how 
 deeply, how earnestly, how hopefully he feels that 
 between England and America is a bond which no 
 earthly catastrophe can sever; but I will say that the 
 idea of war between the old mother and the young, 
 promising, vigorous man-child of the future is an idea 
 which is enough to raze all the foundation of reason 
 from its throne; and we hope it is one that he will 
 never permit himself, or permit others in his presence 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 283 
 
 to speak of. And this because of his love, not for 
 England, but for humanity. There is but one more 
 word to say, and it is this : that as a representative of 
 one of the oldest journals of the country, I have the 
 pleasure of believing that it has been during the whole 
 of its career a supporter of those ideas which are most 
 essentially American, and in that journal five-and-twenty 
 years ago appeared one of the earliest criticisms upon 
 that great genius which was to make our generation 
 happy. (Applause.) And it was on that account I felt 
 willing to speak at all to-night ; and that I might be able 
 to add the tribute of New England, of gratitude, of 
 constant love to him who, while binding this generation 
 to him by affectionate respect, has had a success beyond 
 that which ordinarily falls to the literary man — a success 
 which is not limited to England, but which binds the 
 New World to him by cords that are stronger and have 
 a subtler magnetism than the electric cable by feelings 
 as delicate and as powerful as those which belong to 
 the inmost domesticity of home. And when he returns 
 to his own country he may carry back the assurance 
 that the faith with which he came upon this voyage, the 
 faith that he should be able to lay one chain more to 
 bind those two dear lands together — has been thoroughly 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The band here played "We are a Band of Brothers." 
 The President: — Boston is conceded to be in New 
 England, and yet there is a considerable portion of New 
 England outside of Boston. (Laughter.) In deference, 
 therefore, to that portion, I am instructed by your 
 Committee to propose as a sentiment "The New 
 England Press," and require General Joseph R. Hawley, 
 of the Connecticut Courant, to respond. 
 
 Remarks of General J. R. Hawley 
 
 Mr. Chairman, it is but a few hours, comparatively, 
 since I received warning that I should be called upon, 
 and as I was obliged to work diligently upon other, 
 matters in order to have the pleasure of being here at 
 
284 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 all, I had hoped to be "off duty" this evening. I feel 
 somewhat as might a very respectable and very 
 courteous old bachelor if he should kindly consent to 
 hold a small bundle for a few minutes while the lady 
 stepped round the corner, and should then find himself 
 the responsible holder of a strange baby growing to be 
 a very big elephant on his hands. This chair just 
 vacated by my side, belongs to the gentleman who 
 should have responded for the New England Press — 
 our excellent friend Sam Bowles of the Springfield 
 Republican, the model newspaper of the Provincial 
 Press. But there will be one merit — brevity — in what 
 I shall have to say. One still July afternoon the city 
 items man of the journal upon which I work, in despair 
 of matter for his column, sat meditatively observing a 
 small boy climbing up to and upon the figure of 
 Madame Justice upon the state-house cupola. Said he, 
 " If that boy should fall he would make about so much " 
 — measuring a "stickful " on his finger. (Great 
 laughter.) If I were to speak of and not for the New 
 England Press, perhaps I may claim New England has 
 spoken already, and speaks for herself through her news- 
 papers everywhere. The honoured chairman (Mr. 
 Greeley) is one of our New England boys, and so also 
 is the gentleman who has just spoken so eloquently upon 
 the right of our distinguished guest [Mr. Raymond 
 shook his head]. Well, we certainly educated him, and 
 I thought, from his versatile and characteristic ability, 
 that he must be one of our own Yankees. The vener- 
 ated senior of the Post, whose absence we all regret, 
 went from us, and the able editors of the World and 
 the Journal of Commerce, and the other eloquent gentle- 
 man upon my left (Mr. Curtis) were ours. There is 
 then little necessity that I should continue. But I am 
 right glad and proud to have an opportunity of grate- 
 fully acknowledging our indebtedness to Mr. Dickens. 
 Twenty-five years ago, as a school-boy, I hung upon 
 the timbers of a bridge that I might have a fair oppor- 
 tunity to look upon the man whose books were my 
 delight above all others, and I could not have dreamed 
 that after such a lapse of time I should have the happi- 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 285 
 
 ness of thanking him. It is sometimes said that there 
 is something rigid and severe in the traditional New 
 England character, that we have been unable to see it 
 as clearly as our critics outside. Whether it be so or 
 not, I do most heartily thank him on behalf of many 
 thousands of Yankee boys who have grown up his 
 devoted readers and admirers, and whom he has for a 
 generation wonderfully delighted and greatly instructed ; 
 whom he has taught to look tenderly upon the weaker 
 side of humanity; whom he has taught that it is not 
 unmanly to cry, and certainly not to laugh heartily. 
 Those who have preceded me have spoken of the debt 
 we owe him. Newspaper men owe no small share of it. 
 What a deal of trouble it saves us, for example, to say 
 of an opponent that he is Pecksnifnan ! You anticipate 
 me by seeing at a glance the numberless instances in 
 which a word upon Dickens by a sort of stenographic 
 system of allusions and characterizations well compre- 
 hended by a universal public saves you whole columns 
 of writing. Yes, the whole people owe him a debt that 
 we shall never be able to discharge. Sir Walter Scott, 
 dismounting at an inn, and being unable to find in his 
 pocket the customary sixpence, threw to the ostler a 
 shilling. "There," said he, "you will owe me a six- 
 pence." "May your honour," was the response, "live 
 and prosper until I pay it." Our guest, when he goes 
 back to his own home, will, I am very sure from what 
 we have seen and heard, bear with him a kindly remem- 
 brance of this country. We have not the assurance to 
 ask him to say of us anything so hearty, enthusiastic, 
 and complimentary as we say of ourselves. (Laughter.) 
 If he will even considerably moderate our own terms we 
 shall be abundantly satisfied. And when, if ever, he 
 shall undertake to satirize us, permit me to entreat him 
 not to say anything as severe as we are often saying 
 of each other. Gentlemen, I most cordially join in the 
 sentiments here expressed of goodwill, fairplay, and 
 justice in the profession, in your wishes for the advance- 
 ment of our common humanity, and in the desire for 
 permanent peace, friendship and co-operation with our 
 cousins across the water. (Cheers.) 
 
286 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 The President : — Gentlemen, New York is flanked by 
 great cities, one of which, if not older, was long larger, 
 more popular, more important than herself, was the city 
 of the Declaration of Independence and of the first 
 Government of the Federal Union. I am asked to 
 propose next "The Press of Philadelphia," and request 
 Mr. George H. Boker to respond to the sentiment. 
 (Applause.) 
 
 Speech of George H. Boker 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I am astounded at being called upon 
 to reply to any toast. The Committee of Arrangements 
 were under bond not to require me to speak for any 
 purpose whatever. I am therefore entirely unprepared 
 to speak on any subject. As responding to the toast 
 "The Press of Philadelphia," gentlemen who have pre- 
 ceded me have disowned connection with the Daily, and 
 with the Weekly, and with the Monthly, and with the 
 Quarterly Press. I am connected with no Press what- 
 ever — (laughter) — and how I am to represent the 
 Philadelphia Press it is impossible for me to say. 
 (Renewed laughter.) However, I have no doubt the 
 Philadelphia Press owes Mr. Dickens the same debt 
 of gratitude that the Press of our country generally 
 seems to owe him. (Laughter.) I represent a class 
 of the community without which the members of the 
 Press could hardly exist. I am a subscriber — (cheers 
 and laughter) — and I am happy to be able to say, with 
 my hand upon my heart, that I have always paid my 
 bills — (applause) — generally in advance — (cheers) ; not 
 that my credit was not good, but because that seemed to 
 be the requirement. I do not know whether it was a lack 
 of capital on their part or a suspicion of me. (Laughter.) 
 I am an American curiosity in another way. I never 
 read a book of Mr. Dickens's except in the original 
 English editions. (Cheers.) I will not go into the 
 subject of an International Copyright Law lest I should 
 get heated and say something injudicious, but I think 
 such a law would be a justice to the American author 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 287 
 
 as much as to the English author. The writings of 
 Mr. Dickens have affected and softened the heart 
 wherever they have been read, and more especially 
 where they have been heard through the magic medium 
 of his voice. (Cheers.) We have lately had the pleasure 
 of hearing him interpret his own works throughout these 
 United States, and after that interpretation of them he 
 will go home to his own country, if possible, more 
 beloved than ever. (Cheers.) It has been said by many 
 of our critical writers that Mr. Dickens, in Martin 
 Chuzzlewit and The American Notes, was not altogether 
 just to us. That may be. Mr. Dickens saw with his 
 own eyes and from one point of view. However, we 
 know that this tour of his through our country has been 
 one continued triumphal progress; he has overcome all 
 prejudice, and his audiences have listened to him with 
 delight. Different views of these entertainments have 
 been taken in our different cities, but all of them have 
 agreed in being favourable. I can only say that I thank 
 him in behalf of Philadelphia. We shall be delighted 
 to see him again in any capacity whether as an ambas- 
 sador of England to the United States — (great applause) 
 — or as an ambassador from his literary brethren sent to 
 conclude the great International Copyright Treaty of the 
 future, which we all hope to see. (Applause.) When- 
 ever he comes, and however he comes, we will welcome 
 him to Philadelphia. (Cheers.) 
 
 The President : — Gentlemen, our Committee have 
 rather limited notions, I think, with regard to geo- 
 graphy. They propose as the next sentiment, "The 
 Northern Press " — very appropriately — and they ask me 
 to call upon our friend Mr. George W. Demers of the 
 Albany Evening Journal to respond, which he will do 
 worthily — however, I think not so far north as we might 
 probably have called into service on this occasion. 
 
 Mr. Demers said that his dearest recollections were 
 connected with the man wEom they had met to honour. 
 He remembered his characters not as fictions, but as 
 living beings, as men and women whom he had met 
 face to face. He knew them in their entities, in their 
 ambitions and in their degradations, in their rags, in 
 
288 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 their sufferings. He had stood by the bedside of little 
 Paul dying. He had triumphed in the triumph of virtue 
 which the story of Nicholas Nickleby portrayed. He 
 owed Mr. Dickens a debt of gratitude for the delight 
 and instruction which he had derived from the perusal 
 of his works. He remembered that a year ago, when 
 travelling in a mountainous region of the great wilder- 
 ness in the northern part of New York, finding in a rude 
 cabin where he stopped all night, five miles removed 
 from any other habitation, where no one would expect 
 to find any evidences of intellectual culture, a complete 
 edition of Charles Dickens, and his rough-handed host 
 had told him that next to his Bible he valued the works 
 of Charles Dickens. (" Good ! " and applause.) This 
 little incident was but an illustration in miniature of 
 the sentiment which prevailed among the people of the 
 United States, who recognized in the writings of Charles 
 Dickens the ideas and principles which, if carried into 
 the great common life of a community, were calculated 
 to make it wiser, purer and happier. (Applause.) 
 
 The president then announced that in consequence of 
 the exceedingly bad health of their guest, who was suffer- 
 ing great pain, he had excused him ; and he would pass 
 out of the room as he preferred to do, unnoticed. The 
 audience then rose and gave Mr. Dickens three hearty 
 cheers as he retired. 
 
 The President : — We have present among us repre- 
 sentatives of the Press from the far valley of the Ohio, 
 who have come to-night to join with us in doing honour 
 to our guest. I, therefore, in behalf of the committee, 
 have great pleasure in recognizing their generous attend- 
 ance, and asking you to join in the sentiment "The 
 Western Press," to which Mr. Halstead, of the Cin- 
 cinnati Commercial, is expected to respond. 
 
 Speech of Mr. Murat Halstead 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen, if I should protract 
 my remarks in proportion to the geographical extrava- 
 gance of the part of the country from which I come, I 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 289 
 
 fear we should break the Sabbath. There is some mis- 
 take here, sir. My home is not "in the bright setting 
 sun." I think it is an antagonism — if it were not for 
 offending the august majesty of New York — a provincial- 
 ism^(laughter) — to speak of anything this side of the 
 Mississippi as the West. Why, sir, I live five hundred 
 miles this side of the mouth of the Ohio river, and 
 when we have ascended the Missouri river five hundred 
 miles to the city of Omaha, there is a railroad yet: six 
 hundred miles west of that, so that I only live at one- 
 third of the distance from New York to the western 
 terminus to our railway system. Our honoured guest 
 this evening flatters himself that he has seen the United 
 States. He has seen that portion of it which "hangs 
 on the verge " of the Atlantic, a very small portion of 
 the country. We have regretted exceedingly that we 
 could not have him with us in the West for a time. 
 But our country was so unfortunately large that it was 
 impossible for him to get over the breadth of it. 
 (Laughter.) We had prepared for it; we had read 
 up everything, including American Notes — (renewed 
 laughter) — and we were astonished to find what an 
 exceedingly clever, good-natured and true book it was. 
 (Laughter.) And we are intensely grateful to him for 
 the many omissions in it he has made in recording the 
 exceedingly disagreeable things that he saw when he 
 was in this country twenty-five years ago. We would 
 be very happy to welcome him at any time. We hope 
 he may visit us every quarter of a century, for all the 
 centuries that we may wish he may live. (Laughter.) 
 It has been said of the British dominions that upon 
 them the sun never sets. It may certainly be said of 
 the sentiment of Charles Dickens, that the sun never 
 sets upon it, that it goes round the world. We hope 
 that in his next visit to this country he may be able 
 to approach it by the golden gates of the Pacific — the 
 western pillar of Hercules. The only fear we have is 
 that he would be so much attracted by our Pacific 
 shores that — as in the case of his visit to the Atlantic 
 coast — he could not penetrate to the valley of the 
 Mississippi. (Cheers.) 
 If 
 
290 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 The President: — Gentlemen, we will not forget that 
 there is a south in our country, and a southern Press, 
 as well as a northern and eastern and a western. And 
 as I propose the sentiment "The Southern Press," I 
 shall call upon a gentleman to respond to it who is 
 probably not now connected with that Press, but who 
 represents its spirit, and genealogically may be held 
 its representative. I propose, then, "The Southern 
 Press," and require Mr. Edwin de Leon to respond. 
 
 Mr. de Leon's Response 
 
 Mr. de Leon said that all had read with wonder in 
 childhood that story in the Arabian Nights of the prince 
 who, on his magic carpet, could transport himself to 
 the remotest corners of the earth. What our childhood 
 had doubted, our manhood had realized; for into what 
 remote nook or diversity of land and language had not 
 the magic woof woven from his own brain transported 
 Charles Dickens? The Southern Press had paid their 
 tribute to him. He had fed this generation with the 
 most wholesome food of literature, and among those 
 who would welcome him on his return to his own land 
 there would be found no hearts that would throb for 
 him with a more genuine warmth than those that sent 
 a "Godspeed" after him from Maine to Louisiana. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 The President then proposed the sentiment, "The 
 Southwestern Press," and called upon Mr. T. S. 
 Thorpe to respond. 
 
 Speech of Mr. Thorpe 
 
 Mr. Thorpe spoke of the future in store for a section 
 so large in extent and so rich in its resources as that 
 which was known as "The Southwest." Twenty-eight 
 years ago he saw a flat-boat coming down the Missis- 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 291 
 
 sippi with the name painted in large letters on its side, 
 Samuel Veller. On his asking the captain of the craft 
 whose name it bore, he replied that he thought probably 
 it was that of the new candidate for Congress in the 
 then new territory of Indiana. 
 
 The t President : — Gentlemen: The last sentiment is 
 "The Scientific Press," to which Mr. Edward L. 
 Youmans is expected to respond. 
 
 Remarks of Professor Youmans 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I appreciate the honour 
 of being called upon on this occasion to represent the 
 Scientific Press, although very incompetent to do justice 
 to its interests. But if any subject can afford to be 
 careless to its mouthpiece it is Science. The daily, 
 weekly, and the monthly Press, and the Press east, west, 
 north and south have to-night paid the tribute of their 
 sincere and profound respect to the genius and the 
 labours of Charles Dickens. Time and space have been 
 thus exhausted; where is the room for science? But 
 though allowed no geographic or periodic opportunity, 
 the Scientific Press is nevertheless a power not only 
 through its own organs, but in its influence upon 
 thought, through all the multitudinous channels of pub- 
 lication. It is a common belief that science consists of 
 mere curious inquiries about rare and extraordinary 
 things, remote from the interests of common life. This 
 is a grave mistake. Science is entirely an affair of 
 thought — of the correct action of the human mind. 
 Knowledge grows in the individual and in the race — 
 grows from vagueness into certainty, from looseness 
 into precision, and in its highest or perfect form we 
 call it Science. It is simply a bringing of the human 
 mind into better harmony with the truth of things, and 
 it matters not what are its objects — stones or stars, 
 human souls or the social relations of men. It is not 
 the material triumphs of science, splendid as they are, 
 to which I would call attention on this occasion, but 
 u 2 
 
292 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 to its influence in widening and elevating human 
 thought, by which it must become a new power in 
 literature and all renovating influence in education. 
 Action and reaction are equal and opposite as well in 
 the mental as in the material world. The forces of 
 thought cannot reconstruct our civilization as they are 
 now doing without a profound reflex effect upon the 
 mind itself. It is much to have gained the mastery of 
 the powers of Nature for a thousand purposes of useful- 
 ness ; it is far more to have gained an intellectual insight 
 into her mysteries. No agency of the Press is more 
 salutary than its influence in diffusing the results of 
 scientific discovery and ministering to the universal 
 extension of the principles deduced and the views that 
 are based upon them; and the claims of science to be 
 represented here to-night as a distinctive power, having 
 a Press of its own, and pressing all others into its 
 service, is, that it is the most methodical and irresistible 
 of all the agencies which are co-operating to work out 
 the progress and elevation of humanity. There is 
 another misconception of the character and influence of 
 science which it seems pertinent to notice on this occa- 
 sion. It is the notion that it is unfavourable to the 
 finer faculties of the mind — the enemy of the imagina- 
 tion. That growing science has acted as a check upon 
 the wild and lawless play of the imagination is un- 
 questionable, for its function is to lead men into the 
 dispensation of the true. The history of imaginative 
 literature in the department of poetry and fiction shows 
 that coeval with the advance of science there has been 
 a steady repression of its more wayward and volatile 
 flights — a steady subordination of it to the limits of 
 the truth of Nature. The imaginative faculty has been 
 stripped of its old prerogative of unbounded licence, 
 and its highest praise now is that it does not transcend 
 the verities of nature and experience. But if science 
 may thus seem to have invaded the ancient domain of 
 the imagination, has it not made munificent amends by 
 revealing a wealth of thought — resources which infinitely 
 enlarge the scope of imaginative combinations. So far, 
 indeed, from science being unfavourable to the imagin- 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 298 
 
 ation, it is the very faculty on which she most relies for 
 the accomplishment of her special work — the discovery of 
 truth. From the time of Bacon the attempt has been 
 made to formulate the mental processes of discovery in 
 terms of pure logical procedure, but the thing is impos- 
 sible. The imagination he^e comes into play in a 
 manner so subtle and elusive of all rules as to nonplus 
 the keenest psychology. I am afraid Mr. Gradgrind, 
 with all his "facts," will never make a discovery for 
 the lack of this mental quality. The scientific attain- 
 ment of truth is, after all, mainly a matter of fervour of 
 imagination — a phantasy, and is just as truly an inspira- 
 tion of genius as a successful stroke of poetry or fiction. 
 Thus all the lines of intellectual labour harmonize at 
 last. Our illustrious guest has devoted his wondrous 
 powers of imagination and description to the noble 
 end of ameliorating the condition of his fellow-beings. 
 Science bids him Godspeed with the fullest sympathy, 
 for she too has for her inspiring aim that understanding 
 of Nature which is indispensable to the "bettering of 
 man's estate." 
 
 Mr. Dolby's name was then loudly called, but he had 
 retired from the hall. 
 
 The following are among the letters received upon 
 the occasion — 
 
 From Thurlow Weed 
 
 New York, April i8, 1868. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 When you informed me that the honoured privi- 
 lege of responding to a sentiment this evening had been 
 assigned by the Committee of Arrangements to me, you 
 will remember that I expressed my deep regret that the 
 power of utterance on such occasions disqualified me 
 for duty. In a subsequent conversation the desire to 
 speak Was so strong that I allowed you to infer that I 
 would make the attempt. But as the hour approaches 
 I find my courage "oozing out" so rapidly that I have 
 reached Falstaff's conclusion that "discretion is the 
 
294 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 better part of valour." With a theme so bright and 
 beautiful, so eloquent and touching — a theme that almost 
 speaks itself — it is hard indeed to be capable of con- 
 secutive utterances, to be unable to find words for thought 
 or to fashion inspiration into sentences — such, however, 
 is my painful lot. Under obligation to Mr. Dickens for 
 infinitely more intellectual instruction and enjoyment 
 than I have derived from all other sources — Shakespeare 
 and Scott included — with no power to make either just 
 or equitable compensation, I am too poor to express 
 in fitly chosen words an adequate sense of the gratitude 
 which my reading of his glorious works awakens and 
 intensifies. If, like an ancestor in very early times 
 similarly situated, I had a trusty friend to speak for 
 me, I might venture to take my seat at your festive 
 board, but as I Wve no right to hope for miraculous 
 assistance, I must submit to a great disappointment by 
 denying myself that pleasure. I am, however, consoled 
 by the reflection that what I lose others will gain, for 
 time, to-night, is too precious to be wasted. For the 
 mental chaff which I should offer there are waving fields 
 of fully ripe wheat ready for the intellectual sickle. 
 Mr. Dickens may not be aware of this, but most of the 
 offspring of his brain, real creations with flesh and blood 
 and immortal spirits, now reside in America. In a sense 
 easier understood than explained, they have been 
 inmates, welcome inmates, of my own household — I know 
 them familiarly, pass hours almost every day of my life 
 in quiet but cheering communion with them. For many 
 of them I cherish the warmest affection. Little Nell, 
 at the age of two years, came an orphan into my home 
 and heart, bringing Heaven's brightest sunshine and 
 choicest gifts with her, to be darkened and shrouded 
 only when, at fourteen, the spirit of that slight spark, 
 resting on the bosom it loved best, drifted away into 
 the wide ocean of eternity. Even Mr. Micawber, whom 
 Mr. Dickens left in Australia prosperous and popular, 
 has been several years in New York, subjected again 
 to his earlier pecuniary embarrassments, negotiating 
 bills on which payment is inconveniently demanded at 
 maturity, being "took" occasionally, but ever look- 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 295 
 
 ing about for "something to turn up." Just now he is 
 inquiring whether "coals are likely to be remunerative." 
 I have received several letters from him which Mr. 
 Dickens would instantly recognize. Those legitimate 
 sons and daughters of Thespis, the Crummleses, as Mr. 
 Dickens knows, came to America. One has not for- 
 gotten the ostentatious leave-taking between Crummies 
 and Nicholas. Their various and brilliant dramatic 
 merits have been appreciated. The "Phenomenon," 
 though no longer an "infant," is secure of a double 
 encore; and that incomparable woman, "Mrs. 
 Crummies," while balancing her head upon a fourteen- 
 foot pole with a brilliant display of fireworks at her 
 heels, never fails to bring down the house. The 
 "Veneerings" scattered throughout our city are doing 
 much to improve, adorn and varnish society. Mark 
 Tapley, who honoured us with a visit, found so much to 
 be "jolly " over, met with so much that was congenial in 
 Jefferson Brick, Colonel Diver, and Mr. Julius Wash- 
 ington Merryweather Bib there, but for the remembrance 
 of Mrs. Lupin, with an anticipation of "ten more," and 
 then just "fifteen more" because the last was not fair 
 and "must be done over again," would have settled 
 down permanently on a charming "corner lot" that he 
 fished out of the pond in the very attractive and imagina- 
 tive city of Eden. Boarding schools constructed upon 
 the Squeers, Creakle and Blimber plans, however admir- 
 able, have not, I regret to inform my patron, Mr. 
 Dickens, been as flourishing as they were formerly. 
 The discipline, though, is not quite popular. There is 
 a prejudice indeed, I may say, unreasonable, but never- 
 theless a prejudice against such memorable institutions 
 as "Dotheboys Hall." This will not, I hope, dishearten 
 Mr. Dickens or diminish his praiseworthy efforts in 
 behalf of education. Nor while "modern prisons" have 
 fairly accomplished all the reforms he anticipated should 
 his labours in that direction be intermitted. Here, as 
 in London, visitors are delighted with the wonders we 
 read in numbers "twenty-seven" and "twenty-eight." 
 A prison system which produces so perfect a change of 
 habit and heart as Uriah Heep and Littimer experienced 
 
296 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 may be fairly expected in due time to reclaim Traddles 
 and Copperfield. Mr. Bumble and Mrs. Corney, 
 who come out to give us the benefit of their experience, 
 are placing our workhouses in a palmy condition. Our 
 beadles and matrons have already learned that the health 
 of sick paupers can be improved by eating the toast and 
 drinking the tea provided for patients themselves. And 
 we have lots of excellent waiters who know how to 
 beguile young travellers of their beer and chops. The 
 Circumlocution Office and Family are happily adapted 
 to our own circumstances and begin to harmonize with 
 our business habits. But it is my duty to apprise Mr. 
 Dickens that his first chapter of Bleak House, what- 
 ever of merit the succeeding chapters may possess, has 
 impaired the working and destroyed the charm of our 
 court of chancery. Before that ingenious chapter was 
 written and read, we too could boast of our Jarndyce 
 and Jarndyce. Our courts were enlivened with occa- 
 sional vehements of Gridley, the man from Shropshire; 
 and we had little Miss Flights expecting judgments. 
 But now, with the solitary exception — that of Broden 
 against Corning — we have not a single chancery suit 
 that has outlived a generation, into which children have 
 been born, or out of which they had died. Madam 
 Mantalini retrieved her fortune in New York, but was 
 brought a second time to grief by her spendthrift Italian 
 husband, whom I saw to-day through a basement 
 window in 14th Street turning a mangle. When Mr. 
 Dickens arrived in New York I attempted to pay by 
 small instalments some fractional part of the large debt 
 of which he has been defrauded by our refusal to enact 
 an International Copyright Law. I applied to my friend 
 Roberts, the host of Westminster, to further my scheme, 
 but either from its bundle, conception or by accidental 
 discovery it collapsed. Instead of receiving my check 
 and sending two tickets, Mr. Dolby returned the check 
 along with the tickets for the course; not to speak 
 irreverently, I experienced the surprise that awaited the 
 sermons of the patriots who went to Egypt for corn, but 
 on their return found their money with the corn in the 
 mouth of their sacks. But while moved for its affection 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 297 
 
 for Mr. Dickens, my mind possesses the motive power 
 of the cork leg. I must "stop her." 
 
 Permit me therefore to offer a brief sentiment — 
 Charles Dickens—The philanthropist who has con- 
 ferred the greatest happiness upon the greatest number. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Thurlow Weed. 
 
 From Donald G. Mitchell 
 
 Mr. H. E. Sweetser. 
 
 Edgewood, March 13, 1868. 
 
 My dear Sir — I delayed replying to the circular of 
 Mr. Young to the very last, hoping that I might be able 
 to participate in your festal supper to Mr. Dickens. 
 Saturday night, however, is an awkward one for me, 
 and other engagements will compel me to decline. 
 Believe me, however, when I say that there will not be 
 one among you more sensible of the debt you all owe to 
 your honoured guest than your obedient servant, 
 
 Donald G. Mitchell. 
 
 Letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 
 Boston, April 9, 1868. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I am very sorry that it will not be in my power 
 to attend the dinner to be given to Mr. Dickens on the 
 1 8th of April. All of us delight to honour him, and 
 our hearts will all be with you as you speak the kind 
 words of farewell to your and our illustrious guest. No 
 invader ever astonished these Western shores with so 
 complete a triumph. He has subdued and rendered 
 tributary to himself the mighty multitudes of our great 
 cities more rapidly and more universally than Cortez 
 overcame the thronging Aztecs. He has taught his 
 gracious lessons of sympathy with all it suffers, of 
 delight in all joyous life, to a larger class of enraptured 
 scholars than Marco Polo found among the docile 
 
298 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 Peruvians. He belongs to us and to all that breathes 
 the vital air as a true defender of the faith — faith in this 
 divinely human race, the congenial creed of its nobler 
 natures in the face of all its false priests and prophets. 
 His writings, fresh as they are in fame, are one in spirit 
 with the smiles and the sighs of the little family circle 
 of Eden before the firstborn of our mothers interfered 
 with its harmony. The language of true feeling is of 
 all time. The pleasant humour of Pickwick might have 
 been traced in the original character of an antediluvian 
 palimpsest, and the sweet humanity of David Copperfield 
 might have been deciphered from a manuscript thrown 
 overboard (in a bottle) by Father Noah. In varying 
 phrases we all strive to express the same wish : peace, 
 prosperity and happiness be with our parting guest, on 
 the land and on the deep, now and always; the man 
 who has been as a brother to more of his fellow-creatures 
 than any other of his time, and who all over the English 
 world is the companion of every age and condition, and 
 the welcome guest in every household. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 O. W. Holmes. 
 To Mr. John Russell W. Young, for the Committee 
 of Invitation. — Amen. 
 
 The Dickens Banquet 
 
 The dinner given on Saturday evening by the Press 
 of the United States to Mr. Charles Dickens was some- 
 thing more than an ordinary compliment from the 
 members of the profession to the foremost man of their 
 craft. To those who sat round those brilliant tables it 
 seemed not so much a testimonial to the genius of a 
 successful author as a tribute of personal regard for the 
 characters with which that genius has improved and 
 delighted us. When Charles Dickens took his place 
 at the board, many a dear old friend sat down with us 
 unseen ; and it was hard not to imagine we were cheer- 
 ing Sam Weller, or hobnobbing with Tom Pinch, or 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 299 
 
 laughing with Mark Tapley, or gazing into the beaming 
 spectacles of Mr. Pickwick. The cordial greetings were 
 interchanged not only between Mr. Dickens and the 
 two hundred of his admirers whose invitation he had 
 accepted, but troops of those delightful people who live 
 only in his books seemed to be there with him, and the 
 hand-shaking, the toasting, the waving of handkerchiefs, 
 were quite as much for them as for their genial creator. 
 And so, amid lights and flowers, and the breathings of 
 delicate music, and the laughter of many voices, the 
 evening passed merrily away, as if in the society of 
 friends whom we had long known in fancy, but never 
 met in the flesh. 
 
 The admirable speech in which Mr. Dickens acknow- 
 ledged the compliment paid him will undoubtedly add 
 a great deal to his personal popularity in America, for 
 it was just such a speech as Americans particularly like 
 to hear. It was frank, it was cordial, it was generous; 
 and as for those old darts of offence which have rankled 
 so long in the wounds of a few of us, he drew them 
 out with a deft and tender hand, and salved the injury 
 with the unction of a little national flattery. We do not 
 know that he was under any obligation to do this, but 
 we are glad that he has done it, for we would have him 
 leave none but warm friends here, and we trust that 
 when the ship bears him away, the American people will 
 wish him with entire unanimity Godspeed and long life 
 and happiness. — From the New York Tribune of 
 April 20, 1868. 
 
 Charles Dickens's Farewell Reading 
 
 Mr. Dickens has read for the last time in America. 
 As we write these words the tones of his voice have 
 scarcely died away. The living presence of his genius 
 still warmly enkindles the hearts of his hearers. At 
 such a moment joy and sorrow naturally blend— joy in 
 the fullness of his splendid success; sorrow in the 
 thought that the loved and admired artist will be seen 
 
300 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 and heard no more. Such a moment is naturally one 
 of extreme emotion. Happily the voice of criticism may 
 be silent. Its claims have been satisfied, its duty has 
 been done. Only the voice of honest admiration need 
 now be heard. Mr. Dickens has endeared himself to us 
 in every possible way. As an author by his humanity, 
 integrity and goodness, directing the use of great 
 natural gifts; as a reader by his perfect honesty and 
 simplicity in conveying to us the comic and pathetic 
 creations of his art ; and as a man by his frankness, his 
 gentleness, his modesty, and his whole-hearted response 
 to our sympathetic greeting. Henceforward the great 
 humorist is entirely understood in America. Before he 
 came here to give these readings there were some among 
 us who remembered only his old-time strictures on the 
 young republic, and some who doubted whether he would 
 be welcome. But there was never real reason to doubt. 
 The bare fact that these strictures were so clearly remem- 
 bered after so many years was the best possible proof 
 that Charles Dickens had always and from the outset 
 of his career been beloved in this country. The heart 
 remembers longer than the head. The great poet has 
 told us what it is to be wroth with one we love. Charles 
 Dickens's coming, however, was needful to disperse 
 every cloud and every doubt and to place his name 
 undimmed in the silver sunshine of American admira- 
 tion. After the revelation of his inner nature that he 
 has given to us in the readings now ended, and after 
 the noble words he has spoken on the occasion of the 
 recent banquet, we cannot help knowing that the creator 
 of Little Nell and Peggotty and Sidney Carton and 
 all the other friends, is as true in his heart as he is 
 great in mind. Not to know this, indeed, would be to 
 have heard him in vain. The delicious reading of the 
 Christmas Carol and the "Trial of Pickwick" — with 
 which Mr. Dickens last evening closed his series of 
 entertainments in this country — should have won the 
 heart of even the most inveterate bigot. The humane 
 spirit of the man lit it up with a beautiful light. His 
 fine fancy played over it like sunbeams on the water. 
 His 2 humour, his pathos, his direct and forcible por- 
 
PRESS DINNER AT DELMONICO'S 801 
 
 traiture of character, his poetic temperament, his unerr- 
 ing intuition as to motive and emotion, his simplicity 
 of style in reading and of method in delivery — found 
 illustration in this reading. What we said at the outset 
 indeed remains true at the close — that the keynote of his 
 genius is sounded in the Christmas Carol and the 
 "Trial of Pickwick." That note found an echo in every 
 bosom last night, and awoke the response of a tumultu- 
 ous applause. The audience which crowded Steinway 
 Hall in every part was, in truth, profoundly moved. By 
 laughter and by weeping it testified its sympathy with 
 the humour of Bob Cratchit and the pathos of Tiny 
 Tim, and the fine lesson of humanity that was once 
 more enforced by its honoured teacher. By its cheers 
 it told him how deeply its feelings had been moved, and 
 summoned him to say farewell. What he said is hereto 
 appended, and we have only to add that his beautiful 
 words were said with equal grace and tenderness. 
 
 " Ladies and Gentlemen : The shadow of one word has 
 impended over me all this evening, and the time has 
 come at last when the shadow must fall. It is but a 
 very short one, but the weight of such things is not 
 measured by their length : and two much shorter words 
 express the whole realm of our human existence. When 
 I was reading David Copperfield here last Thursday 
 night, I felt that there was more than usual significance 
 for me in the declaration of Mr. Peggotty : ' My future 
 life lies over the sea.' And when I closed this book 
 just now I felt keenly that I was shortly to establish 
 such an alibi as would have satisfied even the elder 
 Mr. Weller himself. (Laughter.) The relations that 
 have been set up between us in this place — relations 
 sustained, on my side at least, by the most earnest 
 devotion to my task; sustained by yourselves, on your 
 side, by the readiest sympathy and kindliest acknow- 
 ledgment — must now be broken for ever. But I entreat 
 you to believe that in passing from my sight you will 
 not pass from my memory. I shall often recall you as 
 I see you now, equally by my winter fire and in the 
 green English summer weather. I shall never recall 
 you as a mere public audience, but rather as a host of 
 
302 CHARLES DICKENS IN AMERICA 
 
 personal friends, and ever with the greatest gratitude, 
 tenderness and consideration. Ladies and gentlemen, I 
 beg to bid you farewell. And I pray God bless you, and 
 God bless the land in which I have met you." (Great 
 applause, the audience with waving handkerchiefs and 
 loud voices cheering the distinguished author as he 
 passed from the room.) 
 
 We should add that Mr. Dickens was last evening 
 suffering from illness, which, though it did not in the 
 least mar the fervency and the thorough art of his read- 
 ing, evidently caused him great personal inconvenience. 
 The following certificate — which speaks for itself — was 
 distributed in the hall — 
 
 " I certify that Mr. Dickens is suffering from neuralgic 
 affection of the right foot, probably occasioned by great 
 fatigue in a severe winter. But I believe that he can 
 read to-night without much pain or inconvenience (his 
 mind being set on not disappointing his audience), with 
 the aid of a slight mechanical addition to his usual 
 arrangements. — Fordyce Barker, M.D." 
 
 The reading stand was beautiful with flowers — the 
 gifts of friends. One wreath came from Boston, arriving 
 in the course of the reading. It was fit that Nature's 
 best adornments should embellish a scene of which 
 every element was lovely, and of which every remem- 
 brance will be for ever sweet and gracious. — Copied from 
 the New York Tribune of April 21, 1868. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 ITINERARY OF CHARLES DICKENS'S AMERICAN 
 TRIP IN 1842 
 
 Saturday 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Monday 
 
 22nd 
 23rd 
 24th 
 
 Tuesday 25th 
 Wednesday 26th 
 
 Thursday 
 
 Friday 
 
 Saturday 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Monday 
 
 27th 
 28th 
 29th 
 30th 
 31st 
 
 JANUARY 
 
 At Tremont Hotel 
 
 Arrived in Boston 4 p.m. 
 In Boston 
 
 Visited Massachusetts Legislature at Spring- 
 field 
 In Boston 
 
 Tuesday 1st 
 
 Wednesday 2nd 
 
 Thursday 3rd 
 
 Friday 4th 
 
 Saturday 5th 
 
 Sunday 6th 
 
 Monday 7th 
 
 Tuesday 8th 
 
 Wednesday 9th 
 
 Thursday 10th 
 
 FEBRUARY 
 
 Dinner at Papinti's Restaurant, Boston 
 
 In Boston 
 
 Visited mills at Lowell (Mass.) 
 
 „ Harvard College, Cambridge (Mass.) 
 Left Boston for Worcester (Mass.) 
 Spent day in Worcester as guest of Governor 
 
 Davis 
 Left Worcester in morning via Springfield for 
 
 Hartford (Conn.) 
 Dinner at City Hotel, Hartford 
 
 „ with Colonel Grant, Hartford 
 Visited Public Institution of Hartford 
 
 3°3 
 
304 
 
 
 Friday 
 
 nth 
 
 Saturday 
 
 1 2th 
 
 Sunday 
 
 13th 
 
 Monday 
 
 14th 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 15th 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 1 6th 
 
 Thursday 
 
 17th 
 
 Friday 
 
 1 8th 
 
 Saturday 
 
 19th 
 
 Sunday 
 
 20th 
 
 Monday 
 
 2 1 St 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 22nd 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 23rd 
 
 Thursday 
 
 24th 
 
 Friday 
 
 25th 
 
 Saturday 
 
 26th 
 
 Sunday 
 
 27th 
 
 Monday 
 
 28th 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 I St 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 2nd 
 
 Thursday 
 
 3rd 
 
 Friday 
 
 4th 
 
 Saturday 
 
 5th 
 
 Sunday 
 
 6th 
 
 Monday 
 
 7 th 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 8th 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 9th 
 
 Thursday 
 
 10th 
 
 Friday 
 
 nth 
 
 Saturday 
 
 1 2th 
 
 Sunday 
 
 13th 
 
 Monday 
 
 14th 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 15th 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Left Hartford 5 p.m. ; arrived New Haven 
 
 8 p.m. Public reception at Tontine 
 
 Hotel 
 Left New Haven in morning by boat for New 
 
 York 
 Arrived in New York in morning 
 "Boz" Ball at Park Theatre. Dined with 
 
 Charles A. Davis, 365 Broadway 
 Dined with David C. Colden, 28 Laight St. 
 Confined to Hotel with bad cold 
 
 Jl # 71 JJ >> It J» 
 
 Complimentary Dinner at City Hotel 
 
 In New York 
 
 At St. John's Church with ex-Prest. Van Buren 
 
 In New York 
 
 Private Dinner at Astor House 
 
 MARCH 
 
 In New York 
 
 Visited Tombs Prison and Public Department 
 
 In New York 
 
 In New York 
 
 ») »j 
 
 Left New York in morning ; arrived Philadel- 
 phia in evening. At United States Hotel 
 
 In Philadelphia 
 
 Reception at U.S. Hotel in morning. At 
 Penitentiary in afternoon. 
 
 Left Philadelphia in morning ; arrived Wash- 
 ington in evening. At Fuller's Hotel 
 
 Visited Capitol and White House 
 
 Visited various public buildings 
 
 Dinner at White House 2.30. Dinner at Robt 
 
 Greenhow's 5.30 
 Private Dinner at Boulanger's Restaurant 
 Attended Levee at White House 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 805 
 
 Wednesday 16th 
 
 Thursday 17th 
 
 Friday 18th 
 
 Saturday 19th 
 
 Sunday 
 Monday 
 
 20th 
 21st 
 
 Tuesday 22 nd 
 
 Wednesday 23rd 
 
 Thursday 24th 
 
 Friday 25th 
 
 Saturday 26th 
 
 Sunday 27 th 
 
 Monday 28th 
 
 Tuesday 29th 
 
 Wednesday 30th 
 
 Thursday 31st 
 
 Left Washington for Richmond 
 
 Arrived at Richmond in evening. At Exchange 
 Hotel 
 
 Private Supper at Exchange Hotel 
 
 Visited Capitol in morning. Held reception at 
 hotel 12 till 2 
 
 Left Richmond in morning for Baltimore 
 
 Arrived at Baltimore in evening. Put up at 
 Barnum's Hotel 
 
 Visited Hospital and Penitentiary in morning. 
 Reception in evening 
 
 Left Baltimore in morning; arrived Harris- 
 burg 6.30 p.m. 
 
 In Harrisburg till 3 p.m. Left for Pittsburgh 
 by canal boat 
 
 En route to Pittsburgh 
 
 Arrived in Pittsburgh 
 Exchange Hotel 
 In Pittsburgh 
 
 9.30 p.m. Went to 
 
 Friday 
 
 1st 
 
 Saturday 2nd 
 
 Sunday 3rd 
 
 Monday 4th 
 
 Tuesday 5th 
 
 Wednesday 6th 
 
 Thursday 7 th 
 
 Friday 8th 
 
 Saturday 9th 
 
 Sunday 10th 
 
 Monday nth 
 
 Tuesday 1 2 th 
 
 Wednesday 13 th 
 
 APRIL 
 
 Left Pittsburgh on Steamer Messenger for 
 
 Cincinnati 
 En route to Cincinnati 
 
 » >i i) 1) 
 
 Arrived at Cincinnati in morning. Went to 
 Broadway Hotel 
 
 Ball at Judge Timothy Walker's residence 
 
 Left Cincinnati in morning ; arrived at Louis- 
 ville (Ky.) midnight. Went to Gait House 
 
 Left Louisville 1 p.m. 
 
 En route to St. Louis 
 
 Do. Passed Cairo (111.) in morning 
 
 Arrived at St. Louis (Mo.) at 9 p.m. Went 
 to Planter's House 
 
 Spent day viewing St. Louis 
 
 Left for Prairie in morning ; stayed in hotel in 
 Lebanon (111.) 
 
 Back at St. Louis at noon. Soiree in Plan- 
 ter's House in evening 
 
3t)6 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Thursday 14th 
 
 Friday 15th 
 
 Saturday 16th 
 
 Sunday 17th 
 
 Monday 18th 
 
 Tuesday 19th 
 
 Wednesday 20th 
 
 Thursday 
 
 Friday 
 
 Saturday 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Monday 
 Tuesday 
 
 21st 
 
 22nd 
 
 23rd 
 
 24th 
 
 25th 
 26th 
 
 Wednesday 27 th 
 Thursday 28th 
 Friday 29th 
 
 Saturday 30th 
 
 Left St. Louis for Cincinnati 
 En route to Cincinnati 
 
 jj j» »> j» 
 Arrived at Louisville ; stayed overnight at Gait 
 
 House 
 Left in morning for Cincinnati on Steamer 
 
 Ben Franklin 
 Arrived in Cincinnati at 1 p.m. 
 Left Cincinnati by stage at 8 a.m. for Colum- 
 bus (Ohio) 
 Arrived Columbus 7 a.m. Reception at Neil 
 
 House in evening 
 Left Columbus by stage 7 a.m. ; arrived Lower 
 
 Sandusky 10 p.m. 
 Left Lower Sandusky 7.30 a.m. ; arrived 
 
 Sandusky 6 p.m. 
 Left Sandusky by boat in afternoon ; arrived 
 
 at Cleveland in evening 
 Left Cleveland in morning for Buffalo (N.Y.) 
 Arrived Buffalo 6 a.m. Left for Niagara 
 
 Falls at 9 a.m. 
 Niagara Falls 
 
 Sunday 
 Monday 
 Tuesday 
 Wednesday 
 
 to 
 Sunday 
 Monday 
 Tuesday 
 
 1st 
 2nd 
 3rd 
 4th 
 
 29th 
 30th 
 31st 
 
 MAY 
 At Niagara Falls 
 
 In Canada 
 
 Left Montreal for New York 
 Arrived Albany 5 p.m. Left by boat for New 
 York at 7 p.m. 
 
 JUNE 
 
 Wednesday 1st Arrived in New York at 4 a.m. 
 Thursday 2nd Left New York in morning for Lebanon ; 
 arrived there 10 p.m. 
 
APPENDIX I 
 
 S07 
 
 Friday 
 Saturday 
 
 Sunday 
 Monday 
 
 3rd 
 4th 
 
 5th 
 6th 
 
 Tuesday 7th 
 
 At Lebanon (Shaker Village) 
 
 Left Lebanon in morning ; arrived at West 
 
 Point in afternoon 
 At West Point Military Academy 
 Left West Point for New York ; arrived there 
 
 in afternoon 
 Left New York for England 
 
 x 2 
 
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 t 2 
 
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APPENDIX II 
 
 Since the account of the Dinner given to Dickens in New 
 York in 1868 was put in type, the following complete list of the 
 guests and the diagram showing the seating of the guests at the 
 tables have been discovered in the New York World of April 29, 
 1868. While this list may not be of interest to British readers, it 
 is believed that it will be especially interesting to readers in the 
 United States, containing as it does the names of so many famous 
 editors and literary writers of the " sixties," most of whom, like 
 the great author in whose honour the dinner was given, have 
 passed away. 
 
 LIST OF THOSE PRESENT AT THE DICKENS 
 DINNER 
 
 1. Horace Greeley, Tribune, New York. 
 
 2. Charles Dickens, All the Year Round, England. 
 
 3. Thurlow Weed, Commercial Advertiser, New York. 
 
 4. Henry J. Raymond, Times, New York. 
 
 5. Man ton Marble, World, New York. 
 
 6. Wm. Henry Hurlbert, World, New York. 
 
 7. Murat Halstead, Commercial, Cincinnati. 
 
 8. George W. Demers, Evening Journal, Albany. 
 
 9. Robert Hoe, New York. 
 
 10. Samuel Bowles, Republican, Springfield, Mass. 
 
 11. Jos. R. Hawley, Courant, Hartford, Conn. 
 
 12. George Wm. Curtis, Harper's Monthly, New York. 
 
 13. Robert Bonner, Ledger, New York. 
 
 14. James Parton, Author, New York. 
 
 15. Chas. Eliot Norton, North American, Boston. 
 
 16. William Stuart, New York. 
 
 1 7. Mr. Lester Wailack, New York. 
 
 18. Mr. Lamb, Scotland. 
 
 19. Henry D. Palmer, New York. 
 
 20. George Dolby, England. 
 
 21. Wm. D. Morgan, New York. 
 
310 APPENDIX II 
 
 22. R. B. Roosevelt, Citizen, N.Y. 
 
 23. Isaac H. Bailey, New York. 
 
 24. James A. Whitney, American Artisan, N.Y. 
 
 25. J. B. F. Walker, Evening Mail, New York. 
 
 26. E. H. Clements, Tribune, N.Y. 
 
 27. Franklin Philip, Washington, D.C. 
 
 28. H. A. Dike, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 29. R. S. Chilton, Dept. of State, Washington, D.C. 
 
 30. C. T. Lewis, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 31. C, F. Briggs, Putnam's Magazine, New York. 
 
 32. Charles Nordhoff, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 33. Aug. Maverick, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 34. Thomas W. Knox, Herald, New York. 
 
 35. R. T. Colborn, Cor., St. Louis Republican, New York. 
 
 36. J. H. Browne, Galaxy, New York. 
 
 37. James M. Scovel, Kern Republic, Camden, N.J. 
 
 38. Chark Waggoner, Commercial, Toledo, Ohio. 
 
 39. J. H. Bates, New York. 
 
 40. James H. Benedict, New York. 
 
 41. Robert Sewell, New York. 
 
 42. T. B. Thorpe, Author, New York. 
 
 43. J. H. Hackett, New York. 
 
 44. H. Clapp, Jr., Leader, New York. 
 
 45. C. Fulton, Mercury, New York. 
 
 46. C. B. Seymour, Times, New York. 
 
 47. Mr. Osborn, Scotland. 
 
 48. L. W. Jerome, New York. 
 
 49. Thomas N. Rooker, Tribune, New York. 
 
 50. Thomas McElrath, Tribune, New York. 
 
 51. C. A. Runkle, Tribune, New York. 
 
 52. J. N. Balestier, Tribune, New York. 
 
 53. R. W. McAlpine, Tribune, New York. 
 
 54. James B. Mix, Tribune, New York. 
 
 55. James McConnell, Tribune, New York. 
 
 56. H. S. Olcott, Tribune, New York. 
 
 57. J. F. Cleveland, Tribune, New York. 
 
 58. S. Cobb, New York. 
 
 59. A. C. Armstrong, New York. 
 
 60. Peter S. Hoe, New York. 
 
 61. Richard M. Hoe, New York. 
 
 62. Charles Scribner, Publisher, New York. 
 
 63. Rev. H. M. Field, Evangelist, New York. 
 
 64. A. H. Green, New York. 
 
 65. Wm. Orton, Western Union Telegraph, N.Y. 
 
APPENDIX II 811 
 
 66. A. J. Vanderpoel, New York. 
 
 67. Charles E. Wilbour, Transcript, New York. 
 
 68. C. Corson, Transcript, New York. 
 
 69. A. J. Peabody, Publisher, New York. 
 
 70. Ed. Seymour, Hours at Home, New York. 
 
 71. J. D. Sherwood, Author, New York. 
 
 72. D. O'C. Townley, Times, New York. 
 
 73. D. A. Casserly, Round Table, New York. 
 
 74. Aug. Snow, Times, New York. 
 
 75. J. E. Munson, Times, New York. 
 
 76. R. Lexow, German Press, New York. 
 
 77. A. J. Schem, Tribune, New York. 
 
 78. J. F. de Con to, Spanish Press, New York. 
 
 79. W. W. Harding, Inquirer, Philadelphia. 
 
 80. J. F. Graiff, Press, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 81. R. E. Selmes, Transcript, New York. 
 
 82. Andrew Devine, Times, New York. 
 
 83. S. S. Conant, Times, New York. 
 
 84. Augustine Daly, Times, New York. 
 
 85. F. J. Ottarson, Tribune, New York. 
 
 86. R. D. Benedict, Times, New York. 
 
 87. H. J. Winser, Times, New York. 
 
 88. John Ireland, Times, New York. 
 
 89. Thos. Nast, Harper's Weekly, New York. 
 
 90. A. M. Stewart, Scottish American, N.Y. 
 
 91. Edwin de Leon, Citizen, New York. 
 
 92. George Sheppard, Times, New York. 
 
 93. Sheppard Homans, Bankers' Magazine, N.Y. 
 
 94. J. Smith Homans, Bankers' Magazine, N.Y. 
 
 95. C. C. Norvell, Times, New York. 
 
 96. Gaston Fau, Galaxy, New York. 
 
 97. George E. Pond, Army and Navy Journal, New York. 
 
 98. John Swinton, Times, New York. 
 
 99. Isaac Butts, Union, Rochester, N.Y. 
 
 100. D. C. McEwen, Tribune, New York. 
 
 101. Edmund T. Davis, Mercury, New York. 
 
 102. A. D. Richardson, Tribune, New York. 
 
 103. R. B. Kimball, Author, New York. 
 
 104. J. T. Fields, Publisher, Boston, Mass. 
 
 105. Samuel Sinclair, Tribune, New York. 
 
 106. M. C. Hart, Chronicle, Washington, D.C. 
 
 107. E. C. Stedman, Galaxy, New York. 
 
 108. George H. Boker, Author, Philadelphia, 
 
 109. Whitelaw Reid, Gazette, Cincinnati, 
 
812 APPENDIX II 
 
 no. J. R. G. Hassard, Tribune, New York, 
 
 in. John Russell Young, Tribune, New York. 
 
 ii2. A. K. McClure, Repository, Chambersburg, Pa. 
 
 113. J. W. Dowling, Times, New York. 
 
 114. T. M. Davis, Keokuk, Iowa. 
 
 115. T. B. Carpenter, Author, New York. 
 
 116. Oliver Johnston, Independent, New York. 
 
 117. E. L. Youmans, Author, New York. 
 
 118. J. B. Sheridan, Tribune, New York. 
 
 119. Alfred Ford, World, New York. 
 
 120. W. L. Ormsby, Jr., World, New York. 
 i2i. W. W. Vaughan, World, New York. 
 
 122. Frederick Creighton, World, New York. 
 
 123. George W. Childs, Ledger, Philadelphia. 
 
 124. Paul Du Chaillu, Author. 
 
 125. E. L. Godkin, Nation, New York. 
 
 126. Edward Carey, Union, Brooklyn. 
 
 127. C. W. Sweet, Real Estate Record, N.Y. 
 
 128. Oscar Sawyer, Herald, New York. 
 
 129. Douglass Taylor, Courier, New York. 
 
 130. D. G. Croly, World, New York. 
 
 131. W. L. Stone, Author, New York. 
 
 132. W. J. Demorest, Demorest's Monthly, New York. 
 
 133. L. Israels, World, New York. 
 
 134. A. C. Wheeler, World, New York. 
 
 135. L. J. Bigelow, Watertown, New York. 
 
 136. George Wakeman, World, New York. 
 
 137. Steven Hayes, Herald, New York. 
 
 138. Ed. J. Holden, Post, Detroit. 
 
 139. Wm. N. Armstrong, New York. 
 
 140. Henry E. Sweetser, World, New York. 
 
 141. Henry Holt, Publisher, New York. 
 
 142. F. H. Houston, Mercantile Library, New York. 
 
 143. A. B. Crandall, Tribune, New York. 
 
 144. Joseph B. Lyman, World, New York. 
 
 145. Ellis H. Roberts, Herald, Utica, N.Y. 
 
 146. John Gamgee, London, England. 
 
 147. George Thurber, Agriculturist, New York. 
 
 148. Orange Judd, Agriculturist, New York. 
 
 149. A. J. Drexel, Ledger, Philadelphia. 
 
 150. D. Mellis, World, New York. 
 
 151. J. G. Floyd, Jr., Commercial Chronicle, N.Y. 
 
 152. John Bonner, Author, New York. 
 x 53- J- Ely, New York. 
 
APPENDIX II 818 
 
 54. J. R. Osgood, Publisher, New York. 
 
 55. W. McClintock, Post, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 56. D. W. Judd, Commercial Advertiser, N.Y. 
 
 57. C. P. Dewey, Commercial Advertiser, N.Y. 
 
 58. T. E. Leeds, New York. 
 
 59. Samuel Barton, New York. 
 
 60. A. H. Almy, Sun, New York. 
 
 61. Dr. Marsden, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 62. Dr. Wilder, Evening Post, New York. 
 
 63. Thos. J. Ham, Herald, Honesdale, Pa. 
 
 64. Isaac Dayton, New York. 
 
 65. S. S. Packard, Business Monthly, New York. 
 
 66. Mr. Drayton, Phrenological Journal, N.Y. 
 
 67. Bronson C. Howard, Evening Mail, New York. 
 
 68. Dr. C. F. Heywood, New York. 
 
 69. Chas. H. Sweetser, Evening Mail, New York. 
 
 70. A. D. F. Randolph, Publisher, New York. 
 
 71. Dr. Wm. A. Hammond, Medical Magazine, N.Y. 
 
 72. A. D. Munson, Our Young Folks, New York. 
 
 73. J. A. Simonton, Associated Press, New York. 
 
 74. H. T. Lee, New York. 
 
 75. J. E. Spear, New York. 
 
 76. Wm. E. Marshall, New York. 
 
 77. Z. E. White, Tribune, New York. 
 
 78. John R. Walker, Citizen, N.Y. 
 
 79. B. Gallagher, Tribune, New York. 
 
 80. S. T. Clark, Tribune, New York. 
 
 81. W. B. McKean, Ledger, Philadelphia. 
 
 82. C. H. Webb, Citizen, New York. 
 
 83. Chas. E. Fitch, Journal, Syracuse, N.Y. 
 
 84. Leroy Shear, New York. 
 
 85. Thomas A. Acton, New York. 
 
 86. J. M. Francis, Times, Troy, N.Y. 
 
 87. C. E. Smith, Express, Albany, N.Y. 
 
 88. E. K. Olmstead, Journal of Commerce, New York. 
 
 89. C. S. Groot, New York. 
 
 90. J. B. Bouten, Journal of Commerce, New York. 
 
 91. L. A. Hunt, World, New York. 
 
 92. H. M. Wyncoop, Publisher, New York. 
 
 93. Joel Benton, Times, Amenia, N.Y. 
 
 94. F. G. Fairfield, Herald, New York. 
 
 95. George O. Glavis, German Press, N.J. 
 
 96. J. M. Winchell, Public Spirit, New York. 
 
 97. W. W. Warden, Inquirer, Philadelphia. 
 
314 APPENDIX II 
 
 198. M. H. Northrup, Express, New York. 
 
 199. W. S. Chase, Herald, New York. 
 
 200. J. R. Thompson, Southern Press. 
 
 201. J. B. Lippincott, Publisher, Philadelphia. 
 
 202. Wm. Young, Publisher, New York. 
 
 203. R. K. Potter, Boston. 
 
 204. H. M. Ticknor, Publisher, Boston. 
 
 Among those present at the dinner was Mr. D. O'C. Townley, 
 of the New York Times* Mr. Townley evidently enjoyed the 
 dinner to the uttermost, as shown by the following account in 
 rhyme, of which he was the author, which was published in the 
 World on the Monday following the dinner. Mr. Townley sent a 
 copy of his effusion to Mr. Dickens, and received the following 
 characteristic letter in acknowledgment : — 
 
 " Gad's Hill Place, Higkam by Rochester, Kent. 
 "Monday, May 25, 1868. 
 
 "My Dear Sir, 
 
 " I am truly obliged to you for your note enclosing ' Alder- 
 man Rooney's ' account of a dinner never to be forgotten by me. 
 You- are very hard upon the 'Alderman,' I think, in your 
 depreciation of his work ! For playfulness and earnestness com- 
 bined, and for a special ease in versification, the ' Alderman ' 
 seems to me to be rather remarkable. I cannot claim to be a 
 disinterested judge of his production, certainly, for it has touched 
 me in a tender place ; but if you can, by any means, convey my 
 appreciation and thanks to him, pray do. 
 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Very faithfully yours, 
 "Charles Dickens. 
 " D. O'C. Townley, Esq." 
 
 THAT WONDERFUL DINNER WID BOZ 
 By Alderman Rooney 
 
 Oh Goddess ov Song! in whose honor 
 
 Bow lowly the fair and the brave, 
 From the glory crown'd pake ov Parnassus 
 
 Look down to the foot on your slave ! 
 Look down on your Rooney, bewildhered — 
 
 Wid poethry brimmin' his sowl ; 
 And you, great Apollo ! whose singin' 
 
 Deludhered the nymphs of the strame, 
 
APPENDIX II 815 
 
 Till widout any clothes but their blushes, 
 
 They crept to your feet in a dhrame ; 
 Look down, oh great bard ! on your Rooney, 
 
 His sowl wid your janius inspire, 
 And, if its intirely convaynient, 
 
 Oh lind him the loan of your lyre ! 
 He'd sing as he never before sung, 
 
 Since first he wove music and thought 
 Into words, by that wonderful magic 
 
 Your spirit, not Rooney's had wrought ! 
 Oh breathe on your slave but a minnit, 
 
 Then who shall refuse his applause 
 To him who put nately in verses, 
 
 That wonderful dinner wid Boz! 
 
 The North, on whose cloud-kissin' summits, 
 
 The snow-wreath rests "all the year round," 
 Whose valleys are fertile as Ayden 
 
 Ere Adam and Eve got aground ! 
 The South, on whose slopes the banana 
 
 Grows ripe with the glad gooldin corn, 
 Where the sheep that strayed off from the shepherd 
 
 Were fearfully, fearfully shorn ! 
 The East, land ov Pilgrims and praychers, 
 
 Or janius that blossoms in books, 
 Providers ov mental provision, 
 
 Ov which half the world are the cooks ! 
 The West, land of produce and prairies, 
 
 Ov cities that rise in the night, 
 Like palaces built by the fairies 
 
 Ov which the bold Pagan did write. 
 All these to the dinner to Dickens, 
 
 Sent on the first fruits of the soil — 
 The tireless brained thinkers who labor 
 
 To smooth out the roughness of toil, 
 The oily-tongued, ready-penned writers, 
 
 Great moulders of people and laws ! 
 Aye, all of these came and were at it — 
 
 That wonderful dinner wid Boz ! 
 
 Delmonico troubled in sperit, 
 
 Had slept ne'er a wink for a week; 
 "The fat boy!" he knew he was comin', 
 
 He knew who would drink and who'd speak. 
 
316 APPENDIX II 
 
 Good Lord! how he laid out the tables, 
 
 In twinty most elegant rows ! 
 And spread them all over wid damask, 
 
 As white as the wind-driven snows. 
 And how he bedeck'd them wid flowers, 
 
 And sugar-built Temples of Fame! 
 Wid great piles of shivverin' jellies, 
 
 And icebergs ov beautiful crame! 
 Wid real silver spoons near the forks too, 
 
 And regiments of plates in a line, 
 And cut crystal jugs and decanters, 
 
 Brimful wid red tears ov the vine ! 
 And how he hung up on the walls too, 
 
 Right over the President's chair, 
 Our flag and the flag ov ould England — 
 
 A little the worse ov the wear. 
 But agra he forgot the Green Island, 
 
 Mayhap left her out for a cause, 
 Yet Dickens saw Irish who love him, 
 
 Aye worship him, wonderful Boz ! 
 
 Right under the banners stood Charley 
 
 Wid joy in his heart and his eye, 
 As again and again from two hundred 
 
 Rose up the wild welcomin' cry ! 
 Down under the banners sat Dickens, 
 
 Beside him great Greeley sat down 
 Wid spring in his face of good nature, 
 
 And winter's snow-white on his crown. 
 And Raymond the thinker, and Parton, 
 
 And Curtis the graceful, and Hoe, 
 And Hurlbert, a man worth a million, 
 
 And Marble that makes the "World" go. 
 And there too, sat others, brave fellows 
 
 Who fear not to shortin life's span 
 If robbin' their own they can lengthin 
 
 And brightin the life-time ov man ; 
 And down the long tables sat many, 
 
 Whose names are well known to you all, 
 Hard workers, grate thinkers, fine spaykers 
 
 Well primed for the work ov the Fall; 
 And wits too, your Rooney among them, 
 
 Good fellows of stories and saws, 
 
APPENDIX II 317 
 
 All blessin' wid brotherly kindness 
 That wonderful dinner wid Boz. 
 
 'Tis useless to talk ov the aytin', 
 
 Unless you're acquainted wid Frinch, 
 If you're not, thin by dad, you should lam it, 
 
 'Tis useful sometimes in a pinch. ' 
 If you are, then get hould ov a paper, 
 
 You'll see thim set there in a row — 
 Most wonderful scholarly dishes, 
 
 Invintions ov S win ton and Blow! 
 Wid the names ov Kings, Queens and great authors, 
 
 For the fish and the flesh and the frog; 
 'Tis comfort to know, whin you're aytin', 
 
 That larnin' goes down with the prog. 
 But enough of this faystin' and drinkin', 
 
 Tis hardly good natured in troth, 
 Wid this I stop, least you get hungry — 
 
 There was lashin's and lavin's ov both. 
 Wid the jokes that wint round there's no tellin', 
 
 How half ov us ever got through, 
 Wid the fun thay spill'd soup on shirt bosoms, 
 
 Or scalded our throats with Burgoo ! 
 Wid the tales that passed over the glasses, 
 
 The wit that slipped in at each pause — 
 And made like a faste at Olimpus, 
 
 That wonderful dinner wid Boz! 
 
 The speeches? no, no, I won't try them; 
 
 Not even your Rooney could tell 
 How sowls were uplifted with rapture, 
 
 Whose tongues held our hearts wid a spell ! 
 Enough that I wept and I shouted, 
 
 I laughed and I cried in a breath — 
 If Dickens had spoke any longer, 
 
 You'd surely been "in at a death." 
 For I swear, no I won't, yes, by Jabers ! 
 
 He played on my feelings so much, 
 That I felt my poor heart a piano 
 
 That throbbed to his exquisite touch ! 
 I blissed him in silence, and after 
 
 I blissed them that followed him, too, 
 Who spoke ov the man who had ever 
 
 Been faithful and valiant and true; 
 
818 APPENDIX II 
 
 Who spoke as I felt ov that janius — 
 
 Our brightest, our greatest, our own — 
 The wave of whose wand has uplifted 
 
 The Press that o'ershadows the Throne ! 
 Farewell, Great Reporter, may Heaven 
 
 Preserve you, more stories to tell, 
 And God be as pleased wid your labors, 
 
 As we are, who bid you farewell ! 
 Our children will read in the future, 
 
 Ov brothers who fought the good cause, 
 And met the Great Taycher to thank him. 
 
 Good-bye ! and God bless you, dear Boz ! 
 
 Richard Clay ts" Sons, Limited, London and Bwigay* 
 
The MEMORIAL EDITION of the 
 
 LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS 
 
 By JOHN FORSTER 
 
 Illustrated with 500 Portraits, Facsimiles of Manuscripts, Play Bills, Views, 
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 R.A., Frank Stone, R.A, Augustus 
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 Daniel Maclise, R.A., John W. 
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 A.R.A., Francis Alexander, Count 
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 Charles Martin, Margaret Gillies, 
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