Red Devils -16 Charles Dickens

March 15th

True to her word, Mrs. Custer sent me extracts from several of her husband's letters, but with them, just a very brief accompanying note. I have decided to use them, interspersed with my father's dispatches, in the section of my project on the lead up to the battle.

Miss Marble announced that those who had not yet done a class presentation showing the progress of their essays, would be expected to be ready today. Obviously in an hour lesson not everyone can be called on, so I rather hoped I would not be. We had had presentations by Josephine on Sacagawea, from Albertina about Harriet Beecher Stowe, and from Cora Sue.

When the time came, I was lucky, as Miss Marble decided it was time for a boy to take the stage. Thomas had to tell us what he knew about Charles Dickens (pictured above).

He started out by saying that he wanted to do a different picture of Charles Dickens from the one that was normally known by people who read his books. So he wanted to give Charles Dickens, as seen from America and as he saw Americans. I'm summarising what he said.

On January 3, 1842, Charles Dickens, when he was just about 30, sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Britannia bound for America. Dickens was at the height of his popularity on both sides of the Atlantic and, securing a year off from writing, determined to visit America to see for himself this haven for the oppressed which had supposedly righted all the wrongs of the Old World. The voyage out, accompanied by his wife, Kate, and her maid, Anne Brown, proved to be one of the stormiest in years and his cabin proved to be so small that Dickens quipped that their portmanteau could "no more be got in at the door, not to say stowed away, than a giraffe could be forced into a flowerpot".

Here is what one newspaper has to say about his visit to their town.

Worcester Egis (Massachusetts) February 5, 1842

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-rounded, and filled the dress suit he wore. We will close this off-hand description without going more minutely into the anatomy of Mr. Dickens, by saying that he wears a gold watch guard over his vest, and a shaggy greatcoat of bear or buffalo skin that would excite the admiration of a Kentucky huntsman.

We believe that it is well understood that he draws his characters and incidents less from imagination than upon observation. His writing bears slight evidence 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.

The early maturity of his genius and reputation have but few parallels. May he long live to edify and amuse the world, and to receive the reward of praise and emolument which is his just due.

 In keeping with Dickens fascination for the unusual, visits to prisons, hospitals for the insane, reform schools, and schools for blind, deaf, and dumb children were high on his list of places to visit in almost every city he toured.

In the White House, as just about everywhere he went in America, Dickens was appalled at the American male passion for chewing tobacco. He gives this account of a visit to the Capital building:

"Both Houses are handsomely carpeted; but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the universal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated, and the extraordinary improvements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every direction, do not admit of being described. I will merely observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to look at the floor; and if they happen to drop anything, though it be their purse, not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account.

“It is somewhat remarkable too, at first, to say the least, to see so many honourable members with swelled faces; and it is scarcely less remarkable to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hollow of the cheek. It is strange enough, too, to see an honourable gentleman leaning back in his tilted chair, with his legs on the desk before him, shaping a convenient 'plug' with his penknife, and, when it is quite ready for use, shooting the old one from his cheek."

Dickens came away from his American experience with a sense of disappointment. To his friend William Macready he wrote "this is not the republic I came to see; this is not the republic of my imagination." On returning to England Dickens began an account of his American trip which he completed in four months. Not only did Dickens attack slavery in American Notes, he also attacked the American press whom he blamed for the  lack of general information. In Dickens' next novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, he sends young Martin to America where he continues to vent his feelings for the young republic. American response to both books was extremely negative but eventually the passion subsided and Dickens' popularity was restored.

G. W. Putnam shared the journey to America with Mr. Dickens. Here are some things I have taken from his book on the subject.

Mr. Dickens had left England an invalid, having suffered much from severe illness, and, after a rough voyage in midwinter, was in great need of rest. 

“Sunday passed and Monday came, and a crowd of visitors thronged the house. Statesmen, authors, poets, scholars, merchants, judges, lawyers, editors, came, many of them accompanied by their wives and daughters, and his rooms were filled with smiling faces and resounded with cheerful voices.

“Mrs. Dickens was a lady of moderate height; with a full, well-developed form, a beautiful face and good figure. I call to mind the high, full forehead, the brown hair gracefully arranged, the look of English healthfulness in the warm glow of color in her cheeks, the blue eyes with a tinge of violet, well-arched brows, a well-shaped nose, and a mouth small and of uncommon beauty. She was decidedly a handsome woman, and would have attracted notice as such in any gathering of ladies anywhere. She had a quiet dignity mingled with great sweetness of manner; her calm quietness differing much from the quick, earnest, always cheerful, but keen and nervous temperament of her husband, a temperament belonging to the existence, and absolutely necessary to the development, of a great genius like that of Charles Dickens.

 “At Hartford a complimentary dinner was given him, at which very interesting speeches were made, his own being exceedingly happy; and here, in speaking of the subject of an international copyright law, he made a most eloquent and touching allusion to the death of Sir Walter Scott.

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. 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. Washington Irving came very often, and the meeting of these kindred spirits was such as might have been expected. They were greatly delighted with each other.

At Richmond Mr. Dickens took rooms at the Exchange. Here as elsewhere large numbers of the most prominent people called upon him, and a dinner was given in his honor. 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.

One day a well-known literary gentleman called and was cordially received by Mr. Dickens. After conversing for some time he asked: "Mr. Dickens, how do you like our domestic institution, sir?"

 "Like what, sir?" said Mr. Dickens, rousing up and looking sharply at his visitor.

"Our domestic institution, sir, slavery!" said the gentleman.

Dickens's eyes blazed as he answered promptly, "Not at all, sir! I don't like it at all, sir!"

"Ah!" said his visitor, considerably abashed by the prompt and manly answer he had received, "you probably have not seen it in its true character, and are prejudiced against it."

"Yes, sir!" was the answer, "I have seen it, sir! all I ever wish to see of it, and I detest it, sir!"

The gentleman looked mortified, abashed, and offended, and, taking his hat, bade Mr. Dickens "Good morning" which greeting was returned with promptness, and he left the room.

Mr. Dickens then, in a towering passion, turned to me. "Damn their impudence, Mr. P.! If they will not thrust their accursed "domestic institution" in my face, I will not attack it, for I did not come here for that purpose. But to tell me that a man is better off as a slave than as a freeman is an insult, and I will not endure it from any one! I will not bear it!"

Second American Visit – 1867-68

In the late 1850s Dickens began to contemplate a second visit to America, tempted by the money that he believed he could make by extending his reading tour, hugely successful in Britain, to the New World. The outbreak of the Civil War in America in 1861 put those plans on hold.

 He arrived in Boston on November 19, 1867.  Because of ill-health  he did not venture from the eastern states, staying five months and giving 76 performances for which Dickens earned an incredible £19,000 pounds.

"And that’s about all I have written so far," said Thomas.

When he finished, Cora Sue raised her hand.

“Charles Dickens met Mr. Barnum too, when he was here and Mark Twain. Isn’t that a coincidence?”

“Well, I think Cora Sue, that it just goes to show that famous people get to know other famous people. And we in this class are very lucky in the fact that we can help each other understand his or her own subject by the interrelationships with the others we are studying.”

I also raised my hand, “Don’t forget Miss Marble and all of you, that we are invited to Mr. Barnum’s on Saturday at 3 p.m. and he will also have Samuel Clemens, which is the real name of Mark Twain, there visiting with him.”

“I expect you all to be able to share in the discussion when Fredrick gives us his report on his essay next Monday. Class dismissed for today, but I will see you all on Saturday.”