ABOUT CHARLES DICKENS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1508, 24 January 1901, Page 15

ABOUT CHARLES DICKENS

REMINISCENCES OF THE READINGS. Several weeks ago an inquest was held in London on George Dolby, formerly private secretary to Charles Dickens. Deceased died in Fulham Infirmary from bronchitis accelerated by neglect. The last chapter, says the “Daily News,” in the life of the man who was Dickens’s aide-de-camp during some of his famous reading tours, both at home and in America, reads like a grotesque episode in a Wilkie Collins’ novel. Indoled, that wonderful spinner of creepy romances lias one character who bears some resemblance to poor Dolby in his last days—a man who hides from the world and dwells in a noisome den, where liel lives unkempt and unshorn, shunning friends and society alike. Yet for several years Dolby had shared in some of the greatest personal triumphs of the novelist’s life!, and! lived with him on terms of the greatest intimacy. When first the famous readings were begun, the business which they involved was managed by Mr Arthur Smith, the brother of Albert Smith, of Mont Blanc renown. When he died, Dolby succeeded to his post, which was a most onerous one.

Dickens’s letters are full of reference to “Dolby,” and vtiry curious and amusing they are 1 , to this very day, when. Dickens and all that relates to him have still a- profound interest for the public. The history of Dolby is the history of the readings, lie was always in diffi-. culties. So fierce was the demand to hear the reader that Dolby, not being Procrustes, could 1 never accommodate the halls to the public. But- enthusiastic crowds used to fill them to the roofs, and hundreds used to be turned away nightly. Their only resource was to “pitch into Dolby/’ “In Dublin,” says Dickens, “people are besieging Dolby to put- chairs anywhere; in doorways", on my platform, in any sort of hole and corner. This was in Dublin. In Liverpool the police intimated officially that three thousand! people were turned away —they carried in the outer doors and pitched into Dolby.” It was Dolby who used to administer to the distinguished reader the oysters and champagne and other fillips', between the “acts” in the dressing-room. It was Dolby who used to amuse him in the> harassing railV a -7 journeys between the towns and cities. It was Dolby who, bubbling over with joy, used to bring him the evidence of his amazing popularity, as judged by the heavy bags of money jingling in his hand. And sometimes Dolbyused to come with hair dishevelled, and garments torn and tattared, after a fight with an enraged and disappointed crowd. It was Dolby who used even to help him on with his clothes when there was a train to catch after the reading was over. “Reading,” paid at £7O a night of two hours, with all Expenses nail, seems about the most agreeable way of earning a. living one can imagine, an!;] we remember the awful exhaustion, the dreadful retaction which follows violent efforts.

Then it was Dolby who used to carry him off to' the sea for a whiff of rj.e briny. It was Dolby who used to provide cold collations and the oest of drinks for those night journeys. At some of the bigger cities the excitementto hear him was so great that Dolby used to leave the genteel paits of the house and stem “the shilling tide.” It was Dolby who' kept off too press i g callers. There was a poet, for instance, whot had christened his child after Dickens, and haunted him. At one l place they lived under the some roof with Chang, who 50 frightened 1 the gasman that Dolby had ic be called in to apneas© him. Then there was the Tartar Dwarf, who was always twining himself upstairs sideways. He had to bei rebuffed.

Great placards were posted about tho town by the anxious Dolby, tmiiouncing that no money would be taken at the doors. This kept the crowd oif. Two files of policemen and a double staff everywhere did the rest. It was Dolby who, in America, fought the speculators who made corners in tickets for the readings. He actually made money at the rate of thirteen hundred pounds a we!ek, and the speculators made a handsome thing out of it. Although no one could buy more than six tickets, of course they employed others to buy for them, and then ran the prices up. Great indignation was the result, and Dolby was the man who: was, metaphorically sneaking, tarred' and feathered in the daily papers. -

The scenes at the booking-offices - almost transcend belief. The pay place—we give one instance—was to open at nine on a* Wednesday morning, and at midnight on Tuesday a long line of speculators were assembled “en queue;" at two. in the morning a few honest buyers had begun to arrive ; at five there were, of 'all classes, two lines of not less than 800 each; at eight theire were at least 5000 persons in the two lines; at nine ehch line was. more than three-quarters of a mile in length. Members of families relieved each other in the queues ; waiters flew across the streets and squares from the neighbouring restaurants, to serve parties who were talcing their breakfast in the open December air; while excited persons offered five or ten dollars for the mere permission to exchange place® with other persons standing nearer the head 1 of the line. - Just like a gold rush! But poor Dolby was tne most unpopular and best-abused man in America, “This chap calling himself Dolby got drunk down town last night, and wao taken to the police-station for fighting an Irishman.’’ That was a sample of the lies that were told about Dolby, whose real crime was to Save refused advertisements to the conductors of the journal in which thei paragraph edIt was Dolby who counted the money, which was the most interesting of all his dutes. His own commission was £3000! The expenses were about £14,000. Dickens’s net reward was £20,000. Thd whole set produced over £30,000. But they billed him, and poor Dolby does not seem to have benefited much by his honorarium.