“PICKWICK PAPERS”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22051, 6 September 1933, Page 5

“PICKWICK PAPERS”

ADDRESS BY THE REV. J. M. SMEETH. An interesting address on Charles Dickens's "Pickwick Papers" was given by the Rev. James M. Smeeth in the Gladstone Presbyterian Church last evening. There was a large attendance. Mr Smeeth said' that " Pickwick " was a humorous classic. He had met people who were disappointed in the book because they were unable to understand its • fun, and, indeed, did not think it " funny " at all. That depended upon what their idea of "fun" was, and upon an understanding of the conditions of the times in which the book was written. It had to be remembered that there were no railways, and all travelling from town to', town was by the old stage coach. Horses were changed at regular stages, at hospitable roadside inns, which gave travellers opportunity to warm themselves and regale themselves at the bars, or, if time permitted, partake of a welcome and generous meal. Mr Pickwick and his companions spent- a good deal of time in these inns as they journeyed about, and much of real historic interest was recorded of them. Stage-coach roads in England were not the open public thoroughfares they were to-day. At intervals gates or "turnpikes" were stretched across the roads to bar the passage of vehicles until the toll fees were paid. At these "pikes" the turnpike keepers lived, and many amusing scenes were recorded. There was a remarkable variety of scene and character in "Pickwick." Towns were spoken of such as London, Rochester, Birmingham, Ipswich, and Bath, whilst kindly satire veiled the identity of another town by calling it " Eatanswill." During the story the author took his readers into the debtors' prison in London, the magistrate's office in Ipswich, the court at the Guildhall; introduced them to quaint characters of every type, notably the Wellers (Tony and Sam), the intemperate parson (Stiggins), Jingle, the strolling actor and adventurer, with his "servant" (Job Trotter), the famous "fat boy," Mary, the pretty housemaid, the medical students (Bob Sawyer and Benjamin Allen), women gossips (Mrs Saunders and Mrs Cluppins), the irate landlord (Captain Boldwig), but the chief interest of the whole was centred in the sweetly simple and guileless "Mr Pickwick," easily imposed upon and greatly lacking in knowledge of human nature yet regarded by his friends and "followers' as being a fount of wisdom and practical common sense, and the younger men, Winkle, Tupman, and Snodgrass. It was interesting to read of such incidents as the use of sedan chairs and of the duel arranged to take place between Dr Slammer and Mr Winkle, all of which showed that to appreciate the humour of the book one had to live for a while in imagination in the period in which it was written and have a somewhat just estimate of the education of the people of those days, of their social customs, and of the rise of various movements for social betterment which were coming up about that time. Although a humorous book, "Pickwick" had a profoundly serious side, and the speaker thought its pages could hardly be read without feelings of indignation at the terrible sufferings of the poor debtors in the Fleet Prison, nor without remembering that the satire of Dickens did much to wipe away the system that could practise such enormous wrong and inflict such cruelty.. At the conclusion of the address, Mr Smeeth was accorded a vote of thanks.