A Memory of Dickens. A Story About Jimmy Tyson.

Otago Witness, Issue 1936, 2 April 1891, Page 37

A Memory of Dickens.

A Story About Jimmy Tyson.

It was worth while receiving a compliment from Dickens (says Miss Kate Field, the well-known American writer), because it was turned with art. I know of one note in this country so felicitous in expression as to deserve publicity. It was addressed to a young girl who had been a constant attendant at_ his readings, which were to her a dramatic revelation. Going up the steps of Steinway Hall, New York, on the occasion of Dickens' New Year's Eve reading, this girl was met by a friend, who stopped her, saying, " I've a message for you from the chief." Dickens was always called "the chief" by his intimate friends. "I asked him if he saw you in the audience. • See her 1 ' replied Dickens, • yes, God bless her 1 She's the best audience I ever had.' "

"And I've a message for Mr Dickens," answered the delighted girl. Whereupon she drew forth a basket of violets, which graced the reader's desk during the evening, and elioited the following response : —

"Mt Dear Miss Field,— l entreat you to accept my most cordial thanks for your charming New Year's present. If you could know what pleasure it yielded me, you would be repaid for your delicate and sympathetic kindness.

"But I must avow that nothing in the pretty basket of flowers was quite so interesting to me as a certain bright, fresh face I have seen at my readings, which, I am told, you may see, too, when — you look in the glass I — Cordially yours,

"Chaeles Dickens."

. Not long afterward, on being introduced to " Boz," this same girl exclaimed, " Ah, Mr Diokens, I owe you so heavy a debt of gratitude as to be unable to pay even the interest on it."

"I'll give you a receipt in full," was Dickens' quick response, and underneath a very ferocious engraving of himself he wrote :

"Received of Miss Kate Field all the thanks she owes me — and many more — with which I am better pleased than I appear to be in the above gloomy presentment of my state of mind.

"Chaelbs Dickens."

I wouldn't part .with those autographs for the presidency of the United States. What sane woman would 1

A Doctor's Sympathy.

The coolness and seeming indifference which physicians exhibit in the sickroom often wins for them the reputation of being without feeling or sympathy. The fact is that their hearts are often moved with compassion at the scenes they are compelled to witness, but for the sake of the patient as well as the hopes of the relatives an unmoved exterior must be preserved. Of the noted Dr Hill, of Maine, it is said that his autocratic bearing in the sickroom gave strangers no hint of the deep sympathy which he felt for the humblest of his patients.

A gentleman entering his office one evening unannounced was surprised, however, to find the doctor with his head bowed over his desk and sobbing convulsively. The intruder was about to withdraw in silence, when the doctor wheeled around in his chair and, with tears streaming down his furrowed cheeks, said :

"Take a seat. There is no occasion for privacy. I was thinking of little Willie M — , who has been sick with scarlet fever. It was a severe case, but I had it under control. In fact the boy was out of danger, when his aunt, moved bj his entreaties, gave him a hot doughnut to eat. He's nearer death's door now than he was in the first place, and there isn't one chance in a hundred of saving him."

The gentleman was expressing regret at this sad turn of affairs when the doctor, as if ashamed of his unwonted display of feeling, exclaimed impatiently :

"I don't particularly care for the boy; what I'm sorry for is that I can't kill his aunt before she had a chance to murder another sick person with her confounded doughnuts 1"

Melbourne Bohemia is responsible for this story abonfc "Jimmy " Tyson :—: — One of the great characters of New South Wales is Tyson, the squatter millionaire. He is not absurdly liberal like sone rich men, but he is generous at times: One day he met a tattered swagsman tramping along a lonely road. Stopping his buggy he said, " My friend, you want a new suit of clothes. I'll giveyou acbange 1 " The man replied that he didn't know what he had done that the gentleman should seek to take a " rise "out of him, but Tyson, to show he was in earnest, produced a set of store tweeds, which he handed over. In great surprise the swagman took them, Tyson merely exacting the condition that he should be given the wayfarer's old togs in exchange. This being arranged, Tyson bestowed a £l-note upon him and drove on. Next day, at one of Tyson's stations in the neighbourhod, brandingwasgoingon. In the midst of it a disreputable vagrant humping a " bluey " turned up and watched the proceedings. He noted that Tyson's sheep were being marked with the manager's private brand. In the spirit of honesty he said to the manager, " Don't you think, mister, this is a little risky ? " The manager told him to mind his own business and go down to the hut for a feed like a sensible man. "But supposing Mr Tyson knew you were stealing his sheep this way 1 " observed the swagman. The manager threatened to kick him off the station, and the .wanderer thought it time to mention that he was- himself Mr Tyson, purposely disguised, and that the manager had tetter pack up his traps and regard himself lucky in not being prosecuted. He took the hint 1