THE DICKENS FUND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 40, 12 February 1912, Page 7

THE DICKENS FUND.

The Dickens Centenary Fund, which is being raised in London, lias served to show how great an influence the Victorian novelist still exercises over English-speaking people. The lists of subscriptions published by the Daily Telegraph during December contained the names of people in every walk of life, large numbers of whom forwarded with their donations letters expressing their keen admiration for Dickens’ works and their sympathy with his grandchildren, for whom the fund is being raised. They are the five daughters of Charles Dickens, junior, who are in very poor circumstances and have need of assistance to provide such comfort as they should be able to enjoy in their declining years. Happily the good friends who have pleaded their cahse have been entirely successful. Prior to January 10'th the Daily Telegraph collected £4OOO for the fund, and a gala performance given at the Coliseum on January 7th produced £2500. This performance was one of those spontaneous demonstrations of generosity for which the warm hearted members of the dramatic profession are famous. The programme was something to bo remembered for a lifetime by those who were privileged to attend the performance. “Scrooge,” “Bardell v. Pickwick,” a dramatisation of the immortal interview between Mrs Gamp and Betsy Prig, and other “scenes from Dickens” were staged by such eminent actors as Sir John Hare and Sir George Alexander. Mrs Kendal recited Bret Harte’s “Dickons in Camp,” a touching tribute to the great novelist; eminent operatic “stars” wore proud to Jill in the intervals between the ( dramatic numbers with their best songs, and the overture was played by an orchestra of 300 members'. An entertainment on similar lines was arranged some weeks ago by the Players’ Club in Now York, and it was expected that The American contribution-to the fund would bo very large. The memorial scheme has appealed to many foreigners. Four Germans clubbed together and sent a donation as “an offering of Teutonic gratitude,” and Paris, ; which recently enjoyed a production of a French dramatisation of “Pickwick,” also contributed substantially to the fund.