THE LITTLE DICKENSES.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2555, 15 March 1877, Page 3

THE LITTLE DICKENSES.

A paragraph is going the rounds of the papers just now about a little nephew and niece of the.Jate Charles Dickens, who are only kept from the work-house at Illinois, by a poor x>ld qouple with whom they have found a home since their mother died. Nearly everybody who reads this paragraph gushes over it, and says, ■"■ What a pity! wJHWb a "shame ! that the poor children of »uch an uncle should be allowed to be fed* lodged, and clothed by the" charity of strangers." Yet the same paragraph goes on to state that their late father was a drunken, unprincipled scoundrel, who deserted his wife in England, when she lost her oye•ight, and eloped with a schoolgirl to America. As he was a brother of the great novelist, however, interest was brought to bear, and a good billet was found.him in the, Land Department of the Illinois Central Railroad. But he spent hia moneyas. fast as he got it, sponged <m his brother j and everybody else within reach,..got discharged from his billef for misconduct, and at: length deserted his second wife and the two children above referred to. He sponged

his way through the States, and to Australia here, his brother's great repufc*ation being his only capital; but it was "sufficienti if procured Mto free quarters " in every town and township he, visited ; pound nbtesi'half-sovereigns, half-crowns, and; unliniited drinks, at bush t public hoUses^for the poorest bushman knows and appreciates. Charles Dickens^ s This '■ Aiigusfus,l>ickens was at Brisbane- for v fepr,^ay|'twelve or thirteen years ago, I reinember/ta bloated, shabby, dirty loafer. Hje^djeol-a ;: pftuper andean.;outcast—as he w,a»bound tosbe, in. spite of fate, and* all: theihelp ofsall -the ! people: in '' l1the; ; world^ Theipoor 7Tißtim^(wh;ob^'e-,ißeduced'';a liid-. took-tocAineridafwith'him; lived;'ln,htte£ miseryifo'r ri'nulnter of iycafs,''and at.Jast poisbn|d!te)rsel^ fa'ai^jtt^r!";t^p, chiljdren, Mire '■^§^"^i^''ft}iii''lpn§ljl' coupje , of. Attb^^llliii^ ever since. V c aHdj'tttb/" the whole mafcteriiis thlt such a man should find people foolish e4^ugh,fo*;'^h^^:^i^.icindnesß of which he^ Jwasfunw;o,^thy--7simply; ibecause ?his; brother.:Vag^ ajgreatgenius.; It is the best thing ttia.tjCo.oid happen:io the' two: childreiii«kt jAmboy, lUitrois, that they are no longer underihe blighting'influence of » such a father; and it will be the worst thing that coiild happen to^theni if they arei deluded into the idea^tbat because theirunolewas a "great and gifted man, therefore they havea claim on the reading pttblic r of; the pld world, and ought not to be" cdmpelled to earn their own living by; hardfhdneist" workjjr:The sooner, wejearn > to call things by'their right names the better.—" Bohemian "• in the Queenalander.,. / ,. J .^ > i.v < .^ ! 'i; ; •;;■: ■"-. ■-■,-■-- :