RRR hit oh an ddan ih ann a 4 i "Canada Hq BY H. GERALD WADE Author of "With Boz in Montreal," "Dickens and a Merry "Christmas," "Sam Slick, the Dickens of Canada," Etc. Held, and Always Will Retain a B "tty CHARLES DICKENS | IMPRESSIONS OF CANADA | } of Governor Falkland in Halifax, and: My Foremost Place (n tememb rance' It is now seventy-nine years since Pickens started from Liverpool in a small paddle steamer of 1,000 tons, built by an ingenious man named Cunard, to face a fearful winter erossing the Atlantic. There is no doubt that the skeiches of American life, both in fact and in fiction, given to the world on his return by Dickens largely affected the relations of the two continents to each other for many years afterwards. Dickens' de- seription of American characters Colonel Diver, Mr. Jefferson Brick, Mejor Pawkins, General Fladdock and Mr. La Fayette Kettle-- probably oven today still color British thought and feeling about the United States. In his notes Dickens writes that he wished to abstain from instituting parallel whatever between the social features of the United States and | Canada. He said: "Canada has held apd always will retain a foremost place in my rememberance," and Canwdlians are second to none in the fove for the works of Charles Dickens, and no English writer, no teller of Christmas tales, touches them more nearly or makes his char- scters so real to them, characters many of whom have counterparts in cur cosmopolitan country. In Can- ada we have five 'branches of the Dickens Fellowship, the Toronto branch being the largest in the world, The most intimate connection of ull between our great country and the great novelist is a personal visit he paid us in 1842, when our country | "Was not then so great, but when the novelist was firm in his enormous popularity, And as Dickens' notes of this visit to Canada are least known, perhaps, in Canada of any of his writ- ings, I give here what I have gleaned from his correspondence, hoping that his glimpses of-old Canada may be interesting to Canadian readers. For some time Dickens had enter- tained a desire to visit America, and he wrote to Forster: "I have made up my mind (with God's leave) to go to America, and to start as goon after Christmas as it will be safe to go." Of taking Mrs. Dickens with him, he sald: "Kate eries dismally if I men- tion the subject," but later writes, "Kate is quite reconciled." Promin- ent among the novelist's numerous well-wishers - anxious for his safe Journey wes the kindly humorist, Thomas Hood, who,composed the fol- lowing witty verse: "Here's success to all his antics, | Since it pleases him to roam, | And to paddle o'er Atlantics i After such a sale at home. May he shun all rocks whatever, | Au thehallow sand that Jurks, | And the passage be as clever { | | As the best among his. works!" | At length came the eventful day. | "I shall never forget the fourth ser- {fous and three-fourths comical aston- | ishment with which, on the morning | |of January 3rd, 1842, | opened the | door and put my head into my state- {room on board the Britannia steam | packet, bound for Canada, and Carry- |ing her Majesty's mails." . While Dickens could not have fore- seen the luxury of our modern travel, {he was quite conscious of the poor {accommodation offered, for which he | {had to pay thirty-eight guineas, | which was at that time the fare be- { tween Liverpool and Halifax. In his | notes he speakes of his cabin as "an utterly Impossible, impracticable, | posterous box." of his berth he also wrote: "Something they call my bed, {but which I belleve to be a muffin | beaten flat." The trip across the Atlantic in mid-winter was an exceptionally {rough one. Of this much-advertised, noble ""paddle-wheel'" ship he wrote: "Every plank and timber creaked as if the skrip was made of wickerwork, and now crackled like an enormous fire of the driest possible twigs," and that he arrived safely is a wonder, judging by his unpublished private letters. On January 20 the ship arrived at Halifax, after being sixteen days out. Dickens was. met by the member for Halifax, Honorable Joseph Howe, and escorted to the House of Assemb- ly, where he gat at the right hand of the Speaker, the Honorable L. G. W. Archibald, and gave a short address. Of this event he says, "The ceremon- ial and forms observed were so close- ly copled and so gravely presented on a small scale that it was like looking at Westminister through the wrong end of a telescope." "The Nova Scotian" has a long article regarding Dickens, giving in thoroughly hopeless and proudly pre- | + jiel kis reply to a toast given at a | banquet in his honor. { While our Canadian papers at the THE DAILY BRITI WHIG. ear he. SATURDAY, DEC. 3, 1921, time seem to have made much of bis | visits to ether places, they give very {little Information regarding his short : in Halifax and other parts of | Canada. | The Dickens Party were the guests {tt was hers that Boz, who was then 30 years of age, met Haliburton for {the first time. [46. He had just become Justice of the Superior Court. The meeting be- tween these two humorists must have Koen an interesting one, and no doubt, a good deal of 'soft sawder' | was indulged in between the English | and Canadian Dickens In answer to the charge that Sam Slick was merely a Yankee version of 8am Weller, and it may be stated that the first number of Pickwick | Papers appeared in 1836, a year after the early chapters of the Clockmaker appeared. They were published by Joseph Howe, and were widely copied In the American Press, and also had |a wide circulation in England, ao [there is no doubt that Boz was in- | fluenced, to a certain extent at least, {by the Clockmaker, After the appearance of American | Notes, (which caused such a storm | across the Border), Sam Slick was | vehement in his criticisms of | Dickens' alleged ingratitude. It is |interesting to note that in 1858 | Thackeray, Sam Slick and Dickens | were fellow-members of the Athen- | senm Club, Of Halifax Dickens said the whole | aspect was cheerful, thriving and in- | dustrious, and he carried away with { him a most pleasant impression of the town and its inhabitants. He writes: "Nor was it without regret that I returned home without having found {an opportunity of returning and once | more shaking hands with the friends we made." | Over two weeks was spent in Mont- | real and Quebec. This part of his | Canadian trip he seemed to enjoy fvery much, especially his visit to the officers at the barracks. They were | sueets at Rasco's (not "Pease's" as | Forster and other authorities print |it) hotel, 8t. Paul street, Montreal, | In Dickens' time it was considered | the finest hotel in Canada. , The hotel | with the original name on it can be [seen today, and its wide and generous | | fireplaces hint its former glory. It is the only building associated with Dickens that remains in Canada to- day. While there Dickens and his wife made many friends and enjoyed | a number of delightful drives. Boz wrote: "Our drives were made doubly in- teresting by the bursting out of spring which is here so rapid that it is but a few days leap from barren winter to the blooming youth of sum- mer." The streets of Montreal he described as being "generally narrow [and irregular, thé city displaying a When Baby HERE ARE MANY WAYS a baby has of e or digression from its normal conditi ery, a prolonged irritated cry. fretful. In these and other _sh or of the whole something wrong, do not act na is the first thought, but in the event of any del such as Fletcher's Castoria. a safe remedy y are the cause of most of baby' Restlessness, Complains. xpressing on of health an a constant turning of the head ways a baby tells you there is ost mothers know that a disordered stomach, or bowels that 8 sufferings. A call for the doctor ay there should be ready at hand any pain or irregulari J ve A i Castoria has been used for baby's ailments for over 30 years and has mer- "ited the baby's medicine because of its harmlessness And remember this: all for every member of the family. when given to a babe. Gros TSEC aan good will of the family physician in a measure and the Castoria is psenally _ What mig Children not equaled by any other results achieved. a baby's remedy and not a cure- t help you is too often dangerous Cry For Let's Think It Over. There is such a thing as saying too much on any subject, and the "'grand-stand" talker sooner or later becomes a bore. The truth is always welcomed, and the truth reiterated and confirmed is more than welcome--it reaches your innermost soul. Fletcher's Castoria is all its advertising has claimed for it. Scrutinized by the microscope of years it stands without a discerning Mothers. And for mother love--will public opinion and used for over thirty peer in the hearts of thoughtful, cautious, once used, mother love--there is no substitute scorn to try a "substitute" or a *"just-as-good"", Masquerading under many names drugs that are injurious to the tender babe have found their way into some households, but the light of experience soon casts them out. Are they cast out before it is too late? MOTHERS SHOULD READ THE BOOKLET THAT IS AROUND EVERY BOTTLE OF FLETCHER'S CASTORIA GENUINE CASTORIA ALWAYS Bears the Signature of o The latter was then | | | | i President of the Canadian rr -- Ar great variety of good shops and many | ladies have appeared and taken their | excellent dwellings." It-was in Montreal that Dickens | won his first great laurels as an actor at the Ol@ Queen's Theatre, at the eastern extremity of St. Paul street, on May 24th and 25th, in a perform- ande arranged by the officers of the { Coldstream Guards, who were at that [time stationed there. «The playd pre- | sented were "A Roland for an Oli- [ ver," "Past Two o'clock in the Morn- |ing,"" and a farce entitled "Deaf as |a Post." Sir Charles Bagot ana Sir | Richard Jackson and their staffs were present and the military portion of the audience were all in full uni- | form. The theatre was lighted with | 88s and the scenery was excellent, "I | really do believe that I was very | funny," he wrote to Forster, "at least | I know that I laughed heartil:- at my- | self, It went with a roar all through; but only think of Kate playing, and playing devilish well I assure you." During his stay in Montreal Dick- ens made a short trip with his wife to the good old city of Quebec and was much charmed (as we all areito this day) by its interest and beauty. SH J. MURRAY GIBBON, Author's Association. - i chairs." "The ladies of America," he says, | "are decidedly and unquestionably beautiful." And Dickens had a dis- | tinct eye for beauty, Every one who | visits America today will bear evid- | ence that there is here no falling away. But it is even more remark- lable to find scattered through' Dick- |ens' letters to Forster tributes to the American men which certainly do not seem wholly consistent with the sketches contained in Martin Chuz- zlewit. "Americans," he says, "are friendly, earnest, hospitable, kind. frank, very often accomplished, far less prejudiced than you would sup- pose. Warm-hearted, fervent, en thusiastic." {reat Britain end the United States are both countries in which every man likes to "say the thing he will," and therefore we have always indulged' in amazing freedom in our criticism of one another. History and Biography He wrote, "The impressi made upon the visitor by this Gibraltar of America its giddy heights, its citadel suspended as it were in the air, its picturesque, steep streets and its splendid views which burst upon the eye at every turn is at once unique and lasting. The dangerous preci- pice, along whose rocky front Wolfe and his brave companions climbed to glory; the Plains of Abraham, where { Wolfe received his mortal wound, are [ not the least among the associations {clustering about it which . would make a desert rich in interest." | They left Montreal on May 30th and his last greeting in Canada was from the officers at the barracks, and with "Rule Britannia" sounding in his ears he sailed away, After his visit he wrote of Canada, "Few Englishmen are prepared to find it what jit is--advancng quietly, oid differences settling down and be- | Ing fast forgotten, public feeling and THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR WILFRID LAURIER, By Prof. Oscar D. Skelton. Two volumes, S. B. Gundy, Toronto, This is a very carefully written biography of Sir Wilfrid by the Dean of Arts in Queen's University, It js illuminating not only as regards the recent history of Canada, but also in its important relation to the world development 'of Liberalism | THE TRAGEDY OF LORD KITCHE- NER. By Viscount Escher. John | Murray, London. | Lord Eschershas created a sensa- | tion by his frank exposure of Lord | Kitchener's weaknesses. fot this volume represented K of K. | In France, corresponded constantly with him, kept a journel, and during the war saw things from the inside. | He gives away many picturesque | stories in this notable book, and * That' there should be a reasén for everything that is worth while, without the necessity for proof. That 4 man, whose vocation is strenuous business, should choose as his avoca- tion the making of Canadian Roman- ces, in preference to spending his en- tire leisure hours--few as they are --at some diversion exacting, does, to the lay mind, seem to de- mand a little explaining, In the first place, I have always loved literature in all its diversified forms. Reading, to me, is a sublime happiness, and writing--particularly that of a creative nature- -an all-ab- sorbing and worry-cha: ng pastime. That novel writing is fraught with difficulties which require deep con- centration and much indust y to overcome, does not in any way de- tract from its heing a real pastime to' me, less 1t is an old exploded theory that a poet or a novelist lives fogever in the clouds and that he is no business- man; that art and trade cannot com- bine in one individual, Personally, The author | I have always found that a change of | work is as good as a holiday to the | mind and to the body. After a stren- uous day's accounting, nothing can | re-energise and brighten my flagging mental faculties like the concentra- | tion for an hour or two in the pro- duction of creative literaturé: noth- |ing helps me to forget the ceaseless {army of numbers that march relent- | lessly through the brain of a man of figures after his day's work is ver, as does this refreshing dip Into | the sea of romance; nothing so paves | the way for a glorious night's sleep | 80 necessary for recuperating the | energies for the next day's toil, as a | romp over the green fields of your | imagination with the children you | have created from your fancy. Again, I have found my daily work of accounting the finest aid in the world in the production of a ro- mance, Not the creative part of the production--for that belongs to art alone, but the part that shows the workman: correct spelling, exactness wher marshalling incidents, the fac- uty for noting "hings for futura reference, carefulness in detail, scrupulous attention to a sure foun- dation upon which to build, and pro- per construction; never passing up a mistake, because of the,account- ant's knowledge that mistakes show up sooner or later with dire results. Thus do I feel certain thit we are the better business-men because of our fondnesg for writing stories; thus do I consider we are the better novelists of our business taining. Then there is another reason why Canada's novelists are chiefly busi- ness and professional men and wo- men, farmers and school-teachers. Generally speaking, they do not set out to be writers as a matter of busi- ness, but do so on account of the creative urge that is within. them and that goads them on to production in spite of themselves. That too is one | reason why Canada's writers should {be as great, as if not greater than, | the authors of the older nations. They do not take up the profession of letters as they would blacksmith- ing, cobbling or store-keeping, as many authors of other nationalities do without consideration of their | throws valuable sidelights not only |l8ck or otherwise of tle inherent | private enterprise alike in a sound | Lx and wholesome state, nothing of flush or fever in its system, but health and vigor throbbing in its steady pulse. It is full of hope and promise. To me, who had beefr ac- | customed: to think of it ds something [left behind in the strides of advanc- | ing society, as something neglected and forgotten slumbering and wast- ing in its sleep, the demand for labor and the rates of wages, the busy quays, the vessels taking in their car- gues and discharging them, the amount of shipping in the different ports, the commerce, roads and pub- lic works--all made to last--the re- spectability and character of the pub- lic journals and the amount of ra- tional comfort and happiness which honest industry may earn, were very great surprises." It is now fifty years since Charles Dickens returned from the second visit: Unhappily, his life was too far spent for him to place on permanent record the changes in his impres- sions about the American people. He was to produce no second novel on American life which would unwrite the harsh judgments of "Martin Chuzzlewit." It would have beeu better for the relations between the two countries if he could have built up into one of his immortal novels the various kindly impressions of the American people which are now con- tained only in his Biography and Let- ters. There is nothing, for instance, in "Martin Chuzzlewit" to convey the judgment everywhere recorded by Dickens mn his intimate writings, both in 1842 and 1868, as to the amazing courtesy of the Americans toward women, It was in 1842 that he wrote from Boston: "There ls universal deference paid to ladles, and they walk about at all seasons wholly unprotected." A re- markabla tribute to a rough and ear- ly elvilisation. Or again, his descrip- tion of their habits at the rough meals which he otherwise loved so little--'"Nobody will sit down to any one of these meals, though the dishes are smoking on the board, until the | on Kitcheller but on some of the most prominent personages of the war, both in France and England, QUEEN ALEXANDRA. By W. R. H. Trowbridge. The Ryerson Press, Toronto, A carefully written, discreet life of Queen Alexandra. QUEEN VICTORIA. By Lytton Strachey, F. D., Goodchild Co., ~ Toronto. One of the big books of the year; perhaps the greatest literary triumph of the twentieth century, MY DIARIES, 1888-1914, By Wil- fred Scawen Blunt. The Ryerson Press, Toronto. An absolutely frank treatment of the inside history of his own leading figures in England's political, artis- tic and litegary life during the last half century. This two-volume work will be a source-book for historians and biographers a century hence. AT THE SUPREME WAR COUNCIL. By Capt, Peter E, Wright. , The Ryerson Press, Toronto, Here is an author who challenges contradiction, persecution and even prosecution, He accuses Generals Haig, Robertson and Petain of plot- | ting against Foeh until the cause of the Allies was almost lost. He gives abundant details of the desperate in- trigues that went on in France until March, 1918, when Foch was given the supreme command, and victory was snatched out of the jaws of de- feat, Hammocks are supposegd to have received their mame from the fact that the natives of Brazil used the bark of the hamack tree for nets in which to sleep. Threads of gold used in India for makinglace are drawn out so fine that 1100 yards of it only weigh one ounce. - Don't be too genercus. Take the benefit of the doubt yourself some- times, equipment for the work, Canadian writers learn a profession apart from that of literature and later become writers because of that inward com- pelling which, after all, 1s alone the real signal that one possesses the talent for such labor. As a rule, the Canadian author cannot take up authorship otherwice than as an avo- cation, because the day is not yet when Canada has proved herself will- ing to support her writers. Conse- quently, for what we have of Canad- fan Literature--and> it is very con- siderable indeed--we are indebted to the self-sacrifice of her business, pro- fessional and farming soms and daughters, who, heedless of the call passes | WHY AND HOW I WRITE THEM By Robert Watson | Author of "The Spoilers of the Valley," Etc. | " ROMANCES, f [of the open and the attractions of social life, have beer willing to set sa pl aside and to closet themselves with their creative work in the higher cause of something for Canada, But it is not that Canada cannot | support her literary people so much fas it is an indifference, or rather a | thoughtlessness that has pervaded {the mind of the general Canadian { reader. Canada = contributes hun {dreds of thousands of dollars every | rear toward the support of the lter- [ary producers of the United States, {Great "Britain and other countries, {but she expends practically nothing at all jn comparison on the purchase of*Canadian literature by Canadians, {And how very different it is in the | United States where the people sup- port theft own literature almost to {the exclusion of any other. What American bookseller, for instance, Walid think of having a 'Canadian Book Week'? When they have any Book Weeks, they have American jones, Yet, only a few months ago, {our shop windows and our book-sel- {lers' counters showed to us Canad- ians thht we were having an 'Ameri- can Book Week' almost thus: upon us, > 'assures | Our markets are aflood with Unit- led States literature. Not that I com- | plain of the very commendable enter- {prise of our United States neighbors |in laying seige to our book markets but rather of the lact of foresight {and forethought on our part in laying * | ourselves so widely open to it. When we desire a book to read, we have {got into the thoughtless habit of ask- {ing for a Zane Grey, a Harold Bell { Wright, a Jack London, a Rex Beech, | a Peter B. Kyne, a Rupert Hughes or jan R. W. Chambers; in fact, any kind of a bobk but a Canadian one by {a Canadian; and the only Canadian authors we are able to recall to mem- ery at euch a moment are, possibly, { Ralph Connor and Sir Gilbert Parker |and we excuse ourselves--if we feel 1 that any excuse be'really necessary-- {that we have read all their books, | Yet, we have some two hundred anf [fifty authprs alive and of good re- [ pute in Canada today, many of whom are producing books every year oreo | as interesting and as meritorious as \ | those of the United States authors | whonrI have nameld--and would do | even better if they were encouraged. {But we have not taken the trouble, jor let me say the pleasure of reading the works of these Canadians to find out their true value for ourselves; | we have allowed other countries to dictate our reading matter to us and we have permitted ourselves to be carried away by their flaring adver- tisements and their clever publicity stunts. I set out in this article to discuss | 'Why and How I write Canadian Ro- mances' and I have got away from | the subject, but, after all, not so very | far away. Why do I write Canadian | Romances? I write them because of {a definite ambition within me to help | in some way--- in the way I feel I am | best fitted--to make Canada a little | more Canadian; to contribute my | few roughly chiselled stones to that | great Monument of Canadian Litera- [ture which, some day, will raise its stately pile where all the world must see it and, seeing, will admire, I write Canadian Ro- mances? I find time to do eo by the simple process of eliminating all time-wasting pursuits and I do so by dint of sheer hard work, but work of 2 nature that I dearly love, And now, we get back to the all- | important part. What good is it for {a Canadian to write a Canadian book | How do for Canadians, if Canadians do not * read it? This has been termed the | age of 'home-brews.' Fellow-Canad- |ians, give the 'home-brews' a chance | this year and you will come back for | more next year; make it worth while [for your Canadian authors to go on { with their work for Canada and you -.. will not be disappointed in them, Author of "The Dratna o -~ ARTHUR HEMING, f the Forest" Canadian books of the season, one of 'the big