Dickens Centenary Banquet at Delmonicos

At Dickens Banquet His Daring Critics Are Called 'Clever Devils;' Men and Women High in Literature and Art Extol Sage of Gadshill

At Delmonico Feast Poets Praise and Authors Resent Attacks on “Boz.”

RECALLS VISIT IN 1868

Tales of Mirth and Sorrow, Poetic Appreciation and Reminiscences Mark the Centenary.

Love for Dickens, who peopled the dreams of mankind, and defence of his literary craftsmanship against carping “clever devils” of this present age marked the banquet last night in Delmonico’s in honor of the centenary of his birth.

It was a function given by the Manhattan branch of the Dickens Fellowship, in co-operation with the Dickens Centenary Committee, to refer to it in formal terms. Names and titles were forgotten in the outpouring of the hearts of those who weep for Little Nell, mourn for Paul Dombey, laugh with Mark Tapley and are not ashamed. As Mrs. Micawber vowed she would never leave Mr. Micawber, so none who was there at Delmonico’s will ever desert the pages of Boz.

F. Hopkinson Smith, the American novelist and artist, who was the last of the speakers to arrive, for he had wandered in from that Mugby Junction of America known as Jersey City, entered the lists boldly against the professedly clever builders of fiction of this generation, such as Arnold Bennett, who criticise the technique of the Sage of Gadshill.

An Age of Defamation.

“It is an age of defamation in which we live,” said Mr. Smith, “and we had to kill our Presidents to make martyrs of them. One is indeed bold in these days who criticises the technique of Dickens. By what standard may we judge? Ought any man to say, who has not reached the standard himself, unless years enough have gone by to justify his opinions?

“A work of art may be judged by the fact that it has pleased the greatest number of persons for the greatest period of time. The style of Meissonier may return to supplant that of Sorolla in the whirling disk of time, for we all know. Mr. Dickens was a realist in every sense, a Meissonier in literature.”

Mr. Smith delighted his auditors with a reading of the encounter of the Messrs. Weller and the Rev. Mr. Stiggins, of Ebenezer Lodge.

Charles Rann Kennedy, the playwright and author of “The Servant in the House,” who confessed that he had only recently become a reader of Dickens, proved to be the most zealous of proselytes. He declared, despite what the “clever devils” of this modern age may say, women still weep for the death of children, there are real persons with hearts and there are many who wish to get back to that age when men should have hearts once more and the “high brows” should cease from troubling and the “clever devils” be at rest.

How a Child Met Dickens.

One of the interesting features of the night was the reading of “Peggotty hears news that Emily’s run away,” by Sydney Valentine, and there was many a response to the story of pulsing human interest which Miss Kate Douglas Wiggin (Mrs. Riggs) told of her meeting as a child with the great English novelist. The recital affected her deeply and there was a tremor in her voice as she brought the recital to its close.

The Fellowship realized additional sums from the sale of medals and stamps for the fund which is to be used for the aid of the grandchildren of Mr. Dickens, who are in straitened circumstances. The banquet was one which revealed at every point that the power of Dickens to elicit sentiment and love of the present generation still abides.

Refers to Son’s Recent Death.

Seth Low, the toastmaster, said that the occasion suggested both the smile and the tear which Dickens sent around the world. He referred to the lamentable and sudden death of the great novelist’s son, Alfred Tennyson Dickens, who had expected to be present at the centenary.

Mr. Low also spoke of the fund which is being raised in aid of descendants of the Sage of Gadshill. Mr. Low was a sophomore in college when he heard Dickens read from his own works. It was said of the great writer in those days that Dickens carried enough chains to bring slavery back.

“I have never heard any author read his own books so well,” said Mr. Low, “except George W. Cable.”

Miss Agnes Repplier paid a tribute to the influence of Dickens on our daily speech—an influence which she believed had much of its origin in the appropriateness of his names. The memory of Mrs. Jellyby, for instance, will live forever as the exemplification of lack of housewifely thrift.

“His positive genius for names,” Miss Repplier added, “appears at every turn, for what other titles could have been given to such characters as Micawber, Toots, Traddles—they could not have been called anything else.”

The Rev. Dr. William T. Manning, the rector of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, who was to have spoken, was unable to be present on account of a severe cold. In his letter of regret, which was read, Dr. Manning referred to the fact that the great novelist had attended Trinity when he visited this country. It is in a vault in Trinity Churchyard that the son of Dickens lies buried.

Viewed in Youth’s Spirit.

William Bayard Hale saw Dickens from the viewpoint of “the spirit of youth.” The speaker declared that Dickens owed his success to the fact that he looked at all that he saw with the eye of a child.

“If we could assemble the characters of Dickens here,” said Mr. Hale, “and make a composite picture of them we would get a wonderful picture of human nature. The power, the vividness and vivacity of childhood were his. Dickens did not know what others had written about life when he began; he didn’t care, he saw it all with the never failing freshness of the child.

“We are here to keep his memory green, and we have no reason to believe that it ever will be anything else than green. We are here to honor one who kept his heart forever young and whose face was bathed in the dew of childhood’s morning.”

Poetry by Edwin Markham was to have been read by the author, who, however, was detained at home by illness. It was read in the clear and bell-like voice of Miss Edith Wynne Matthison (Mrs. Kennedy). The verses were entitled, “The World That Dickens Made.”

Three Were at 1868 Feast.

Nearly four hundred men and women well known in the social and literary world were present. Of them three were at the dinner given in 1868 at Delmonico’s for Dickens. They were George Haven Putnam, the publisher; Roswell D. Hatch, the banker, and Mr. Henry H. Benedict.

Some of the admirers of Dickens who joined the feast last night were:—

Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bristol, Dr. Elmer Ellsworth Brown, chancellor of New York University, and Mrs. Brown; Mr. and Mrs. W. Sidney Bryant, Jr.; Henry Clews, Miss May Estelle Comstock, Judge Robert C. Cornell, Joseph P. Day, Dr. Albert K. Detwiller, the Rev. Dr. Howard Duffield, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Erskine Ely, Dr. and Mrs. E. R. L. Gould, Justice and Mrs. Samuel Greenbaum, Mr. and Mrs. William Bayard Hale and Professor Henry M. Howe.

Others were Henry E. Huntington, Grenville Kane, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rann Kennedy, Joyce Kilmer, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Lamb, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Osborne, Judge Alton B. Parker, Dr. E. L. Partridge, Major Louis L. Seaman, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac N. Seligman, Dr. Albert Shaw, Nikola Tesla, John C. Tomlinson, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Untermyer, Theodore N. Vail, Horace White and Mrs. James A. Wright.