Dickens' Name Honored by 300 at Delmonico's

Admirers of Great Novelist Meet at Banquet to Perpetuate His Memory.

HOW A LITTLE GIRL MET HIM.

Kate Douglas Wiggin Recounts Her Ride on a Railway Train With Author in 1868.

Love for Charles Dickens drew together three hundred kindred souls at a dinner at Delmonico's, last night, for the first of the Dickens' centenary celebrations in which New York has participated. The dinner was arranged by the Manhattan Branch of Dickens' Fellowship in co-operation with the Dickens' Centenary Committee.

It was at Delmonico's in 1868 that Dickens was given a farewell dinner just before sailing for England at the close of his second American trip, and there was no little sentiment in again gathering there to do honor to his memory. Three of the guests at last night's dinner were at the dinner given in 1868. They were George Haven Putnam, the publisher; Roswell D. Hatch, the banker, and Henry H. Benedict. Some of the speakers admitted the novelist had faults, but all spoke of his wonderfully human heart from which sprang "Little Nell" and the others that to the end of time will never grow old.

Perhaps the most delightful tribute of all was that of Kate Douglas Wiggin's (Mrs. Riggs), who told of a chance journey on the train with Dickens when she was but a slip of a girl. She told how, when the seat next Dickens' was unoccupied, she was drawn into it by some unaccountable force and how she sat there, her child's hand in Dickens' arm about her slim waist, telling him in her youthful, immature way how she had read "David Copperfield" seven times, but had skipped "some of the long, dull parts" in his other books.

"The night before my mother and an aunt had gone to hear Dickens read in Portland, Maine," said Mrs. Riggs. "He was my hero and I had devoured every one of his novels in our library and knew his characters by heart. There was never any suggestion that I be taken to hear the novelist read. It was not thought of, but after the older folks had gone I slipped out of the house and found my way to the City Hall and the theater where he was to speak and watched vainly for a glimpse of my hero's face. I was doomed to disappointment and shortly I returned home and went quietly to bed.

Was Glad She Had New Ribbons in Her Hat.

"But the next morning on the train to Boston I became aware by the gathering of the crowd that Dickens was to be aboard. And when at Berwick I saw him enter the train it seemed all quite natural that I should see him.

"I left my mother's side quite unnoticed and stole into the coach where he was seated and sat longingly looking at him, hoping by chance to catch his eye. I don't know why I thought he might glance at me, but I remember being glad that my mother had only the day before put new ribbons in my hat and that they were tied under my chin!

"After a while the gentleman with whom Dickens was talking left his seat and by some unaccountable force I was drawn to his side.

"I sat there, my heart in my mouth. Dickens all unaware of my presence for some time. Then he noticed me and exclaimed, ‘Bless my soul! And who have we here?’

"I remember telling him how I had had to stay at home the night before and could not hear him read. He asked: ‘And would you have liked to hear me read?’ and I remember replying, tears in my eyes, ‘More than tongue can tell.’”

With that, Mrs. Riggs said, Dickens slipped her hand in his and put his arm about her.

"And is it possible that such a slip of a girl could ever have read my long dull books?" he asked.

Novelist Said He Liked "David Copperfield" Best of All.

"Oh, yes,' I replied. ‘I've read all of them, three or four times, and some of them seven.’”

"And which one do you like the best?" he queried.

"Oh, “David Copperfield,” by far.”

"Good! Good!" he exclaimed. "So do I."

"And then after a while," continued the speaker, "I confess to him I had skipped some of the long, dull parts of his books. He seemed to take a new interest, drew out pencil and notebook and asked me all kinds of questions.

"I don't hear enough about those long, dull parts," he explained. And we sat talking all the way to Boston. And somehow even then I must have felt that later I must be one of the least of writers.

When Boston was reached, Dickens suddenly asked, “You're not traveling alone?”

"I explained that I had a mother in another coach, but that I had quite forgotten her," said Mrs. Riggs.

"Ah, I see that you are a past mistress in the art of flattery, he said, and accompanied me, still holding my hand, to my mother, to whom he introduced himself. And then on the station platform he kissed me goodby, and that is the last I saw of my hero.

"But I remember praying for him every night of his visit and his journey home that he might not be sick — even seasick!"

And when Mrs. Riggs had completed her “A Little Girl's Journey with Dickens” the diners cheered her until they were exhausted.

Seth Low as Toastmaster Introduces Other Speakers.

Seth Low was toastmaster, and the other speakers were Miss Agnes Repplier, who talked of "Dickens in Our Daily Speech"; William Bayard Hale of World's Work, on "Dickens and the Spirit of Youth"; Charles Rann Kennedy, "The Sentimentality of Dickens"; F. Hopkinson Smith, "The Humor of Dickens"; Edith Wynne Matthison read Edwin Markham's unpublished poem on "The World that Dickens Made," and Sidney Valentine, from Dickens, the passage, "Peggotty Hears News that Emily's Run Away."

Back and above the speakers table was a portrait of Dickens and draped about it were the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes. Seth Low, preceding the speakers, said he preferred to think of the celebration as that of a birthday of a man still living. "For," said he, "his memory and his characters will ever be green in our memory." He proposed a silent toast to Dickens' memory, which was drunk, standing.

Edwin Markham was kept from the dinner on account of illness, as was Dr. William T. Manning, rector of Trinity, where Dickens attended church on his last visit to America, and where the body of his son, Alfred Tennyson Dickens, was recently buried.

Miss Repplier regretted that the youths of today are too busy reading Bernard Shaw and Mr. Wells to have much time for Dickens.

"When we refer to Dickens' characters," said she, "our present-day youths look at us as though we were referring to some Bible talk. They don't know what they are missing. I wish I could believe with Andrew Lang that each English-speaking child who learns his letters made but another reader for Dickens."

"Dickens Never Wrote Any Ragtime Fiction."

"It was because Dickens never outgrew his childhood that he wrote with such charm," said Mr. Hale. "Even when he grew old he retained the acute observation of a child, and he always spoke as a child. He wrote of sane, normal, simple things. He was unaware of the woman question and didn't write any ragtime fiction. He wrote of the humbler sort who sometimes fell in love before marriage, and some of his characters even enjoyed beer and beer.

"He was merely a frivolous story teller writing the things that clamored in his heart to be told."

F. Hopkinson Smith said that in this age of defamation it was a blessed thing to speak well of men.

"And while tonight we honor this man, I still hear splittings and sputterings of discoloration about him," said he. "Even an English novelist has criticized his style and technique. Why, it takes a bold man to say that Dickens didn't attain a certain standard.

"A work of art is that which pleases the most people for the longest time, and judging by this standard we need not fear any criticism of his work. He had the human touch, the heart of a child, and knew the poor. And this is why millions love him, as I have — ever since I was 8 years old."

Some of those present 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. R. 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.