Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 7.djvu/255

 CHARLES DICKENS 18? London, where a mean house in a shabby street of Camden Town received them But not for long. The unfortunate father was presently arrested for debt and con- signed to the Marshalsea, and Charles, then only ten years of age, and small for his age, was placed in' a blacking-factory at Hungerford Market, where all he could do was to put the labels on the blacking-bottles, with half a dozen rough and rude boys. The degradation and misery of this occupation sunk deep into the boy's soul. He could never dare to speak of this time ; it was never mentioned in his presence. Not only were his days passed in this wretched work, but the child was left entirely to himself at night, when he made his way home from Hunger- ford Market to Camden Town, a distance of four miles, to his lonely bedroom. On Sundays he visited his father in the prison. Of course such a neglected way of living could not continue. They presently found a lodging for him in Lant Street, close to the Marshalsea, where at least he was near his parents, and his father shortly afterward recovering his liberty, they all went back to Camden Town, and the boy was sent to school again. It was to a private school in the Hampstead Road, where he remained for three or four years of quiet work. It must have been then, one suspects, rather than at Chatham, that he became so great a devourer of books. But he was never a scholar in any sense, and the books that he read were novels and plays. That the family fortunes were still low is proved by the fact. that, when he was taken from school, no better place could be found for him than a stool at the desk of a solicitor. Meantime his father had obtained a post as reporter for the Morning Herald, and Charles, feel- ing small love for the hopeless drudgery of a lawyer's office, resolved also to at- tempt the profession of journalist. He taught himself shorthand with the resolu tion even the rage which he always threw into everything he undertook ; and he frequented the British Museum daily in order to supplement some of the shortcomings of his reading. In his seventeenth year he became a reporter at Doctors' Commons. At this period all his ambitions were for the stage. He would be an actor. All his life, indeed, he loved acting and the theatre above all things. As an actor, one feels certain that he would have succeeded. He would have made an excellent comedian. Fortunately, he was saved for bettei work. It was not until he was two-and-twenty that he succeeded in getting perma- nent employment on the staff of a London paper, as a reporter. In this capaci ty he was sent about the country to do work which is now mainly supplied by local reporters. It must be remembered that there were as yet no railways. He had to travel by stage-coach, by post, by any means that offered. " I have been upset," he said years afterward, speaking of this time, " in almost every de scription of vehicle used in this country." About this time he began the real work of his life. In December, 1833, the Monthly Magazine published his first original paper, called "A Dinner at Poplar Walk." Other papers followed, but produced nothing for the contributor ex cept the gratification of seeing them in print, because the magazine could not afford to pay for anything. However, they did the writer the best service