"Mansion House," Belleville, where Dickens was entertained in 1842. The porch in front of the house is of modern construction. CHARLES DICKENS IN ILLINOIS. (Dr. J. F. Snyder.) A highly prized volume in my library is an old, stained copy of the first American edition of the Pickwick Papers, (published by Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1838), which my father gave me in 1841. Reading and re-reading that book with boyish delight during the school vacation of that summer interested me in its author, known then as "Boz," a nom de plume he had adopted early in his literary career. He was already famous out here, so that when the eastern papers announced his contemplated visit to the United States the next year, I shared with our people generally the hope and expectancy that he would extend his tour as far west as the Mississippi, which he subsequently did. No railroad had then penetrated the wilderness as far as St. Louis, at that time the frontier city of the vast west, and steamboats and stage coaches were about the only means for public transportation west of the Allegheny mountains. Mr. Dickens, accompanied by his wife, came by the old emigrant route, in steamboats, down the Ohio river from Pittsburg, and up the Mississippi, arriving at St. Louis on the 11th of April, 1842. The steamboat Fulton, upon which Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had taken passage at Louisville, Ky., arrived at St. Louis in the evening (of the 11th), but as it was not expected until the next day, no reception committee appeared to meet the distinguished tourists, and they made their way, in a hack, to the Planters House, then by far "Mansion House," Belleville, where Dickens was entertained in 1842. The porch in front of the house is of modern construction. CHARLES DICKENS IN ILLINOIS. (Dr. J. F. Snyder.) A highly prized volume in my library is an old, stained copy of the first American edition of the Pickwick Papers, (published by Carey, Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1838), which my father gave me in 1841. Reading and re-reading that book with boyish delight during the school vacation of that summer interested me in its author, known then as "Boz," a nom de plume he had adopted early in his literary career. He was already famous out here, so that when the eastern papers announced his contemplated visit to the United States the next year, I shared with our people generally the hope and expectancy that he would extend his tour as far west as the Mississippi, which he subsequently did. No railroad had then penetrated the wilderness as far as St. Louis, at that time the frontier city of the vast west, and steamboats and stage coaches were about the only means for public transportation west of the Allegheny mountains. Mr. Dickens, accompanied by his wife, came by the old emigrant route, in steamboats, down the Ohio river from Pittsburg, and up the Mississippi, arriving at St. Louis on the 11th of April, 1842. The steamboat Fulton, upon which Mr. and Mrs. Dickens had taken passage at Louisville, Ky., arrived at St. Louis in the evening (of the 11th), but as it was not expected until the next day, no reception committee appeared to meet the distinguished tourists, and they made their way, in a hack, to the Planters House, then by far |