captain, who gave her discreet advice. He said: “If your
affections are disengaged, take that one of the young gentlemen
whom you like the best and settle the question.” To this the
beautiful young lady made reply, “I cannot do that because I like
them all equally well.” My friend, who was a man of resource, hit
upon this ingenious expedient, said he, “To-morrow morning at midday,
when lunch is announced, do you plunge bodily overboard, head
foremost. I will be alongside in a boat to rescue you, and take
the one of the ten who rushes to your rescue, and then you can
afterwards have him.” The beautiful young lady highly approved,
and did accordingly. But after she plunged in, nine out of the ten
more or less beautiful young gentlemen plunged in after her; and
the tenth remained and shed tears, looking over the side of the
vessel. They were all picked up, and restored dripping to the
deck. The beautiful young lady upon seeing them said, “What am I
to do? See what a plight they are in. How can I possibly choose,
because every one of them is equally wet?” Then said my friend the
captain, acting upon a sudden inspiration, “Take the dry one.” I
am sorry to say that she did so, and they lived happy ever
afterwards.
Now, gentleman, in my application of this story, I exactly reverse
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Dickens, Charles – Speeches, Literary & Social
my friend the captain’s anecdote, and I entreat the public in
looking about to consider who are fit subjects for their bounty, to
give each his hand with something in it, and not award a dry hand
to the industrious railway servant who is always at his back. And
I would ask any one with a doubt upon this subject to consider what
his experience of the railway servant is from the time of his
departure to his arrival at his destination. I know what mine is.
Here he is, in velveteen or in a policeman’s dress, scaling cabs,
storming carriages, finding lost articles by a sort of instinct,
binding up lost umbrellas and walking sticks, wheeling trucks,
counselling old ladies, with a wonderful interest in their affairs
– mostly very complicated – and sticking labels upon all sorts of
articles. I look around – there he is, in a station-master’s
uniform, directing and overseeing, with the head of a general, and
with the courteous manners of a gentleman; and then there is the
handsome figure of the guard, who inspires confidence in timid
passengers. I glide out of the station, and there he is again with
his flags in his hand at his post in the open country, at the level
crossing, at the cutting, at the tunnel mouth, and at every station
on the road until our destination is reached. In regard,
therefore, to the railway servants with whom we do come into
contact, we may surely have some natural sympathy, and it is on
their behalf that I this night appeal to you. I beg now to propose
“Success to the Railway Benevolent Society.”
SPEECH: LONDON, SEPTEMBER 17, 1867.
[On presiding at a public Meeting of the Printers’ Readers, held at
the Salisbury Hotel, on the above date, Mr. Dickens said:-]
THAT as the meeting was convened, not to hear him, but to hear a
statement of facts and figures very nearly affecting the personal
interests of the great majority of those present, his preface to
the proceedings need be very brief. Of the details of the question
he knew, of his own knowledge, absolutely nothing; but he had
consented to occupy the chair on that occasion at the request of
the London Association of Correctors of the Press for two reasons –
first, because he thought that openness and publicity in such cases
were a very wholesome example very much needed at this time, and
were highly becoming to a body of men associated with that great
public safeguard – the Press; secondly, because he knew from some
slight practical experience, what the duties of correctors of the
press were, and how their duties were usually discharged; and he
could testify, and did testify, that they were not mechanical, that