Commentaries on the Illustrations: Here is a regular department—Account of “Phiz,” by Kitton; “Life of Hablot K. Browne,” by Croal Thomson; “Life of G. Cruikshank,” Mr. Dexter’s book, and another by Charles P. Johnson.
Next we refer to the Illustrations themselves: The plates to the original edition are by Seymour (7), Buss (2), Phiz-Seymour (7), and by “Phiz” (35). Variations, by “Phiz”; variations, coloured by Pailthorpe; facsimiles of original drawings—altogether about 200. There are Extra Plates by Heath, Sir John Gilbert, Onwhyn (“Sam Weller”), Sibson, Alfred Crowquill, Antony (American), Onwhyn (Posthumous) and Frost, Frederick Barnard (to popular
edition); also some folio plates; C. J. Leslie (a frontispiece). “Phiz” published later a series of six, and also a large number of coarse woodcuts to illustrate a cheap edition.
There are also a series of clever extra illustrations by Pailthorpe and others, coloured by the same. We have seen F. Barnard’s illustrations coloured by Pailthorpe. There are here also the original plates re-drawn in Calcutta. They were also reproduced in Philadelphia, with additional ones by Nast. Others were issued in Sydney. There are a number of German woodcut illustrations to illustrate the German translations; some rude woodcuts to illustrate Dicks’ edition: ditto to Penny edition. There is also a set of portraits from “Pickwick” in Bell’s Life, probably by Kenny Meadows; and coloured figures by “Kyd.”
There are many pictures in colours—Pickwick, Weller, &c.—to illustrate Christmas calendars, chiefly “made in Germany.”
The most curious tribute is the issue by the Phonographic Society of “Pickwick” in shorthand; and, finally, “Pickwick” in raised characters on the Braille system for the blind.
This odd publication of “Pickwick” for the Blind came about in a quaint way enough. As we know, the author issued at his own expense one of his works in raised characters, as a present to these afflicted persons. A rich old gentleman had noticed a blind beggar seated with the Bible open on his knees, droning out the passages in the usual fashion. Some of the impostor sort learn the lines by heart and “make believe” to read, as they pass their fingers over the characters. The rich old gentleman’s blind reader read in the genuine way, and got through about fifty chapters a day. No one, however, is much improved by the lecture. They merely wonder at the phenomenon and go their way. The rich old gentleman presently spoke to the blind reader: “Why don’t you read ‘Pickwick’
or some other book that the public will listen to?” “Sir,” he replied—he must have been of the stock of Silas Wegg—“give me ‘Pickwick’ in raised characters and I will read it.”
The rich old gentleman went his way and inquired at the proper places, but the work was not known. He gave an order for a hundred copies of “Pickwick” in “Wait’s Improved Braille Type,” and in about six months it was delivered to him—not the whole work, but a selection of the more effective episodes. The blind reader was pleased; the old gentleman insisted on a private rehearsal; select passages were chosen which were calculated to take about twenty minutes each. When he arrived on the morning fixed for the first attempt, he found his friend at his post with quite a crowd gathered round him, in convulsions of laughter. The “poor blind” was reading, or feeling out, old Mr. Weller’s ejectment of the red-nosed man. The hat was overflowing with coppers and
even silver. So things went on prospering for a while. “Pickwick” was a magnificent success, and the blind man was never without a crowd round him of some fifteen to fifty persons. But the other blind readers found the demand for the sacred text vanishing; and people would unfeelingly interrupt them to inquire the way to the “Pickwick man.” Eventually the police began to interfere, and required him to “move on;” “he was obstructing the pavement”—not, perhaps, he, but “Pickwick.” He did move on to Hyde Park, but there were others there, performers young and up-to-date, and with full use of their eyes, who did the same thing with action and elocution. So he fairly gave the thing up, and returned to his Scriptures. This tale would have amused “Boz” himself.