The DU Lounge

Charlie drew a tattered newspaper article out of his pocket and handed it to us. “I want both of you to read this,” he said.

Douglas and I at the very least expected to find some kind words about Charlie’s gift for pantomime. Imagine our astonishment when we read the most scathing denunciation of Charlie Chaplin we had ever seen in print. Among other things it said that Charlie was the result of “generations of underfed gutter snipes.” The rest was in that redolent vein...And I added, “Only some mean person suffering from envy and resentment could have written that, Charlie. Why must you hug a viper to your heart? If you must carry a clipping in your pocket why not one that can inspire you?”

Charlie had never seen an orange until one bleak, rainy Christmas Day shortly after he was admitted to the workhouse and oranges were being handed out to the boys. Poor little fellow, he had made a mistake in bed the night before. So, when his turn came he reached out for the coveted object only to be yanked brusquely out of line and told, “You’re a nasty little boy, and you don’t deserve to have an orange.”

“Do you know,” Charlie said to me, “I looked at this golden ball of color, so beautiful against the drabness of the uniforms and the grey walls of the workhouse, and I didn’t even know an orange was something to eat.”