The Mystery of Metropolisville

The Mystery of Metropolisville

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Title: The Mystery of Metropolisville
Author: Edward Eggleston
Release Date: April 29, 2004 [EBook #12195]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE MYSTERY OF METROPOLISVILLE
BY EDWARD EGGLESTON
AUTHOR OF "THE HOOGLEE SCHOOL-MASTER," "THE END
OF THE WORLD," ETC
1888

TO ONE WHO KNOWS WITH ME A LOVE-STORY, NOW MORE
THAN FIFTEEN YEARS IN LENGTH, AND BETTER A
HUNDREDFOLD THAN ANY I SHALL EVER BE ABLE TO
WRITE, THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED, ON AN ANNIVERSARY.

MARCH 18TH, 1873.

PREFACE.
A novel should be the truest of books. It partakes in a certain sense of
the nature of both history and art. It needs to be true to human nature in
its permanent and essential qualities, and it should truthfully represent
some specific and temporary manifestation of human nature: that is,
some form of society. It has been objected that I have copied life too
closely, but it seems to me that the work to be done just now, is to
represent the forms and spirit of our own life, and thus free ourselves
from habitual imitation of that which is foreign. I have wished to make
my stories of value as a contribution to the history of civilization in
America. If it be urged that this is not the highest function, I reply that
it is just now the most necessary function of this kind of literature. Of
the value of these stories as works of art, others must judge; but I shall
have the satisfaction of knowing that I have at least rendered one
substantial though humble service to our literature, if I have portrayed
correctly certain forms of American life and manners.
BROOKLYN, March, 1873.

CONTENTS.
PREFACE
WORDS BEFOREHAND

CHAPTER I.
The Autocrat of the Stage-Coach

CHAPTER II.
The Sod Tavern

CHAPTER III.
Land and Love

CHAPTER IV.
Albert and Katy

CHAPTER V.
Corner Lots

CHAPTER VI.
Little Katy's Lover

CHAPTER VII.
Catching and Getting Caught

CHAPTER VIII.
Isabel Marlay

CHAPTER IX.
Lovers and Lovers

CHAPTER X.
Plausaby, Esq., takes a Fatherly Interest

CHAPTER XI.
About Several Things

CHAPTER XII.
An Adventure

CHAPTER XIII.
A Shelter

CHAPTER XIV.
The Inhabitant

CHAPTER XV.
An Episode

CHAPTER XVI.
The Return

CHAPTER XVII.
Sawney and his Old Love

CHAPTER XVIII.
A Collision

CHAPTER XIX.
Standing Guard in Vain

CHAPTER XX.
Sawney and Westcott

CHAPTER XXI.
Rowing

CHAPTER XXII.
Sailing

CHAPTER XXIII.
Sinking

CHAPTER XXIV.
Dragging

CHAPTER XXV.
Afterwards

CHAPTER XXVI.
The Mystery

CHAPTER XXVII.
The Arrest

CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Tempter

CHAPTER XXIX.
The Trial

CHAPTER XXX.
The Penitentiary

CHAPTER XXXI.
Mr. Lurton

CHAPTER XXXII.
A Confession

CHAPTER XXXIII.
Death

CHAPTER XXXIV.
Mr. Lurton's Courtship

CHAPTER XXXV.
Unbarred

CHAPTER XXXVI.
Isabel

CHAPTER XXXVII.
The Last
WORDS AFTERWARDS

ILLUSTRATIONS BY FRANK BEARD
The Superior Being
Mr. Minorkey and the Fat Gentleman
Plausaby sells Lots
"By George! He! he! he!"
Mrs. Plausaby
The Inhabitant

A Pinch of Snuff
Mrs. Ferret
One Savage Blow full in the Face
"What on Airth's the Matter?"
His Unselfish Love found a Melancholy Recompense
The Editor of "The Windmill"
"Git up and Foller!"

THE MYSTERY OF METROPOLISVILLE.

WORDS BEFOREHAND.
Metropolisville is nothing but a memory now. If Jonah's gourd had not
been a little too much used already, it would serve an excellent turn just
here in the way of an apt figure of speech illustrating the growth, the
wilting, and the withering of Metropolisville. The last time I saw the
place the grass grew green where once stood the City Hall, the
corn-stalks waved their banners on the very site of the old store--I ask
pardon, the "Emporium"--of Jackson, Jones & Co., and what had been
the square, staring white court-house--not a Temple but a Barn of
Justice--had long since fallen to base uses. The walls which had echoed
with forensic grandiloquence were now forced to hear only the bleating
of silly sheep. The church, the school-house, and the City Hotel had
been moved away bodily. The village grew, as hundreds of other
frontier villages had grown, in the flush times; it died, as so many
others died, of the financial crash which was the inevitable sequel and
retribution