Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-03-05
CKENS' EDEN SOLD
BOOM TOWN MADE FAMOUS BY
MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT.
ALSO BY COLONEL SELLERS
Known on Maps of Missouri as Ma
rion City.-Purchased by a st.
Louis Manufacturer for $115,367.
Town Founded in 1910.

Forty-six hundred acres of Missouri
land, in which Two of the most ia
nous characters of modern fiction
are supposed to have been interested,
have just been sold TO a st. Louis
manufacturer.
The two characters are Martin
Chuzzlewit and Colonel Mulberry
Sellers-the former created by
Charles Dickens and the latter by
Mark Twain.
The land lies in the Mississippi
river bottoms, six miles east of the
city of Palmyra, and contains what
were the sites of Eden-in which Mar
tin Chuzzlewit invested-and Stones
Landing, which Colonel Sellers tried
to boom under the name Napoleon.
The man who has bought the land
is H. c. Huiskamp. The considera-
ton was $115,367.
The town which furnished the in
spiration for both the authors was
founded in 1910 by Colonel Sellers
and was called Marion City. 1t col
lapsed just prior to Dickens first Wis
it to the United States in 1912.
When Charles Dickens visited the
United States sixty years ago he
found many things about the country
and the people which offended his
English sense of propriety. When he
returned to his native land he pro-
ceeded to lampoon us in most caus-
tic manner and as a vehicle in which
to turn loose his satire he wrote Mar
tin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit, as every reader
OF Dickens is aware, visited the Unit
ed States. According to Dickens he
came as far west as Missouri and in
vested his money and that of Mark
Tapley, his servant, in property in the
boom town of Eden.
This Eden in reality vas the town
of Marion City, located six miles east
OF Palmyra, Mo. After some months
OF boom II collapsed about the time
that Dickens made his flying trip
through the west. 1t impressed him
as an American foible which ought to
be roasted so in the adventures of
Martin Chuzzlewit he gave a descrip-
ton of the place which was certainly
dismal enough to keep all future Eng
fish immigrants from making a stint
lar investment.
Showed Them a Beautiful Map.
Not having much money Martin and
Mark decided to come west and begin
life In new town. On the train
west they fell in with General Choke.
who introduced them to the agent OF
the town of Eden. He showed them
a beautiful map of the wonderful
young town. with its market place,
public buildings and busy streets, and
they invested, Martin being assured
mat there was not an architect in ,Me
city A couple of days later they
took boat up the river to the place.
Here Is Dickens description of what
they found:
AS they proceeded further on their
tracks and come more and more to-
ward their journeys end the monot-
onous desolation of the scene increas.
ed TO that degree that for any re.
deemins feature it presented to their
eyes they might have entered in the
body, on the grim domains of giant
despair, A fiat morass. with fallen
timber; a marsh on which the good
growth of the earth seemed to have
been wrecked and cast away.
AT last they stopped. At Eden,
TOO The waters Of the deluge might
have left il only the week before. so
choked with slime and matted growth
was the hideous swamp which bore
that name.
There being no depth of water
close in shore, they landed from the
vessels boat, with all their goods be-
side them, There were a few log
houses visible among the dark trees;
the best a cowshei or a rude stable.
but for the wharves. the market
place, the public buildings
Here comes an Edener,' said
Mark, and come one did.
They told the man the nature or
their purchase and inquired where II
lay. Close to his own dwelling he
SN'ANs ~ SloSC tAldt ne nau used IL for
a storehouse for some corn. He then
gave them TO understand, as an addi.
tional scrap of local chit-chat, that he
had buried the last proprietor with
his own hands"
Eden In Its True coors.
Dickens then describes their first
meal and their first night in the mis-
cradle shack. and continues:
Never had the light of day been
half so welcome to his eyes as when,
awakening from a fitful doze, Mark
saw 1t shining through the blanket in
the doorway
He stole out and took a rough sur
vey of the settlement. There was
not above score OF cabins in the
whole; half of these appeared I'M
tenanted; all were rotten and decay
ed. The most tottering, abject and
forlorn among them was called, with
great propriety. the Bank and Nation
al Credit Office. II has some feeble
props about it, but was settling deep
down in the mud, past all recovery.
Here and there an effort had been
made IN rlaar enx,>