Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1903-03-05
DICKENS EDEN SOLD
BOOM TOWN MADE FAMOUS BY
MARTIN CHuZZLEWIT.
ALSO BY COLONEL SELLERS
Known on Maps OF Missouri as Ma,
rion City.-Purchased by ST..
Louis Manufacturer Tor Si'5,56I,
Town Founded in 1910.

I Forty-six hundred acres Of Missouri
2land, in which TWO oi the most ia,
Jilous characters OF modern fiction
Fare supposed to have Deeu Interested,
have just been sold 10 ST. Louis
manufactures.
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
Ito boom under the name Napoleon.
The man who has bought the land
Ms H. C. Huiskamp. The considera-
ttion was S115,367.
The town which furnished the in
SEPARATION 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 TIE
Omitted States sixty years ago he
found many things about the country
land the people which offended his
,1English sense of propriety. When lie
Returned to his native land he pro
tceeded to lampoon us in a NEST caus-
Mic manner and as a vehicle in which
To turn loose his satire he wrote Mar
ytin Chuzzlewit.
Martin Chuzzlewit, as every reader
Nof Dickens is aware, visited the Unit
led States. According to Dickens he
came as far west as Missouri and in
vvested his money and that Of Mark
Tapley, his servant in property in the
MOON town of Eden,
Ivy This Eden in reality was the town
Yof Marion City, located six miles east
Vof Palmyra, Mo. After some months
-yof loom it collapsed about the time
tthat Dickens made his flying trip
Uhrough the west. 1t impressed him
las an American foible which ought to
DE roasted" so in the adventures OF
Martin Chuzzlewit he gave a descrip-
Ntion Of the place which was certainly
dismal enough to keep all future Eng
|lish immigrants from making a STINT
Mar 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,
HEho introduced them to the agent Of
the town of Eden. He showed them
beautiful map of the wonderful
young town, with its market place,
public buildings and busy streets. and
4hey invested. Martin being assured
Ehat there was not an architect in ,..e
city. couple of days later they
ook boat up the river to the place,
Here is Dickens description of what
They found:
l las they proceeded further on their
tracks and come more and more to-
{ward their journeys end the monot-
Ionous desolation of the scene increaa.
led to that degree that for any re.
ldeeming feature it presented to their
ieyes 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
tbeen wrecked and cast away.
cat last they stopped. At Eden
ltoo. The waters of the deluge might
have left it only the week before, so
fhoked with slime and matted growth
WAS the hideous swamp which bore
that name.
There being no depth of water
ilose in shore they landed from the
vessels boat. with all their goods be.
tide them. There were 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 OF
HEIR purchase and inquired where II
Law. Close to his own dwelling hc
laid. so close that he had used il FOR
storehouse for some corn. He then
Fave them to understand. as an addi-
yional scrap of local chit-chat. that he
ad buried the last proprietor with
is own hands"
Eden in Its True coiors.
Dickens then describes their first
zeal and their first night in the mis-
able shack, and continues:
Never had the light of day been
alf so welcome to his eyes as when,
Weakening from a ftful doze Mark
iw it shining through the blanket in
e doorway.
HE stole out and took rough sur
y of the settlement. There was
1t above a score of cabins in the
1ole half of these appeared I'M
nanted; all were rotten and decay
The most lettering. abject and
rlorn among them was called. with
eat propriety the Bank and Nation
Credit ONCE. II has some feeble
ops about It, but was settling deep