Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-08-18

change is constantly going on in new
by dikos or levees. A marquis in Eng
land is involved in lawsuit through
an effort to recover money invested in
the City Of Eden, on the Mississippi
river. This is, or was, the place de-
scribed in Dickens novel of Martin
ChuzZleWit." :" According to the story
there were Engishmen investing in
the town about the time Of the ever
memorable flood Of 1914. Dickens,
who had seen or Aoarl of the city of
Eden during his American tour. sew
eral years before the great overflow
of that year, to which passing refer
ence is made in "American Notes."
went more into detail in "Martin Chuz-
zlewit" and gave us something of a
picture Of the city which was evident
ly not altogether a fancy sketch. If it
eXaggeration, and II is safe to assume
that the City of Eden was larger at
the time Martin Chuzzlewit is said to
have visited it than Dickens indicates
For the visit was one of disillusion-
ment. The City of Eden was to fall
far below the expectations of the visi-
tors who had been induced TO make
an investment there, and. accordingly.
the scene was to be made as desolate
Is possible
lnmortaIized by Dickens.
Yet there is no denying thaTtlt was
desolate enough. There was II much
there at the time Martin Chuzzlewit
and his friend called to see their prop
erty, but there are accounts informing
us that there was more than Dickens
tells US Of. A year or two later the
flood Of 1874 came and reduced the
visible assets to a lower point even
than they appear in the novel The
fiood reduced them to such point, in
matter OF fact, that little or no effort
was afterward made TO resurreet the
town. Practically it was botted off
the maps not only o. the government
but of the real estate boomers them
selves, who had made everything out
of it that it was possible to make.
They had done their best before the
flood. The interesting point in the
case is the one Of what were the di-
mensions of the place IN its palmiest
days. There is no one living now on
that part of the Missouri shore above
Hannibal where the City of Eden
stood who can give anything like an
intelligent opinion on the point. There
was considerable property bought by
eastern and foreign investors on which
no improvements were ever made, and
residence The town was not popul-
Gus, for this and other reasons. The.
probability is that when it had its
largest population there were 500 peo-
pie there, but 800 was about the aver
age. Not much but great city when
compared with what now remains
From the deck of a steamboat the
tourist who is familiar with the upper
Mississippi will point out to you
little group Of houses on the shore
and laugh when he tells you that they
are all that is leIt of the City of
Eden 1t is plain that if the English
marquis wins his suit he Will get
about as much as fen 20 poor Richard
when the final disposition was made
of the great chancery case in BLEAK
House"-a bill { costs.
GluaI Once rIourished.
Somewhere on the other siae Of
The river fror- the City of Eden, and
not so very far away from the site
of that departed metropolis. is spot
where once stood the town OF Gligal,
H. Giigal was never exploited on
real estate maps or blue prints as the
coming metropolis of the Mississippi
valley. It was never recommended to
inyestors, either eastern or foreign,
as the place to get their money back,
with several hundred per cent inter
est. Yet there are natives of the Sny
bottoms and beyond who will tell you
that Gilgal was always much more OF