1900- 1 TRANSACTIONS. 1 7 



plane than Halibiirton. James De Mille was born at St. John, 

 New Brunswick, in 1834, and died in 1880. He was educated 

 at Acadia College, Wolfville, and at Brown University. From 

 i860 to 1865 he filled the important Chair of Classics in the 

 faculty of Acadia, and was afterwards Professor of History 

 and Rhetoric at Dalhousie College, Ha'iTax. He was the 

 author of some twenty or thirt}'^ novels and tales, all publish- 

 ed in the United States. The Harpers brought out some of 

 his best books, "The Dodge Club," " Cord and Creece." ^ 

 " The Cryptogram," ^ "A Strange Manuscript Found in a 

 Copper Cylinder," ^ etc. Several of these first appeared in 

 Harper'^ s Magazine as serials. 



De Mille's first book was " Helena"'s Household," a story 

 of the catacombs at Rome, in the days of the persecution of 

 the Christians. " The Dodge Club " was published in 1869, 

 some months before the first appearance of Mark Twain's 

 *' Innocents Abroad." It is a curious coincidence that two 

 books, so similar in arrangement and style of humor, should 

 have appeared the same year. There can be no possibility 

 that one borrowed from the othe:, f^r De Mille's book appear- 

 ed before " Innocents Abroad," and it would be absurd to 

 suppose that a writer of Mark Twain's superabundant humor 

 and intellectual resource could have t e si ighte-t occasion to 

 pick another man's brains. While on the subject of coincid- 

 ences, it might be noted that 'The Clockmaker" first appear- 

 ed in 1835, som^ months before " Pickwick Pay)ers." Any- 

 one who has read the two books must have been struck with 

 their marked resemblance boih in plan and treatment. As it 

 actually has been charged against both Haliburton and De 

 Mille that they borrowed from Dickens and Mark Twain 

 respectively, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that 

 in each case the Canadian book appeared first. 



Although Mrs. Scott Siddons selected it for one of her 

 readings, and was enthusiastic in its praise, "The Dodge 



1. Published, 1869 



2. Published, 1871. 



3. Published. 1888, after his death. 



