318 
II yA E 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. [August, 
Y~0 XJ BEAD THE OREAT^ 
AMERICAN STORY? 
The End of the World. 
_A. LOYE STORY. 
By EDWARD EGGLESTON, Author of “The hoosier School-Master," etc. 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH THIRTY-TWO ENGRAVINGS. 
'•Don't he oncharilalle , Jonas." 
THE NEW SINGING-MASTER. 
"He sings like an owlingale” 
Jonas Harrison was leaning against the well- 
curb, talking to Cynthy Ann. He'd been down 
to the store at Brayville, he said, a listenin’ to 
’em dismiss Millerism, and seed a new singing- 
master there. 
■' Could he sing good ? " Cynthy asked, rather 
to prolong the talk than to get information. 
" Sings like an owlingale, I reckon. He’s 
got more seals to his ministry a-hanging onto 
his watch-chain than I ever Beed. Got a mus¬ 
tache onto the top story of his mouth some¬ 
thin’ like a tuft of grass on the roof of a ole 
shed kitchen. Peart? Ile’sthe peartest-loolcin’ 
chap I ever seed. But he a’n’t no singin’-mas- 
ter —not ef I’m any jedge of turnips. He 
warn't horn to sarve his day and generation 
with a tunin’-fork. I think he’s a goin* to 
reckon-water a little in these parts, and that 
he’s only a-playin’ singin’-master. He kin play 
more flddles’n one, you bet a boss! Says he 
come up here fer his wholesome, and I guess 
he did. Think ef he’d a-staid where he was, 
he mout a-suffered a leetle from confinement 
to his room, and that room p’raps not more 
nor. five foot by nine, and ruther dim-iighted 
and poor-provisioned, an’ not much chance 
fer talcin' exercise in the fresh air !” 
” Don't be oncharitable, Jonas, don’t. We’re 
all mis’ahle sinners, I s'pose; and you know 
charity don’t think no evil. The man may he 
ail right, ef he does wear hair on his lip. 
Charity kivers lots a sins." 
" Ya-as, hut charity don’t kiver no wolves 
with wool. An’ ef he a’n’t a woolly wolf 
they’s no snakes in Jarsey, as little Hidin’ Ilood 
said when her granny tried to bite her head 
off. I’m dead sot in favor of charity, and mean 
to £in her my vote at every election, hut I a'n't a-goin' 
to have her put a blind-bridle on to me. And when a man 
comes to Clark township a-wearing straps to ills brcecli- 
aloons to keep liisself from leaving terry-flrmy altogether, 
and a-weightln' liisself down with pewter watch-seals, 
gold-washed, and a cultivating a crap of red-top hay onto 
his upper lip, and a-lettin’ on to he a slngin’-ma3ter, I sus¬ 
picions him. They’s too much in the git-up fer the come- 
out. Well, here's yer health, Cynthy! ” 
And having made this oracular speech, and quaffed the 
hard limestone water, Jonas hung the clean white gourd 
from which he had been drinking, in its place against the 
well-ouro, and started hack to the field, while Cynthy Ann 
carried her bucket of water into the kitchen, blaming her¬ 
self for standing so long talking to Jonas .—From “ The 
End of the World.” 
NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 
Dr. Eggleston, in striking out into the uncouth wilder¬ 
ness of early “ Iloosierdom ” for the materials of his 
tales, has entered into an emphatically new field, and by 
the production of but two hooks has achieved for himself 
indisputable immortality .—Dayton Beligions Telescope. 
Mr. Eggleston has opened a new mine in American 
fictitious literature, as distinct as Cooper did in the 
Indian romances, and he has so far shown great skill in 
working it. “The Hoosier School-Master” was a 
decided success, and this new talc is quite its equal.— 
Central Christian Advocate. 
Dr. Eggleston’s new story is the best he 
has written. " The Hoosier School-Master" 
was good, lmt The Find of the World shows 
a better plot, better character-drawing, and 
more firm and consistent treatment through¬ 
out. The book is exceedingly whole¬ 
some. The sentiment throughout is pure. 
It contains not one morbid or cynical page. 
It exhibits the passion of love under its 
healthiest manifestation, and treats the rela¬ 
tions of the sexes in a perfectly normal way. 
.... When a book like this—so full of 
nature and reality, so cheerful and yet so 
reverent, so free from mawkish sentiment 
and poisonous theories—starts out with a 
first edition of ten thousand copies, it is a 
good sign for our popular literature. It is 
one of the books that the people will be sure 
to read, and they will find in it a perfectly 
innocent and heailthy enjoyment. — The 
Independent. 
It is a tale of life in the Ohio Valley, and, 
called “a love story,” is much more. The 
old alluring theme is handledwith skill, and 
with a genuineness as far as may be from 
affected sentimentality, and one’s interest is 
well wrought up in the rivalry between the 
simple-minded and honest German, August, 
and the crafty scoundrel and blackleg, Hum¬ 
phreys. Yet it is as a chapter of virtual 
history that the book is chiefly notable. The 
plot hinges upon the prediction of the end 
of the world, which, according to the Miller- 
ites, was to be fulfilled on the night of August 
11th, 1S43. The scenes of that memorable 
night are depicted with great humor and 
vigor.But the fascination of the book 
is in its characterization of odd people: 
Jonas, shrewd and irrepressible, with a fund 
of humor at command and a ready tongue 
to give it vent; Cynthy Ann, meekly reli¬ 
gious, and always on tip-toe against tempta¬ 
tion ; Mrs. Anderson, the scold, who coerces 
her family With threats of heart-disease; 
the Backwoods Philosopher, who shuts him¬ 
self up in his castle and utters wisdom at the 
despicable world ; the Steam-Doctor, whose 
special form of quackery is very amusing; 
the Mud-Clerk, the Milleritc Preacher, and 
the Village Loafers. These people live and 
move, and the reader, instead of criticising 
the creations of the artist, becomes ac¬ 
quainted with men and women of flesh and blood like 
unto himself. — New York Evening Mail. 
The book is handsome in its make-up, being printed 
on thick paper, and embellished with no less than thirty- 
two engravings, all in excellent style, the designs of 
Frank Beard. It is a story of Western life, not 
encounters with Indians and adventures with varmints, 
but of that Western life that is so much a larger expres¬ 
sion of our Eastern life as to seem at times as only a 
travesty or exaggeration of our prim New England style. 
— Hartford Evening Post. 
The many delighted readers of “ The Hoosier School- 
Master” will find new pleasure in this last and, if 
possible, more fascinating work.— Washington Daily 
Chronicle. 
Price, Post-paid, $1.50. 
OR ANGLE JXJDD AND COMPANY, 2J5 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
