cover
THE
Golden Butterfly

BY
WALTER BESANT AND JAMES RICE

NEW YORK
R. F. FENNO & COMPANY
9 AND 11 EAST 16TH STREET
TO
EDMUND YATES,
EDITOR OF "THE WORLD,"
IN WHICH PAPER "THE GOLDEN BUTTERFLY"
WAS FIRST PUBLISHED,
This Story
IS INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHORS.
PREFACE.
The Golden Butterfly, which gives a name to this novel, was seen by anEnglish traveller, two years ago, preserved as a curiosity in a miningcity near Sacramento, where it probably still remains. This curiousfreak of Nature is not therefore an invention of our own. To the sametraveller—Mr. Edgar Besant—we are indebted for the description onwhich is based our account of Empire City.
The striking of oil in Canada in the manner described by Gilead P.Beck was accomplished—with the waste of millions of gallons of theoil, for want of casks and buckets to receive it, and with the resultof a promise of almost boundless wealth—by a man named Shaw, some tenyears ago. Shaw speculated, we believe; lost his money, and died inpoverty.
Names of great living poets and writers have been used in this book inconnection with a supposed literary banquet. A critic has expressedsurprise that we have allowed Gilead Beck's failure to appreciateBrowning to stand as if it were our own. Is a writer of fiction tostop the action of his story in order to explain that it is hischaracter's opinion and not his own, that he states? And it surely isnot asking too much to demand of a critic that he should considerfirst of all the consistency of a character's actions or speeches.Gilead Beck, a man of no education and little reading, but ofconsiderable shrewdness, finds Browning unintelligible and harsh. Whatother verdict could be expected if the whole of Empire City in itspalmiest days had been canvassed?
Moreover, we have never, even from that great writer's most ardentadmirers, heard an opinion that he is either easy to read, or musical.The compliments which Mr. Beck paid to the guests who honoured hisbanquet are of course worded just as he delivered them.
Gilead Beck's experiences as an editor are taken—with a littledressing—from the actual experiences of a living Canadian journalist.
From their Virginian home Jack Dunquerque and Phillis his wife sendgreetings to those who have already followed their fortunes. She onlywishes us to add that Mr. Abraham Dyson was right, and that the CopingStone of every woman's education is Love. Most people know this, shesays, from reading: but she never did read; and the real happiness isto find it out for yourself.
W. B.
J. R.
March, 1877.
CONTENTS