The Ambrose Pierce Mystery There are people who have never heard of Ambrose Pierce, and there are those who consider him the greatest short-story writer that. America has produced since Edgar Allan Poe, Mr. Francis Gribble writes," in "John 0 London's Weekly." He certainly wrote short stories with the sure hand of a master. Yet he was a failure. The public voted him "unpleasant." the end, having a very good and just opinion of his own powers and value, hho got cross about it, At the age of 51 he ceased to write fiction lived—a disappointed man, belt making a aucent Being out journalismfor another 20 years disappeared mysteriously} fand Weis nat Epown for certain this hour, whether he is alive or dead.
Because he once worked as a London journalist, it has sometimes been supposed that he was an Englisi man; but that is a mistake. He was an American, born in Ohio in 1842. He fought, as a volunteer, in the Civil War, took part in Sherman's famous march—through Georgia, attained the rank of major, and was wounded in the head at Kenesaw Mountain. The Civil War was his subject. He wrote about it with realism, American readers were. still keenly' interested in that. struggle. The vainglorious—reminiseences of the generals were very popular with them; but they did' not want to be reminded that the hogs assembled at night and gnawed at the dead bodies on the battlefields. So they never allowed Ambrose Pierce to win the reputation which he deserved.
When '"demobbed," he is said to have tossed up a coin to decide what his civilian career should be, The: upshot was that he went to Cal fornia, worked for a short time in Mint, and then drifted into Journalism and wrote sati Graphs for the "Argonaut not, probably, a very lucrative occupation: and that may be the reason why, in 1872, he turned up in London,' where" he was just moderately successful. He wrote for "Pun," then edited by Tom Hood, and for the London "Figaro," then, edited by James Mortimer, and produced the "Lantern," a journal satadised by the Bmarees ugt for the purpose of annoying Her Rochefort.
He also wrote a book—"Cobwebs. From an Empty Skull"—highly praised by Gladstone, who had picked it up in a second-hand bookshop; but Gladstone's commendations failed to do for him what they were to do, at a later date, for Mrs, Humphry Ward. In 1876, therefore, he went back to San Francisco, managed a mining company for a season, but spent most of his time in writing for the Californian papers until, in 1896, the Hearst} Press took him up and sent him to A Proud Craftsman, He was a disappointed man, but not impecunious. He refused to "write down" to tastes which Jdeemed degraded. "My wants," he said, towards the end, "are fow and modest, and my royalties give me quite enough to live on, Don't you think that, after a man has lived as long as T have, he deserves a rest?"
His age, fact, though, save for his looked ' much younger. diate destination was Mexi at that date, fierce civil was] raging. His last letters were written from the Texas border:—
For more than a month (he wrote Leave been rambling shout the coun "There isa ofthe lio 'Grande, Mexico t€ 1 inn the chareter of Ton' haves too much inder™'T* ought. tobe money on ime, don't you think?
And then:
100d up againat a Mexican stone. wall Good-byé—it you hear of my bein fea Gringo Tu Besiooah, that euthanasia.
There is a rumour that Bicree, having joined Villa, was captured and shot by the Carranzistas. There was another rumour to. the effect theat he found his. way to the ited without permission.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.