The Captains Toll-Gate | Page 2

and Pirates of our Coasts. The idea of writing a novel while
the incidents were fresh in his mind pleased him, and he put aside The
Captain's Toll-Gate, as the other book--Kate Bonnet--was wanted soon,
and he did not wish the two works to conflict in publication. Steve
Bonnet, the crazy-headed pirate, was a historical character, and
performed the acts attributed to him. But the charming Kate, and her

lover, and Ben Greenaway were inventions.
Francis Richard Stockton, born in Philadelphia in 1834, was, on his
father's side, of purely English ancestry; on his mother's side, there was
a mixture of English, French, and Irish. When he began to write stories
these three nationalities were combined in them: the peculiar kind of
inventiveness of the French; the point of view, and the humor that we
find in the old English humorists; and the capacity of the Irish for
comical situations.
Soon after arriving in this country the eldest son of the first American
Stockton settled in Princeton, N.J., and founded that branch of the
family; while the father, with the other sons, settled in Burlington
County, in the same State, and founded the Burlington branch of the
family, from which Frank R. Stockton was descended. On the female
side he was descended from the Gardiners, also of New Jersey. His was
a family with literary proclivities. His father was widely known for his
religious writings, mostly of a polemical character, which had a
powerful influence in the denomination to which he belonged. His
half-brother (much older than Frank) was a preacher of great eloquence,
famous a generation ago as a pulpit orator.
When Frank and his brother John, two years younger, came to the age
to begin life for themselves, they both showed such decided artistic
genius that it was thought best to start them in that direction, and to
have them taught engraving; an art then held in high esteem. Frank
chose wood, and John steel engraving. Both did good work, but their
hearts were not in it, and, as soon as opportunity offered, they
abandoned engraving. John went into journalism; became editorially
connected with prominent newspapers; and had won a foremost place
in his chosen profession; when he was cut off by death at a
comparatively early age.
[Illustration: THE HOLT, MR STOCKTON'S HOME NEAR
CONVENT. N.J.]
Frank chose literature. He had, while in the engraving business, written
a number of fairy tales, some of which had been published in juvenile
magazines; also a few short stories, and quite an ambitious long story,
which was published in a prominent magazine. He was then
sufficiently well known as a writer to obtain without difficulty a place
on the staff of Hearth and Home, a weekly New York paper, owned by

Orange Judd, and conducted by Edward Eggleston. Mrs. Mary Mapes
Dodge had charge of the juvenile department, and Frank went on the
paper as her assistant. Not long after Scribner's Monthly was started by
Charles Scribner (the elder), in conjunction with Roswell Smith, and
J.G. Holland. Later Mr. Smith and his associates formed The Century
Company; and with this company Mr. Stockton was connected for
many years: first on the Century Magazine, which succeeded Scribner's
Monthly, and afterward on St. Nicholas, as assistant to Mrs. Mary
Mapes Dodge, and, still later, when he decided to give up editorial
work, as a constant contributor. After a few years he resigned his
position in the company with which he had been so pleasantly
associated in order to devote himself exclusively to his own work. By
this time he had written and published enough to feel justified in taking,
what seemed to his friends, a bold, and even rash, step, because so few
writers then lived solely by the pen. He was never very strong
physically; he felt himself unable to do his editorial work, and at the
same time write out the fancies and stories with which his mind was
full. This venture proved to be the wisest thing for him; and from that
time his life was, in great part, in his books; and he gave to the world
the novels and stories which bear his name.
I have mentioned his fairy stories. Having been a great lover of fairy
lore when a child, he naturally fell into this form of story writing as
soon as he was old enough to put a story together. He invented a
goodly number; and among them the Ting-a-Ling stories, which were
read aloud in a boys' literary circle, and meeting their hearty approval,
were subsequently published in The Riverside Magazine, a handsome
and popular juvenile of that period; and, much later, were issued by
Hurd & Houghton in a very pretty volume. In regard to these, he wrote
long afterward as follows:
"I was very