The Mystery of a Hansom Cab | Page 4

publishers
have the best of reasons for believing, that there are thousands of
persons whom the book has never reached. The causes of this have
doubtless been many, but chief among them was the form of the
publication itself. It is for this section of the public chiefly that the
present edition is issued. In placing it before my new readers, I have
been asked by the publishers thoroughly to revise the work, and, at the
same time, to set at rest the many conflicting reports concerning it and
myself, which have been current since its initial issue. The first of these
requests I have complied with, and the many typographic, and other
errors, which disfigured the first edition, have, I think I can safely say,
now disappeared. The second request I am about to fulfil; but, in order
to do so, I must ask my readers to go back with me to the beginning of
all things, so far as this special book is concerned.
The writing of the book was due more to accident than to design. I was

bent on becoming a dramatist, but, being quite unknown, I found it
impossible to induce the managers of the Melbourne Theatres to accept,
or even to read a play. At length it occurred to me I might further my
purpose by writing a novel. I should at all events secure a certain
amount of local attention. Up to that time I had written only one or two
short stories, and the "Cab" was not only the first book I ever published,
but the first book I ever wrote; so to youth and lack of experience must
be ascribed whatever was wanting in the book. I repeat that the story
was written only to attract local attention, and no one was more
astonished than I when it passed beyond the narrow circle for which it
had originally been intended.
My mind made up on this point, I enquired of a leading Melbourne
bookseller what style of book he sold most of He replied that the
detective stories of Gaboriau had a large sale; and as, at this time, I had
never even heard of this author, I bought all his works--eleven or
thereabouts--and read them carefully. The style of these stories
attracted me, and I determined to write a book of the same class;
containing a mystery, a murder, and a description of low life in
Melbourne. This was the origin of the "Cab." The central idea i.e. the
murder in a cab--came to me while driving at a late hour to St. Kilda, a
suburb of Melbourne; but it took some time and much thought to work
it out to a logical conclusion. I was two months sketching out the
skeleton of the novel, but even so, when I had written it, the result
proved unsatisfactory, for I found I had not sufficiently well concealed
the mystery upon which the whole interest of the book depended. In the
first draft I made Frettlby the criminal, but on reading over the M.S. I
found that his guilt was so obvious that I wrote out the story for a
second time, introducing the character of Moreland as a scape-goat.
Mother Guttersnipe I unearthed in the slums off Little Bourke Street;
and I gave what I am afraid was perhaps too vivid a picture of her
language and personality. These I have toned down in the present
edition. Calton and the two lodging-house keepers were actual
personages whom I knew very well, and I do not think I have
exaggerated their idiosyncracies, although many have, I believe,
doubted the existence of such oddities. All the scenes in the book,
especially the slums, are described from personal observation; and I

passed a great many nights in Little Bourke Street, gathering material.
Having completed the book, I tried to get it published, but every one to
whom I offered it refused even to look at the manuscript on the ground
that no Colonial could write anything worth reading. They gave no
reason for this extraordinary opinion, but it was sufficient for them, and
they laughed to scorn the idea that any good could come out of
Nazareth--i.e., the Colonies. The story thus being boycotted on all
hands, I determined to publish it myself, and accordingly an edition of,
I think, some five thousand copies was brought out at my own cost.
Contrary to the expectations of the publishers, and I must add to my
own, the whole edition went off in three weeks, and the public
demanded a second. This also sold rapidly, and after some months,
proposals were made to me that the book should be brought out in
London. Later on I parted with the book to several speculators, who
formed themselves into what