Wild Western Scenes

Wild Western Scenes

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wild Western Scenes, by John
Beauchamp Jones This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give
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Title: Wild Western Scenes A Narrative Of Adventures In The Western
Wilderness, Wherein The Exploits Of Daniel Boone, The Great
American Pioneer Are Particularly Described
Author: John Beauchamp Jones
Release Date: August 1, 2004 [EBook #13077]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD
WESTERN SCENES ***

Produced by Curtis Weyant, the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
and The Making of America Project

[Illustration: "I saw him gasp, reel, and fall."]
[Illustration: Wild Western Scenes]
WILD WESTERN SCENES:
A NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURES IN THE WESTERN
WILDERNESS,
WHEREIN
THE EXPLOITS OF DANIEL BOONE, THE GREAT AMERICAN
PIONEER ARE PARTICULARLY DESCRIBED

ALSO,
ACCOUNTS OF BEAR, DEER, AND BUFFALO
HUNTS--DESPERATE CONFLICTS WITH THE SAVAGES--WOLF
HUNTS--FISHING AND FOWLING
ADVENTURES--ENCOUNTERS WITH SERPENTS, ETC.
New Stereotype Edition, Altered, Revised, and Corrected
By J.B. JONES.
Author of "The War Path," "Adventures of a Country Merchant," etc.
Illustrated with Sixteen Engravings from Original Designs
Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.
1875
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by J.B. Jones,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
Stereotyped By L. Johnson & Co., Philadelphia.

PREFACE.
When a work of fiction has reached its fortieth edition, one would
suppose the author might congratulate himself upon having contributed
something of an imperishable character to the literature of the country.
But no such pretensions are asserted for this production, now in its
fortieth thousand. Being the first essay of an impetuous youth in a field
where giants even have not always successfully contended, it would be
a rash assumption to suppose it could receive from those who confer
such honors any high award of merit. It has been before the public
some fifteen years, and has never been reviewed. Perhaps the
forbearance of those who wield the cerebral scalpels may not be further
prolonged, and the book remains amenable to the judgment they may
be pleased to pronounce.
To that portion of the public who have read with approbation so many
thousands of his book, the author may speak with greater confidence.
To this class of his friends he may make disclosures and confessions
pertaining to the secret history of the "Wild Western Scenes," without
the hazard of incurring their displeasure.
Like the hero of his book, the author had his vicissitudes in boyhood,
and committed such indiscretions as were incident to one of his years
and circumstances, but nevertheless only such as might be readily

pardoned by the charitable. Like Glenn, he submitted to a voluntary
exile in the wilds of Missouri. Hence the description of scenery is a true
picture, and several characters in the scenes were real persons. Many of
the occurrences actually transpired in his presence, or had been enacted
in the vicinity at no remote period; and the dream of the hero--his visit
to the haunted island--was truly a dream of the author's.
But the worst miseries of the author were felt when his work was
completed; he could get no publisher to examine it. He then purchased
an interest in a weekly newspaper, in the columns of which it appeared
in consecutive chapters. The subscribers were pleased with it, and
desired to possess it in a volume; but still no publisher would undertake
it,--the author had no reputation in the literary world. He offered it for
fifty dollars, but could find no purchaser at any price. Believing the
British booksellers more accommodating, a friend was employed to
make a fair copy in manuscript, at a certain number of cents per
hundred words. The work was sent to a British publisher, with whom it
remained many months, but was returned, accompanied by a note
declining to treat for it.
Undeterred by the rebuffs of two worlds, the author had his cherished
production published on his own account, and was remunerated by the
sale of the whole edition. After the tardy sale of several subsequent
editions by houses of limited influence, the book had the good fortune,
finally, to fall into the hands of the gigantic establishment whose
imprint is now upon its title-page. And now, the author is informed, it
is regularly and liberally ordered by the London booksellers, and is sold
with an increasing rapidity in almost every section of the Union.
Such are the hazards, the miseries, and sometimes the rewards, of
authorship.
J.B.J.
Burlington, N.J., March, 1856.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Glenn and Joe--Their horses--A storm--A