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 they called “The Hansom Cab Publishing Company.”  Taking the book to London, they published it there with great success, and it had a phenomenal sale, which brought in a large sum of money.  The success was, in the first instance, due, in no small degree, to a very kind and generous criticism written by Mr. Clement Scott.  I may here state that I had nothing to do with the Company, nor did I receive any money for the English sale of the book beyond what I sold it for; and, as a matter of fact, I did not arrive in England until a year after the novel was published I have heard it declared that the plot is founded on a real criminal case; but such a statement is utterly without foundation, as the story is pure fiction from beginning to end.  Several people before and since my arrival in England, have assumed the authorship of the book to themselves; and one gentleman went so far as to declare that he would shoot me if I claimed to have written it.  I am glad to say that up to the present he has not carried out his intention.  Another individual had his cards printed, “Fergus Hume.  Author of ‘The Mystery of a Hansom Cab,’” and also added the price for which he was prepared to write a similar book.  Many of the papers put this last piece of eccentricity down to my account.