By Meredith Nicholson THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN AND OTHER PAPERS. A HOOSIER CHRONICLE. With illustrations. THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS. With illustrations. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK The Provincial American The Provincial American And Other Papers By Meredith Nicholson [Illustration] London CONSTABLE & CO. LIMITED BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 1913 COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON ALL RIGHTS RESERVED To George Edward Woodberry Guide, Counselor And the most inspiring of Friends This Volume is Dedicated With grateful and affectionate Regard _Indianapolis, September 1912._ Contents THE PROVINCIAL AMERICAN 1 EDWARD EGGLESTON 33 A PROVINCIAL CAPITAL 55 EXPERIENCE AND THE CALENDAR 89 SHOULD SMITH GO TO CHURCH? 115 THE TIRED BUSINESS MAN 159 THE SPIRIT OF MISCHIEF: A DIALOGUE 187 CONFESSIONS OF A “BEST-SELLER” 205 These papers, with one exception, have appeared in the _Atlantic Monthly_. A part of “Experience and the Calendar,” under another title, was published in the _Reader Magazine_. The Provincial American And Other Papers The Provincial American _Viola._ What country, friends, is this? _Captain._ This is Illyria, lady. _Viola._ And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. _Twelfth Night._ I AM a provincial American. My forebears were farmers or country-town folk. They followed the long trail over the mountains out of Virginia and North Carolina, with brief sojourns in western Pennsylvania and Kentucky. My parents were born, the one in Kentucky, the other in Indiana, within two and four hours of the spot where I pen these reflections, and I had voted before I saw the sea or any Eastern city. In attempting to illustrate the provincial point of view out of my own experiences I am moved by no wish to celebrate either the Hoosier commonwealth--which has not lacked nobler advertisement--or myself; but by the hope that I may cheer many who, flung by fate upon the world’s byways, shuffle and shrink under the reproach of their metropolitan brethren.