Text: Rev. James Conway Hiden, “ ‘Gold Bug’ in a Silver Dress,” Biblical Recorder (Raleigh, NC), August 4, 1869, p. 1, col. 5

[page 1, col. 5:]

The Atlantic Monthly, as every one knows, is the organ of New England thought in literature, science, art and politics. The Boston school of writers is especially represented in this Magazine; and the school can lay a just claim to a high degree of literary finish in most of the articles published in the Atlantic.

In the December number of this magazine, (1868) there appears a middling article by some anonymous writer. It is entitled “Our Paris Letter.” The writer shows cleverness, sprightliness and wit; and had we never read the “Gold Bug” by EDGAR A. POE, we should say that the story also gave evidence of decided originality.

But we have read the “Gold Bug,” and we cannot help suspecting that this writer in the Atlantic had read it too. At all events, the circumstances, situations and characters of the two tales are so remarkably similar, nay, so exactly identical in most particulars, that we could not help feeling that Poe's tale was here reproduced in an altered dress.

We may remark here that we consider the “Gold Bug” the finest tale we ever read, with the exception, perhaps, of some two or three, and and [[sic]] these also were written by Poe.

Let us note the extraordinary number of coincidences(?) between the “Gold Bug” and “Our Paris Letter.” The main incident in both tales is the discovery of a great deal of money. In both tales this money had been illegally obtained by lawless characters; these characters are dead; the money has been concealed in the earth in an unfrequented spot; the deceased outlaws have both left hieroglyphical or cipher directions as to the locality where the money is concealed; in both cases the principle conductors of the search are eccentric persons, who have retired from the haunts of men, and are living secluded lives in cabins on out-of-the-way islands; in each case a friend visits the cabin of the recluse, and assists in conducting the search for the money; in both tales they dig for the money in the night, find it in boxes, divide the spoils and become rich.

Now, it requires more credulity (or is it charity?) Than we can boast of to believe that the “Paris Letter” had no connection with Poe's splendid tale. It may be admitted that the dress of the story differs widely from that of the “Gold Bug;” but the difference is all in favor of the latter tale. Indeed, the management of the incidents and of the characters in Poe's tale is as far superior to that of “Our Paris Letter” as is the plot of the “Canterbury Tales” to that of the “Decameron” of Boccaccio.

The hieroglyphics (if we may call them so) in “Our Paris Letter” are bungling and inartistic; and after going to the trouble of introducing them, the writer makes a poor use of them, that the read naturally wonders why they were introduced at all. The locality where the money lies hid, is guessed at on a mere accidental hint after all; whereas in the “Gold Bug,” the cipher, which is sufficiently intricate and difficult, is elaborately worked out, and its directions are strictly followed.

Poe was, upon the whole, the ablest literary man that America has produced, in both prose and poetry — at least, such is our estimate of him. His claims have been very commonly ignored, and his productions underrated, especially by the literary men of the North, and more especially by the Boston school of writers. But we are not sure that they could well pay a higher compliment to his genius than to take his “Gold Bug,” put it into a silver dress, and print is as an original article in the leading New England Magazine, published in Boston itself. Of course we do not say positively that this has been done in this case; but the similarity is certainly too striking not to create suspicion.

J. C. HIDEN.

Wilimington, N. C.