

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)



Note: Images of the original pages are available through
      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
      http://www.archive.org/details/overshadowednove00grigrich





OVERSHADOWED.

A Novel.

by

SUTTON E. GRIGGS

Author of "Imperium in Imperio."







Nashville, Tenn.:
The Orion Publishing Co.
1901.

Copyrighted
Sutton E. Griggs
1901.




                     DEDICATION.

                   To the Memory of
                       ALBERTA,
        Who, in the absence of this her oldest
    brother, crossed over the dark stream, smiling
          as she went, this volume is most
            affectionately dedicated by

    _THE AUTHOR._




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


The task assigned to the <DW64>s of the United States is unique in the
history of mankind.

He whose grandfather was a savage and whose father was a slave has been
bidden to participate in a highly complex civilization on terms of
equality with the most cultured, aggressive and virile type of all
times, the Anglo-Saxon.

The stupendous character of the task is apparent when it is called to
mind that the civilization in which they are to work out their
respective destinies is fitted to the nature of the Anglo-Saxon, because
he evolved it; while, on the other hand, the nature of the <DW64> _must
be fitted to the civilization_, thus necessitating the casting aside of
all that he had evolved.

This attempt on the part of the infant child of modern civilization to
keep pace with the hale and hearty parent thereof, has served to
contribute its quota of tragedies to the countless myriads that have
been enacted under the sun, since the Cosmic forces first broke forth
out of night into light, and began their upward, sightless, or shall we
rather say, full visioned tread in quest of the "music of the spheres"
and the higher purposes of the GREAT BEYOND.

What part in the great final programme these Cosmic forces have assigned
to the attempt of the <DW64> to journey by the side of the white man,
none are yet able to say, the situation being still in process of
unfoldment.

While we watch with becoming reverence and muse thereon, we catch up our
lyre to sing to the memory of those slain in their name, if not by their
order.

    Very respectfully yours,
    THE AUTHOR.




CONTENTS.


       I. A Girl Perplexed

      II. The Cause Revealed but not Removed

     III. Other Actors

      IV. A Lady who did not know that she was a Lady

       V. What a Kiss Did

      VI. Up to Date Aristocracy in a <DW64> Church

     VII. Rev. Josiah Nerve, D. D. S.

    VIII. He Narrowly Escapes

      IX. The Pit is Dug

       X. The Victims

      XI. Murder

     XII. The Visit of a Policeman

    XIII. Backward, then Forward

     XIV. As Least Expected

      XV. An Awful Resolve

     XVI. A Political Trick

    XVII. Paving the Way

   XVIII. John Wysong Confesses

     XIX. Added Sorrows

      XX. Speaker Lanier

     XXI. The Hanging

    XXII. Worse than Death

   XXIII. Full of Joy

    XXIV. Opposing the Wedding

     XXV. Erma and an Assassin

    XXVI. Name the Chapter After you Read It

   XXVII. The Funeral




PROEM.


A farmer who is planting corn in a fertile field, halts beneath the
shade of a huge oak to rest at noon.

Accidentally a grain of corn drops from his bag, finds lodgement in the
soil, and in time begins to grow.

The grains that fell in the field will have their difficulties in
reaching maturity.

There is the danger of too much water, of the drought, of the coming
worms.

But the grain that came to life under the oak has its _peculiar_
struggles.

It must contend for sustenance with the roots of the oak.

It must wrestle with the shade of the oak.

The life of this isolated grain of corn is one continuous tragedy.

OVERSHADOWED is the story of this grain of corn, the Anglo-Saxon being
the oak, and the <DW64> the plant struggling for existence.

To be true to life, the story must indeed be a sombre one.

So, OVERSHADOWED is a tragedy--a story of sorrow and suffering.

Yet the gloom is enlivened by the presence of a heroic figure, a
beautiful, noble girl, who stands unabashed in the presence of every
ill.

OVERSHADOWED does not point the way out of the dungeon which it
describes, but it clearly indicates the task before the reformer when he
comes.

If you have time and inclination for such a recital--the curtain rises
and the play begins.




OVERSHADOWED.




CHAPTER I.

A GIRL, PERPLEXED.


To-and-fro, to-and-fro, with hurried, restless tread, Erma Wysong walked
her parlor floor, forgetful of the young man who sat in a corner and
gazed at her, with all of his powers of sight apparently doing double
duty. Her hair