O
Old Silver
Guest
In the 131 years since the publication and distribution for sale only in Lynchburg of the Beale Papers, no conclusive evidence of the events of 1819-1823 or the 2nd year of the Confederate War as depicted in the job pamphlet has ever been produced, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the Beale Papers is a work of fiction.
No author or authors work in a vacuum, and inspiration and factual research are involved which is also obvious in the narrative text of the Beale Papers.
Being that the Beale Papers were written in 1884/1885, where did the information that makes this treasure story compellingly believable?
First one looks for connections;
One connection is considered happenstance
Two connections are considered coincidence
Three connections and more establish a definite deliberate pattern, that can then be analyzed.
Logical deductive reasoning then eliminates all other possibilities, and what remains, is the truth.
On this thread, many alternative possibilities for the Beale story have been discussed and discarded, the first being that the Beale story as written in the job pamphlet is not true and never happened as portrayed in the narrative text.
What remains, is that the Beale Papers, copyrighted by James Beverly Ward in 1885, while brilliantly written by an "unknown author" is nothing more than a dime novel of the period with play along ciphers added as a parlor entertainment.
Still using Sherlock Holmes as a reference, I see. I'd like to see the look on your face when you figure out that you're using a fictional character to try to call another story a work of fiction. This is both funny and sad. I'm not sure which is more.