A Plot For A Million: Or, the Minister and the Penny Paper

The story of Rev. Fred Bell's foray into the world of sensation fiction is appearing slightly out of chronological order; i.e., before the post about the Mary Morris scandal of early 1876. That is because the Morris post is taking longer to research than I first anticipated. The story of Bell's romance cropped up in rather suddenly the middle of that research (which is what odd things tend to do in his story). I took some time out to figure out what was going on, and present it to you while I finish researching and writing up the Mary Morris case:

In the mid-1870s, English "Singing Preacher" Fred Bell was pastor of Brooklyn's Park Avenue Primitive Methodist Church. By the end of 1875, he was on the verge of being ousted for improper behaviour with a parishioner, and for slandering the church to a local newspaper. But Fred Bell was also busy with other projects. Before we look at the Morris scandal of early 1876 which led to Bell's speedy (if temporary) return to England, let's have a look at Bell's career in the world of sensational romance.

He had met and befriended a journalist named Kenward Philp. Kenward Philp (ca 1844-1887) was an English-born Brooklyn journalist, who sometimes wrote for the Brooklyn Eagle under the pen name Flaneur. Flaneur (French for "stroller") was a term used by writer Charles Baudelaire in the 19th century to mean an urban wanderer who was both part of the city scene and an observer. Philp was most famous for having written one of the earliest detective-story dime novels, The Bowery Detective (1873).*

As Bell explained to the Eagle in one of the letters he wrote defending himself over the Morris scandal, he had been writing weekly autobiographical sketches for a paper called The New York Story Paper. Bell also had given "material" to Kenward Philp for Philp's story "Hearts and Diamonds; Or, A Plot For A Million," which appeared in the Story Paper in September 1876. The Eagle noted that the Story Paper had more than double the usual orders in advance of the "serial romance by Rev. Fred Bell" appearing there. There was evidently some confusion about whether Bell or Philp had written the story; in any case, Bell seems to have provided the plot and the character of the hero.

The New York Family Story Paper was established in 1870 and like other penny papers (such as the New York Detective Library, at right) ran adventure stories, sensational romances and racy detective stories. It did not have a good reputation; the Eagle called it "a loose publication." When Bell saw the finished story, he didn't like it all, he said, and he complained to the publisher. The publisher "told me that the plates on which the paper was cast had cost such an enormous sum that, as he had nothing to do with the arrangement, he was exceedingly sorry that my friend, Mr. Philp, had broken the contract..[nevertheless] the story bore my name."

The Park Avenue Primitive Methodists were not impressed with this. Bell's fancying himself a romantic ladies' man had been precisely the trouble. That was why he had been ousted as pastor less than six months before "Hearts and Diamonds" appeared in print. Far from showing remorse and shame, Bell seemed to see himself as a romantic, dashing figure irresistible to the ladies.

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*Philp's other claim to fame is less positive. In October 1880 Philp was arrested and charged with forging the Morey Letter. The letter was supposed to have been written to a merchant called Morey by 1880 Presidential candidate James A. Garfield, "dealt with the Chinese question in such a way as would undoubtedly lose the Pacific States to the Republican Party had the genuineness of the letter no been doubted," as George Washington Walling put it in his 1887 book Recollections of a New York Chief of Police. In other words, it stated that Garfield was in favor of Chinese immigration without restriction; whereas in fact Garfield and the other candidates had stated that they were against this. This was a key issue in the election, and when the Morey Letter appeared, it stirred incredible passion and outrage.

By the time Garfield issued a denial the Morey Letter had been reprinted in newspapers across America. The Republicans organized a hunt for the forger, involving several detectives, and they zeroed in on Kenward Philp, who was arrested and tried in November 1880. He was acquitted in the end but several witnesses were indicted on a charge of perjury. It was never ascertained conclusively who had written the letter.

Image of New York Family Story Paper cover from eBay, where it can be purchased.
Image of New York Detective Library cover from Wikimedia Commons.

Also see: New York Family Story Paper at the Stanford University Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls collection. The images are from the 1880s, though the paper started in 1873 and was published at least until 1892.

SOURCES

"City and Suburban News: Brooklyn," New York Times, Feb. 22, 1886, p. 8. [Kenward Phelp obit]

Cushing, William. Anonyms and Pseudonyms: A Dictionary of Literary Disguises. (New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1888), p. 112.

Davenport, John Isaacs. History of the Forged "Morey Letter." (Pub. by the Author, 1884), p. 8 [reproduction of the letter]

"Fred Bell: An Account of His Woman Troubles," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 22, 1878, p. 3 [a detailed overview of his Brooklyn problems, in context of his then-current troubles in Nottingham, England]

Gyory, Andrew. "The Phony Document that Almost Cost a President His Election," History News Network (24 Oct. 2004)

Haining, Peter. The Classic Era of Crime Fiction. (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2002), p. 49.

MacDougall, Curtis Daniel. Hoaxes. (New York: Dover, 1958), p. 91.

Parish, John Carl. Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 27 (American Historical Association, Pacific Coast Branch, 1958), p. 365.

"Rev. Fred Bell as an Author," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sept. 16, 1876, p. 4.

Walling, George Washington. Recollections of a New York Chief of Police. (New York: Caxton, 1887), pp 344-5.