Little Journey in the World

The title naturally suggested for this story was “A Dead Soul, ” but it was discarded because of the similarity to that of the famous novel by Nikolai Gogol— “Dead Souls”— though the motive has nothing in common with that used by the Russian novelist. Gogol exposed an extensive fraud practiced by the sale, in connection with lands, of the names of “serfs” (called souls) not living, or “dead souls.