Herbert George Wells, “In the Days of the Comet”, 1906 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
The “table of contents” of the book is shown BELOW. 
The story begins as follows:
First Chapter, First Page.
Chapter #1. “In which Judge Proth performs one of the most agreeable duties of his office before returning to his garden”.
Page #1. “There is no reason for hiding from the reader that the town in which this singular story commences is situated in Virginia, United States of America. With his permission, we will call this town, Whaston, and we will place it in the east, on the right bank of the river Potomac; but we deem it useless to specify the exact whereabouts of Whaston, which does not appear even on the best maps. On the 12th of March, in the year our story opens, the inhabitants of Whaston that happened to be walking along Exeter Street, after their breakfast, had the pleasure of seeing a horseman ride up the street slowly and then down the steep incline at the same prudent pace, after which performance he stopped on Constitution Square, situated almost in the center of the town.”
The story ends as follows:
Last Chapter. Last Page.
Chapter #21. “A last chapter, giving the epilogue of the story, in which Mr. John Proth, the Whaston judge, says the concluding words.”
Page #292. “The magistrate performed his duty and remarried the couple that he had divorced a few weeks before, then bowed courteously to them.
“Thanks, Mr. Proth.” said Mrs. Stanfort.
“And good-bye,” added Mr. Seth Stanfort.”
“Good-bye, Mr. and Mrs. Stanfort,” replied the judge, who forthwith returned to his garden to look after his flowers. But a scruple troubled the worthy philosopher. As he was holding his thrice-filled watering-can in his hand, he paused and ceased to shed its beneficent shower over the thirsty geraniums.
“Good-bye! … ” He murmured pensively, in the middle of the garden walk. “I should have done better, to add; for the present …”
THE END
Herbert George Wells, “In the Days of the Comet”, 1906 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I presented: Jules Verne, “The Chase of the Golden Meteor”, 1908 which was an astronomy SciFi story.
SUMMARY.
The discovery of a falling golden meteor and the race to find it form the core of this tale from the master of science fiction, Jules Verne. An asteroid wanders into earth’s gravitational field and is spotted by two rival Virginia astronomers. The discovery becomes a worldwide sensation when it is announced that the asteroid is solid gold and plummeting toward earth.
The approaching disaster is brought on by the machinations of the brilliant but absent-minded French scientist and inventor Zephyrin Xirdal. Xirdal has invented a ray with which he pulls the golden asteroid from orbit and hopes to guide it to crash at a spot of his choosing. Xirdal, the two Virginia astronomers and their families, and representatives from many nations race to find and claim the golden meteor.
“The Chase of the Golden Meteor” is vintage Verne, artfully blending hard science and scientific speculation with a farcical comedy of manners.
