PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
Reading edition
This volume, originally issued twenty-one years ago, is reprinted and republished at the request of many partial friends. One sketch, which was simply a love story, has been omitted in this edition, and new illustrations have been made for it; but the contents of the book are otherwise the same as in the original volume. As most of the sketches were written a quarter of a century ago, rents, the salaries of clerks and others, and the prices of various kinds of goods do not agree with the standards of the present day. The author hopes the book will be as kindly received to-day as it was twenty-one years ago.
WILLIAM T. ADAMS.
Dorchester, October 26, 1875.
“Mr. Wm. T. Adams, who seems by the dedication to be the deus ex machina, has done himself credit. *** It contains twenty or thirty very sprightly and pointed stories, each sharply hitting some social absurdity or social vice. The conversations are remarkably conversational; just such questions, answers, and remarks as real people make. This gives a pleasant freshness to the narratives and dialogues, although not calculated to render the book a model of classical English style.”—Putnam’s Monthly, Feb. 1855.