Note 4 — Chapter II · THE BEGINNING

The author of “Thirteen Days” has thought many times of the unfairness and omissions inevitable in any attempt to make adequate or accurate records during such days of confusion. Although he will be found among those who stand up and are counted again and yet again, the author does not know the name of the stunted boy with the beautiful face. Another illustration of the incompleteness of such a record as this—if such illustration is needed!—is the fact that several men and women who during those last years were of supreme comfort to the doomed men were those who because of age or illness or distance were not present at the end. For example, Alice Stone Blackwell to whom Vanzetti wrote a very large number of letters.