Front matter
Reading edition
BY
RALPH KEELER. BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO. 1870. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, BY RALPH KEELER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge. TO My old Friend EDWARD P. BASSETT, Esq.,
This book is affectionately inscribed, with the wish, which is hardly a hope, that the public may take my Life half as easily and good-naturedly as he takes his own.
R. K.
CONTENTS.
BOOK I. AMONG WHARVES AND CABINS. Æt. 11.
CHAPTER I.
Prefatory11
CHAPTER II.
Family Matters14
CHAPTER III.
A Fugitive23
CHAPTER IV.
A Stormy Time34
CHAPTER V.
A Boy’s Paradise47
CHAPTER VI.
The Contumely of Captains54
CHAPTER VII.
Almost a Tragedy62
CHAPTER VIII.
Taken Prisoner71
CHAPTER IX.
Squalor80
CHAPTER X.
A Final Triumph90
BOOK II. THREE YEARS AS A NEGRO-MINSTREL. Æt. 12-15.
CHAPTER I.
My First Company101
CHAPTER II.
I become a Beneficiary108
CHAPTER III.
The Fate of the Serenaders116
CHAPTER IV.
The Trials and Triumphs of the “Booker Troupe”129
CHAPTER V.
The Last of the “Booker Troupe”145
CHAPTER VI.
“The Mitchells”156
CHAPTER VII.
On the Floating Palace173
CHAPTER VIII.
Wild Life187
CHAPTER IX.
The Performer Socially205
CHAPTER X.
Adieu to the Stage214
BOOK III. THE TOUR OF EUROPE FOR $181 IN CURRENCY. Æt. 20-22.
CHAPTER I.
Starting on a Cattle-Train223
CHAPTER II.
Taking to European Ways230
CHAPTER III.
Student Life and Wanderings242
CHAPTER IV.
A Fight with Famine254
CHAPTER V.
The Conclusion266