PREFACE.
1. belief that every man's
experience ought to be worth something to the community
from which he drew it, no matter what that experience
may be, so long as it was gleaned along the line of
some decent, honest work, made me begin this book.
With the result before him, the reader can judge for
himself now whether or not I was right. Right or wrong,
the many and exacting duties of a newspaper many life
would hardly have allowed me to bring it to an end
but for frequent friendly lifts given me by willing
hands. To the President of the Board of Health, Mr.
Charles G. Wilson, and to Chief Inspector Byrnes of
the Police Force I am indebted for much kindness.
The patient friendship of Dr. Roger S. Tracy, the
Registrar of Vital Statistics, has done for me what
I never could have done for myself; for I know nothing
of tables, statistics and percentages, while there
is nothing about them that he does not know. Most
of all, I owe in this, as in all things else, to the
womanly sympathy and the loving companionship of my
dear wife, ever my chief helper my wisest counsellor,
and my gentlest critic. J. A. R.
2. gates of
silver and bars of gold
Ye have fenced my sheep from their father's fold;
I have heard the dropping of their tears
In heaven these eighteen hundred years."
3. Lord and Master, not
ones the guilt,
We build but as our fathers built;
Behold thine images, how they stand,
Sovereign and sole, through all our land."
4. Christ sought out
an artisan,
A low-browed, stunted, haggard man,
And a motherless girl, whose fingers thin
Pushed from her faintly want and sin.
5. set he in the midst
of them,
And as they drew back their garment-hem,
For fear of defilement, " Lo, here," said he,
" The images ye have made of
me ! " --JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL. |