Introductory 



REPEATED requests from readers of 

 "The Road to Dumbiedykes," and 

 its companion volume, "The Black Swans," 

 have led the writer to attempt the fulfill- 

 ment of a promise vaguely made in the 

 concluding paragraph of the series of 

 sketches last above mentioned. The two 

 former grew out of vacation days in the 

 out-of-doors. From "Dumbiedykes" to 

 an apartment house in Lincoln Park West 

 involves a change of base that finds re- 

 flection in these pages. 



Frost-crystals and "sun-dogs" have 

 splendors not surpassed by the halos of 

 the harvest moon. Still I confess that I 

 prefer to brave the blizzards of the pres- 

 ent from inside the library window, and 

 do most of my shoveling these days in 

 the drifts of bygone years. If therefore 

 I deal mainly with "the snows of yester- 

 day" it will be because an arm-chair 

 outlook somehow invites reflective retro- 

 spection rather than comment on the 

 passing storm. 



THE AUTHOR. 

 Chicago, January, 1920. 



