vi PREFATORY NOTE 



he says, " of our American Egypt, in the land of 

 Montezuma ; we are in our element ; fresh, pure, 

 clear, desert air, and the resurrection among the 

 Aztec ruins going on around us." Then he goes 

 on to say that he had given a copy of one of my 

 books to an old gentleman there " who is troubled 

 and disabled ivith the A incrican Millionaires disease, 

 having got together more than he can get rid of, or, 

 as they express it here, he has bitteit off more than he 

 can chew ! " (" Poor rich man, I pity him perfectly," 

 as Izaak Walton says.) " // is not often he enjoys 

 anything as he does your book ; he says it is a tonic 

 all tJirough. He is an old angler, and is so delighted 

 with it that he is sending you some large photo- 

 graphs of his own sport at Catalina Island." To 

 have given pleasure to such an unhappy being as 

 a Millionaire must necessarily be, is too great a 

 pleasure for me to keep to myself, I must ask 

 thee, gentle reader, to share it with me ! 



I leave THOMAS Ken and Izaak Walton to 

 thy tender mercies. The work professes nothing 

 more than to furnish a sketch of the lives of two 

 men of opposite tastes and pursuits, brought into 

 intimate relationship by the force of circumstances. 

 They were both good men and honest anglers ; the 

 first was a fisher of Men, the second an angler of 



