REVIEW AND INFERENCES. 11 



cleus of my list through a succession of ten years. I 

 have added and revised; I have stopped and entirely 

 suspended the work begun then, saying to myself over 

 and over again: ere you place this list before the public 

 ten others will be ready likewise. None of them made 

 their appearance. And again I stuck to my plan. A 

 year ago last Xmas, that was the time when you should 

 have had my list on your table of gifts. But the funds 

 to cover the expense of printing (I learned long before 

 this that I had to be my own publisher) they have been 

 taken from me after being for years before my very eyes. 

 Did you, my reader, ever perform work and did not re- 

 ceive the duly earned remuneration? 1 can sing a 

 goodly song of such experience, the refrain of which 

 sounds something like: Such are the ways of the 

 predatory well-to-do. Still, time heals all sores, and 

 once more approached the day when the messenger from 

 my recluse should go forth. But in all of us is yet 

 fresh the remembrance of what the papers love to term 

 " hard times." This course of civilization, this gradu- 

 ally brought about accumulation of conditions and cir- 

 cumstances to rearrange the social positions of millions, 

 to please the trifling fancies of the " upper four-hun- 

 dred," it approached me while my hand clutched the 

 glittering metal saved, saved and saved again to pay for 

 my pet's outfit: and my grip loosened when it came to 

 the question of holding above water the head of the 

 only other one born by those whom I call father and 

 mother. This song has the well-known refrain: Such 

 are the ways of the generous handrto-mouth. 



(P. S. April 27, 1895. One more year has passed, 

 and it is just one span of twelve months since I, driven 

 by desperation, stood before a son of Sem and asked 

 him to loan me the required funds to carry on the print- 



