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 restirrection 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 with the American Millionaires disease, 

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

 as they express it here, he has bitten 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 ; Jte says it is a tonic 

 all through. 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 



