PREFACE 



If in the perusal of this narrative it should be objected 

 that there is far too much of a personal or private 

 nature, the author's excuse is, that it was commenced to 

 gratify a large circle, beyond whose limits it was never 

 intended to pass ; but some friends, thinking it worthy of 

 a more extended circulation, have induced him to offer it 

 to the public. 



If it should be found not altogether to correspond 

 with the title, and here and there to treat of persons and 

 things in a manner not warranted by the position of the 

 author, he claims the privilege of free agency, and shelters 

 himself under the shadow of precedent. 



In the Autobiography of a Stage Coachman the reader 

 must not expect to find any exalted sentiment, any 

 imaginary tale, any burlesque review, or any very deep 

 pathos ; discursive as it may be, no caricature of every- 

 day life, no pungent satire on the follies or fashions of 

 the day, enlivens its pages — they contain merely a plain, 

 unsophisticated detail of incidents and occurrences that 

 came under the observation of a man who had daily 

 intercourse with all classes of j^eople. 



