vi PREFACE. 
We have endeavored to make our little work thorough and re- 
liable, so far as it goes, and to give the largest possible amount 
of useful information that can be condensed into so small a num- 
ber of pages. We have occupied a large field, we are aware, and 
can not hope to have been so full on all points as many readers 
will desire. We have not aimed, of course, to render the larger 
works on the special topics to which our chapters are devoted un- 
necessary. We hope rather to create a demand for them; but 
there are thousands whom this little manual will furnish with all 
the information they desire on the subjects on which it treats, 
and on whom the details with which the larger and more expen- 
sive works are filled would be thrown away. To such, in an es- 
pecial manner, we commend it, hoping that it will not wholly fail 
to meet their expectations. 
