MARK TWAIN'S SKETCHES. Selected and Revised by the Author. COPYRIGHT. EDITION. LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS. 1872. 250. Je 114. AUTHOR'S ADVERTISEMENT. MESSRS. GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS are the only English publishers who pay me any copyright on my books. That is something; but a courtesy which I prize even more, is the opportunity which they have given me to edit and revise the matter for publication myself. This enables me to leave out a good deal of literature which has appeared in England over my name, but which I never wrote. And, as far as this particular volume is concerned, it also enables me to add a number of sketches which I did write, but which have not heretofore been published abroad. This book contains all of my sketches which I feel at all willing to father. MARK TWAIN. HARTFORD, 1872. PREFATORY. IF I were to sell the reader a barrel of molasses, and he, instead of sweetening his substantial dinner with the same at judicious intervals, should eat the entire barrel at one sitting, and then abuse me for making him sick, I would say that he deserved to be made sick for not knowing any better how to utilize the blessings this world affords. And if I sell to the reader this volume of nonsense, and he, instead of seasoning his graver reading with a chapter of it now and then, when his mind demands such relaxation, unwisely overdoses himself with several chapters of it at a single sitting, he will well deserve to be nauseated, and he will have nobody to blame but himself if he is. There is no more sin in publishing an entire volume of nonsense than there is in keeping a candy store with no hardware in it. It lies wholly with the customer whether he will injure himself by means of either, or will derive from them the benefits which they will afford him if he uses their possibilities judiciously. Respectfully submitted, THE AUTHOR. |