PREFACE. IN compiling this book of readings it has been my aim not only to make it fairly representative of my work as a reader of miscellaneous selections, but also to present to the public a few hitherto unpublished sketches written for my own use. I acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. John T. Wheelwright for his permission to publish "A Sewing School for Scandal," "A Cure for Dudes," and "Uncle Micajah's Treat at Slambasket Beach." I have publicly read these sketches many hundred times, and I hope other readers will derive as much pleasure and profit from them as I have. My thanks are also given to Miss Genevieve Ward for her translation and adaptation of "Come Here," and to the other American authors who have so kindly given me permission to include their poems in this book. I have purposely refrained from giving specific instructions as to the interpretation of any of the selections herein contained. An instructor in elocution must be present in the flesh, and the indication, by printed symbols, of emphasis, stress, or what-not, is as sane and valuable as the directions given by Mr. Punch in the poem, "Burglar Bill." I inscribe this book to those "fair eyes and gentle wishes" in my audiences which have so often "gone with me to my trial." GEORGE RIDDLE. ALL BOY (discovered arranging papers and letters on table). I do hope master 'll find a leading lady in this pile. — My! what a lot! why every female in town must want to lead. I wonder one ever gets a chambermaid, they all want to do "Lady Macbeth" or "Juliet "; should n't wonder if I played "Romeo" and "Hamlet" some day! I should like to have been "Romeo" to our last leading lady's "Juliet." She COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY F. E. CHASE. |