Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
MERRY TALES.
THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND HIS EASTERNNEIGHBORS.
SELECTED POEMS.
DON FINIMONDONE: CALABRIANSKETCHES.
The projector of this Series has had in mind theevident desire of our people, largely occupied with materialaffairs, for reading in a shape adapted to the amountof time at their disposal. Until recently this desire hasbeen satisfied chiefly from foreign sources. Many reprintsand translations of the little classics of otherliteratures than our own have been made, and muchgood has been done in this way. On the other hand,a great deal of rubbish has been distributed in the samefashion, to the undoubted injury of our popular taste.
Now that a reasonable copyright law allows the publicationof the better class of native literature at moderateprices, it has seemed fitting that these volumesshould consist mainly of works by American writers.As its title indicates, the “Fiction, Fact, and FancySeries” will include not only fiction and poetry, butsuch essays, monographs, and biographical sketches asmay appear, from time to time, to be called for.
To no writer can the term “American” more justlybe applied than to the humorist whose “Merry Tales”are here presented. It was in an effort to devisesome novel method of bringing these stories, new andvio