Produced by Paul Wenker, Kurt Hockenbury
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
It seems almost unnecessary to say that "Round the World," like"An American Four-in-Hand in Britain," was originally printed forprivate circulation. My publishers having asked permission to giveit to the public, I have been induced to undertake the slightrevision, and to make some additions necessary to fit the originalfor general circulation, not so much by the favorable receptionaccorded to the "Four-in-Hand" in England as well as in America,nor even by the flattering words of the critics who have dealt sokindly with it, but chiefly because of many valued letters whichentire strangers have been so extremely good as to take thetrouble to write to me, and which indeed are still coming almostdaily. Some of these are from invalids who thank me for making thedays during which they read the book pass more brightly thanbefore. Can any knowledge be sweeter to one than this? Theseletters are precious to me, and it is their writers who are mainlyresponsible for this second volume, especially since some who havethus written have asked where it could be obtained and I have nocopies to send to them, which it would have given me a rarepleasure to be able to do.
I hope they will like it as they did the other. Some friendsconsider it better; others prefer the "Four-in-Hand." I think themdifferent. While coaching I was more joyously happy; during thejourney round the World I was gaining more knowledge; but if myreaders like me half as well in the latter as in the former mood,I shall have only too much cause to subscribe myself with sincerethanks,
Most gratefully,
"Think on thy friends when thou haply see'st
Some rare, noteworthy object in thy travels,
Wish them partakers of thy happiness."
NEW YORK, Saturday, October 12, 1878.
Bang! click! the desk closes, the key turns, and good-bye for ayear to my wards—that goodly cluster over which I have watchedwith parental solicitude for many a day; their several cribs fullof records and labelled Union Iron Mills, Lucy Furnaces, KeystoneBridge Works, Union Forge, Cokevale Works, and last, but notleast, that infant Hercules, the Edgar Thomson Steel RailWorks—good lusty bairns all, and well calculated to survive inThe struggle for existence—great things are expected of them inThe future, but for the present I bid them farewell; I'm off fora holiday, and the rise and fall of iron and steel "affecteth menot."
Years ago, Vandy, Harry, and I, standing in the very bottom of thecrater of Mount Vesuvius, where we had roasted eggs and drank tothe success of our next trip, resolved that some day, instead ofturning back as we had then to do, we would make a tour round theBall. My first return to Scotland and journey through Europe wasan epoch in my life, I had so early in my days determined to doit; to-day another epoch comes—our tour fulfils another youthfulaspiration. There is a sense of supreme satisfaction in carryingout these early dreams which I think nothing else can give, it issuch a triumph to realize one's castles in the air. Other dreamsremain, which in good time also must come to pass; fornothing can defeat these early inborn hopes, if one lives, and ifdeath comes there is, until the latest day, the exaltation whichcomes from victory if one but continues tru