this little story was written nearly five years ago. the verdict upon it was that it was "unpublishable," and so i put it away until i should be in position to publish it myself.

recently i read it over, and got an interesting vision of how the times have changed in five years. i put it away a revolutionary document; i took it out a quiet and rather obvious statement of generally accepted views. in reading the story, one should bear in mind that it was written before any of the "literature of exposure" had appeared; that its writer drew nothing from mr. steffens' probing of political corruption, nor from miss tarbell's analysis of the railroad rebate, nor from mr. lawson's exposé of the inner life of "frenzied finance."

u.s.