CHIT-CHAT.


                   CHAPTER I.

   I thought to write a book entitled: "Yesterday, Today
and Tomorrow."   How much is buried in the wreck-
age of yesterday-how uninteresting today is and how
little is to be done our burden we shift to the strong,
young shoulders of tomorrow; tomorrow of the big heart,
who in kindness hides our sorrows and whispers only of
hope. I ended by writing,-this-which I have called
"Chit-Chat," thus classifying the book, knowing that
such a book if true to name will picture the age and find a
publisher.
   I have read in the Arabian Book of Knowledge that
"thoughts are Tartars, vagabonds; imprison all thou
canst not slay," and have seen fit to follow this sugges-
tion and the advice given a Turkish author-
   "That none may dub thee tactless dund 'rhead,
       Confine thy pen to light chit-chat,
    And rattle on as might a letter!
      For ninety-nine of every hundred
    Hate learning and what's more than that,
      The hundredth man likes berresh better."
   So I present to you, gentle or gallant reader, as the
case may be, and quite informally, John Cornwall.
   He was born at 702 West Chestnut Street, Louisville,
Kentucky, on the 12th day of May, 1872. His mother
was a widow; and before the days of H. C. L. the two
lived comfortably on her income of 1,800.00 a year.