IN 1890 the Legislature of the State of New York, without a dissenting vote in either house, passed a Concurrent Resolution asking Congress to give Theodore R. Timby a national recognition. In the same year the judges of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, together with many other distin-, guished officials, joined in a petition asking Congress to do Theodore R. Timby the same distinguished honor as did the Legislature of his native State. Respectfully submitted, JOHN HENRY DARLINGTON, Brooklyn, N. Y. ROBERT F. BROOKE, Brooklyn, N. Y. E. GRANDISON MARLOW, Washington, D. C. The flowers of rhetoric are only acceptable when backed by the evergreens of truth and sense.—Macaulay. IN PREFACE early manhood, I resolved to better the condition of the race, by advancing the art of National Defence to a degree that would discourage aggressive war, by making successful invasion impracticable. In this humane and Christian effort, I found myself confronted with (to me) a new and formidable factor in the prob lem to be solved, namely, professional vanity; that any and every device sug gested by civilians, would meet with remorseless hostility; thus adding a hundredfold in time, money, and patience, to the task before me. In this unequal conflict with the inevi table, I found diversion as necessary to health and strength, as is persistence in the pursuit of success in every important reformation; not forgetting that reformers are martyrs. But they do not wholly perish. The contents of this volume were written for diversion at different times, as dated, from 1856 to 1902. In all, I have aimed at truth and brevity. Respectfully submitted, THEODORE RUGGLES TIMBY. Lighted Lore for Gentle Folk The Press. THE press of to-day, as an invention, is second only to that of alphabetic writing, which is said to "have tasked the genius of the three most gifted nations of the ancient world; " not forgetting the more recent inventions of the telegraph and telephone, which of themselves are wonders great. The writer was one of the earliest substantial endorsers of the former, and present at its formal opening between Washington and Baltimore in 1844, and would in no degree depreciate its colossal worth to the world. Treading closely |