Nashville, Tenn.:
Southern Methodist Publishing House.
1886.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884,
By the Book Agents of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Some one has said that inasmuch as the Preface to a book is the lastthing that is written, it ought to be the last that is read. I supposethat some readers prefer to omit the Preface until they have read thebook, for many writers, Lord Lytton among the number, really destroy theillusion of a work of fiction by specifying the conditions under whichit was written. A certain amount of faith in the reality of the thingsrecorded is, to many minds, essential to true enjoyment of the story.
However the case may be, I prefer that the reader of this volume shouldread these lines of mine before he proceeds farther. The author of thislittle book is both blind and deaf! For many years he has beenabsolutely blind. He has utterly lost the sense of hearing also; andwhilst he speaks with singular clearness, and with some modulation ofvoice, he can receive no communication from his fellow-creatures exceptthrough an alphabet which he carries upon his hand! Every word must bespelled letter by letter.
Thus deprived of two of his senses, it is a marvel that he is able towrite at all. That he has written a book of more than ordinary interestI am sure the reader will decide when he has read it. There are passagesof true poetry scattered here and there, and some descriptive scenesthat will not suffer by comparison with those of the best of livingauthors. Under other circumstances, I would exercise my editorialprerogative, and change the form of some of his expressions; but thestyle of Mr. Heady is peculiar: it is his own, and the merit oforiginality should not be denied to him, even in those rare instances inwhich he breaks away from the trammels of recognized laws of language.
I am sure that the knowledge of the infirmities under which this authorwrites will secure to him a lenient spirit of criticism, whilst itinspires admiration in view of the great excellence of his work. Not aline, not a word of complaint against the Providence that has afflictedhim—not the slightest allusion to his personal disabilities—will befound anywhere in this volume. The spirit of the writer is cheerful, tothe verge of gayety itself. He has a keen sense of the ridiculous, andexhibits a quiet humor which is couched in quaint and striking phrases.
How thankful ought we to be, to whom the gracious God has given the useof all our senses! Should we not stand reproved in the presence of thisblind and deaf man, who uses for the benefit of others the means that hepossesses, whilst we, enjoying all of God's bounties, have made solittle use of them? This work is a sermon to the despondent, complainingspirit, and a word of vigorous exhortation to the slothful man. May thismoral of the book leave its record for good in the heart of everyreader!
W.P. Harrison,
Book Editor, M.E. Church, South.
Nashville, Dec., 1883.
Nearly twenty years had now elapsed since Daniel Boone had spent thatmemorable twelve-month all alone in the depths of the boundlesswilderness; yet was Kentucky still the Hunter's Paradise, or the land ofthe Dark and Bloody Ground, just as the wild adventurer or peacefullaborer might happen to view it. In the more central regions, it istrue, a number of thriv