TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
_To my Readers_:
On my writing-table lies a magnifying-glass the size of an old watch
crystal, which helps me to understand the mechanism of many interesting
things. With it I decipher at close range such finger-work as the
cutting of intaglios, the brush-marks on miniatures, or perhaps the
intricate fusings of metals in the sword-guard of a Samurai.
At the same close range I try to search the secret places of the many
minds and hearts which in my nomadic life cross my path. In these
magnifyings and probings the unexpected is ofttimes revealed: tenderness
hiding behind suspected cruelty; refinement under assumed coarseness;
the joy of giving forcing its way through thick crusts of pretended
avarice.
The results confirm my theory, that at the bottom of every
heart-crucible choked with life's cinders there can almost always be
found a drop of gold.