I have written this account only secondarily and at the instigation of
publishers, for Americans. Primarily, I wrote it for the English people.
I composed it in their country; it was suggested by their institutions,
and it is addressed to them. You will see, if you read it, that I had
reasons for doing this. The reasons are in the first chapter, at the
very beginning. As you have not far to look for them, therefore, and as
it is quite unnecessary to print a thing twice in the same book, I will
not go over them again. The object of this preface is chiefly to
draw your attention to the fact that I am not talking to you, dear
compatriot, so that you will understand that there is no personal ground
for any annoyance you may feel at what I say.
Notwithstanding this, one of the Miss Wastgoggles, of Boston, has
already taken the trouble to send me a rather severely reproachful
letter about my impressions and experiences, in which she says that she
would have written hers, if it had ever occurred to her to do so, very
differently. I have no doubt that this is true. She also begs me
to remember that there are a great many different kinds of girls in
America, numbers of whom are brought up "quite as they are in England."
It is this remark of hers that makes me quote Miss Wastgoggles. I wish
to say in connection with it that, while it is unreasonable to apologize
for being only one kind of American girl, I do not pretend to represent
the ideas of any more.
Mamie Wick.
No. 4000 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Illinois,
November 20, 1890.