from A New Home–Who’ll Follow? or, Glimpses of Western Life (1839) — Prefaces
from A New Home–Who’ll Follow? or, Glimpses of Western Life (1839)
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1800 657 168 “They’re coming! They’re coming! Was the cry.” p.58. A NEW HOME-WHO’LL FOLLOW? OR, GLIMPSES OF WESTERN LIFE. BY MRS. MARY CLAVERS, AN ACTUAL SETTLER. C. M. Kirkland (Stansburg) Ladies—or fair ladies—I would wish you—or I would request you, or I would entreat you, not to fear— not to tremble; my life for yours. Midsummer-Night’s Dream. A show, as it were, of an accompanable solitarinans, and of a civil wildness. Sidney’s Arcadia. FIFTH EDITION REVISED BY THE AUTHOR, AND ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS FROM DESIGNS BY F. O. O. DARLEY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CITY OF WASHINGTON NEW YORK: C. S. FRANCIS & CO., 252 BROADWAY. BOSTON: J. H. FRANCIS, 128 WASHINGTON STREET. 1855. M PZ3 .K635 N 5 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, BY CHARLES S. FRANCIS In the Clerk’s Office of the District of the United States for the Southern District of New York.
PREFACE. I am glad to be told by those who live in the world, that it has lately become fashionable to read prefaces. I wish to say a few words, by a way of introduction, to a work which may be deemed too slight to need a preface, but which will doubtless be acknowledged to require some recommendation.
I claim for these straggling and cloudy crayon sketches of life and manners in the remoter parts of Michigan the merit of general truth of outline. Beyond this I venture not to aspire. I felt somewhat tempted to set forth my little book as being entirely—what it is very nearly—a veritable history; an unimpeachable transcript of reality; a rough picture, in detached parts, but pentagraphed from the life; a sort of ‘Emigrant’s Guide;’—considering with myself that these my adventurous journeyings and tarryings beyond the confines of civilization might fairly be held to confer the traveller’s privileges. But conscience prevailed, and I must honestly confess, that there be glosses, and colorings, and lights, if not shadows, for which the author is alone accountable. Journals, published entire and unaltered, should be Parthian darts, sent abroad only when one’s back is turned. To throw them in the teeth of one’s every-day associates might diminish one’s popularity rather inconveniently. I would desire the courteous reader to bear in mind, however, that whatever is quite unnatural, or absolutely incredible, in the few incidents which diversify the following pages, is to be received as literally true. It is only in the most common-place parts (it there be comparisons) that I have any leasing-making to answer for.
It will of course be observed that Miss Mitford’s charming sketches of village life must have suggested the form of my rude attempt. I dare not flatter myself that any one will be led to accuse me of further imitation of a deservedly popular writer. And with such brief salvo, I make my humble curtsey.
- C.
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. The improvements which have taken place in the social aspect of the great West since these unvarnished records were written, may lead some who observe the present to doubt the truthfulness of such delineations of the past; but much observation subsequent to the publication of this book, and much after reflection upon it, suggest to me nothing to be retracted or altered in the sketches, as an honest portraiture of rural life in a new country.
No peculiarity of custom or expression is here introduced which was not drawn directly from fact, and if the picture lack verity in any particular, it is not through exaggeration, but the opposite. Indeed, the immediate appropriation of the book in a dozen different parts of the country, before the authorship was known, is a sufficient voucher for its truth.
I am, therefore, much pleased to be able to present a New Edition, the fourth public favor has called for, with illustrations by a pencil which never fails to add grace to any subject, however homely.
- M. K. New York, November, 1849.