PREFACE.
Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson is responsible for the statement that “Spartans, stoics, heroes, saints, and gods use a short and positive speech.” This may account for the fact that there are no conversations worth reading in this entire story.
The spontaneous wisdom and eloquence that animate the characters of Bulwer and Disraeli to the habitual and familiar use of language outrivalling the diction of Richelieu; the colossal attainments of the natives neighboring Chattanooga, as set forth in St. Elmo, and discovered (by aid of the unabridged) in their off-hand chats; the wit and sparkle of that phenomenally delicious couple, Tom and Bessie, who irradiate not only “One Summer,” but every season in which they may be encountered,—all will be found wanting herein. My people simply talk, as people in the line of the army will talk,—most prosaically.
When it comes to portraying life in the staff, as opposed to existence in the fighting force, needless to say some other pen must be employed than that of
THE AUTHOR.
November, 1882.