The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Old World and Its Ways, by William Jennings Bryan

Author's Preface

This volume is published in response to numerous requests from many sections, and my purpose is to put in permanent and convenient form the observations made during travels in the old world.

The illustrations will throw light on the subjects treated and it is believed will add much to the interest. The photographs from which they were made were collected at the places visited or taken by members of our party. Chapters one to forty-six were written from time to time during the trip around the world.

I was accompanied on this tour by my wife and our two younger children, William J., Jr., and Grace, aged sixteen and fourteen years respectively. The trip was taken for educational purposes and proved far more instructive than we anticipated.

We left our home September 21, 1905, sailed from San Francisco September 27, and arrived in New York August 29, 1906—the day before the date fixed for the home-coming reception in that city—and reached Lincoln September 5, sixteen days less than a year after our departure.

While most of our travel was in the North Temperate Zone, we were below the Equator a few days in Java and above the Arctic Circle in Norway.

In this narrative I fear I have sacrificed literary style to conciseness, for I have endeavored to condense and crowd into the space as much information as possible. The statement of facts may be relied on, being based either upon observations gathered at first hand from persons worthy to be trusted, or taken from authoritative writings.

Mrs. Bryan assisted me in the collection of materials and the preparation of the matter, and I am also indebted to the American Ambassadors, Ministers and Consuls, as well as to the officials of the countries which were visited, for valuable information.

I have included a series of articles written during a former visit to Europe in 1902. As I have avoided in the World Tour Narratives the subjects treated in these previous European articles, the two series are appropriately published together.

All of these are published with the more pleasure because I believe they will give the reader increased admiration for American institutions and a larger confidence in the triumph of American Ideals.

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1907

CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS