PREFACE.

ALTHOUGH two series of letters, the one entitled New York to San Francisco,' the other 'A Visit to the Mormons,' which recently appeared in The Daily News, form the basis of this volume, yet those who have perused these letters will find that the revision they have undergone is sa thorough, and the additions made to them are so considerable, as to constitute the volume itself an entirely new work in substance, if not in name. Like the famous stockings of Sir John Cutler, these productions now resemble, in general outline only, that which they were originally.

Seldom, indeed, should contributions to newspapers be reprinted precisely as they were when first published. A journalist must adapt himself to his readers if he would gain their confidence and produce a vivid and lasting impression. Every

newspaper has its own circle of readers. The better fitted a piece of writing may be to rivet the attention and gratify the taste of that circle, the greater is the probability of its proving unsuited for the varied and unascertained tastes of the vast critical circle to which a writer appeals, and by which he is judged, when he gives a book to the public.

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Articles of a purely literary character may sometimes be advantageously reprinted from newspapers without the excision of a sentence or the modification of an opinion. The brilliant and incisive critiques of the late Samuel Phillips are as sparkling, pungent, and valuable now that they appear a volume exactly as they were when they informed and gratified the readers of The Times. Artistic and thoughtful biographical sketches, like those which Miss Martineau has reprinted from The Daily News, would not have been improved if the original form and phraseology had been sensibly altered. change would be for the better in some of the finished studies in political science and social ethics which distinguished contributors to The Pall Mall Gazette and The Saturday Review now and then

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collect and reproduce in volumes. But letters such as mine are in a different category. The space at my disposal being necessarily restricted, I was de barred from making full use of the details I had collected. Moreover, my contributions had to pass through the alembic of editorial supervision. The process may have greatly improved, while slightly altering them. Nevertheless, when acknowledging their paternity, I exercise a natural right in dressing them according to my own fancy, and presenting them in the garb which I believe to be at once the most suitable and the most becoming. As a necessary consequence of the veil of anonymity being formally drawn aside, all the responsibility for views adopted and opinions expressed is now transferred, from the journal in which many of these letters were printed, to the writer whose name is on the title-page of this Work.

That portion of it which relates to the Pacific Railway supplies information which the public can hardly call stale and may possibly consider to be interesting. Those who have not made the journey will gather from this volume what I hope will be regarded as an accurate notion of the vicissitudes