[figure description] Preface iii.[end figure description]

The following sketches were written, rather in the hope that
chance would bring them to light, when time would give them an
interest, than in the belief that they would afford any interest to the
readers of the present day. I knew, however, that the chance of
their surviving the author, would be increased in proportion to their
popularity upon their first appearance; and therefore I used some
little art in order to recommend them to the readers of my own times.
They consist of nothing more than fanciful combinations of real incidents
and characters; and throwing into those scenes, which would
be otherwise dull and insipid, some personal incident or adventure of
my own, real or imaginary, as it would best suit my purpose—usually
real, but happening at different times and under different circumstances
from those in which they are here represented. I have not always,
however, taken this liberty. Some of the scenes are as literally true,
as the frailties of memory would allow them to be. I commenced
the publication of them, in one of the gazettes of the State, rather
more than a year ago; and I was not more pleased than astonished,
to find that they were well received by readers generally. For the
last six months, I have been importuned by persons from all quarters
of the State to give them to the public in the present form. This
volume is purely a concession to their intreaties. From private considerations,
I was extremely desirous of concealing the author, and the
more effectually to do so, I wrote under two signatures. These have
now become too closely interwoven with the sketches, to be separated
from them, without an expense of time and trouble which I am unwilling
to incur. Hall is the writer of those sketches in which men
appear as the principal actors, and Baldwin of those in which women
are the prominent figures. For the “Company Drill,” I am indebted
to a friend, of whose labors I would gladly have availed myself

[figure description] Preface iv.[end figure description]

oftener. The reader will find in the object of the sketches, an apology
for the minuteness of detail into which some of them run; and for the
introduction of some things into them, which would have been
excluded, were they merely the creations of fancy.

I have not had it in my power to superintend the publication of
them, though they issue from a press in the immediate vicinity of my
residence. I discovered, that if the work was delayed until I could
have an opportunity of examining the proof sheets, it would linger in
the press, until the expenses (already large) would become intolerable.
Consequently there may be many typographical errors among them,
for which I must crave the reader's indulgence.

I cannot conclude these introductory remarks, without reminding
those who have taken exceptions to the coarse, inelegant, and sometimes
ungrammatical language, which the writer represents himself
as occasionally using; that it is language accommodated to the capacity
of the person to whom he represents himself as speaking.