Chapter I: Front Matter

MY LIFE

_MY LIFE_

BY JOSIAH FLYNT

Author of "Tramping with Tramps," "The World of Graft," Etc.

With an Introduction by ARTHUR SYMONS

_ILLUSTRATED_

NEW YORK THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY MCMVIII

Copyright, 1908, by THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to all those human beings, who, like myself, have come under the spell of that will-o'-the-wisp, _Die Ferne_, the disappearing and fading Beyond, and who, like myself again, are doomed sooner or later to see the folly of their quest, _Die Ferne_ receding meanwhile farther and farther away from their vision. "It is the way of the World," says the Philosopher. That my fellow dupes in the fruitless chase may all become sweet-natured philosophers in the end, is my earnest wish and prayer.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION--_By Arthur Symons_ xi
FOREWORD xxiii
I EARLIEST REMINISCENCES 3
II YOUTHFUL DAYS AT EVANSTON 18
III REST COTTAGE 30
IV EARLY COLLEGE DAYS 53
V MY FIRST IMPRISONMENT 75
VI IN A REFORM SCHOOL 86
VII EARLY TRAMPING EXPERIENCES 101
VIII MY VOYAGE TO EUROPE 120
IX UNTER DEN LINDEN 141
X BERLIN UNIVERSITY 152
XI WANDERINGS IN GERMANY 167
XII A VISIT TO LONDON 177
XIII THE BLOOMSBURY GUARDS 190
XIV SOME LONDON ACQUAINTANCES 196
XV TWO TRAMPING EXPERIENCES 201
XVI SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY 206
XVII A VISIT TO TOLSTOY 227
XVIII SOME ANECDOTES OF TOLSTOY 241
XIX I MEET GENERAL KUROPATKIN 248
XX IN ST. PETERSBURG 258
XXI I RETURN TO AMERICA 269
XXII NEW YORK AGAIN 273
XXIII RAILROAD EXPERIENCES 287
XXIV TRYING TO LIVE BY MY PEN 295
XXV WITH THE POWERS THAT PREY 302
XXVI HONOR AMONG THIEVES SO CALLED 323
JOSIAH FLYNT--An Appreciation--_By Alfred Hodder_ 341
JOSIAH FLYNT--An Impression--_By Emily M. Burbank_ 348
A FINAL WORD--_By Bannister Merwin_ 356

ILLUSTRATIONS

Josiah Flynt _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
The Boy--Josiah Flynt 20
Oliver Atherton Willard 116
Madam Willard 170
Frances E. Willard 250
Josiah Flynt, in his "garb of the road," while tramping in Russia 304