Excerpt from Wayside Musings In this little collection of various subjects, put in verse, the author claims no credit for superiority, or for any thought not expressed before by others. The verses were written over a period of about fifty years and were composed simply for the gratification or pleasure they gave at the time. Many of the reading public labor under a mistaken idea, and seem to think the poets write mostly of themselves; but a more erroneous conclusion could hardly be entertained. They, of course, write of some things that have more or less to do with their own experience but mostly of what they have read, or events that happen around them in ordinary, everyday life. Many of the poems are true in their entirety while others are a compilation of various circumstances, others, idle dreamings. The author has tried to avoid plagiarism, but has used the style of verse, which we are inclined to regard as common property. They were written with no thought of remuneration except as stated above, and until within six months no serious thought was entertained by the author for their publication, and now it is only by the earnest solicitation of friends that consent was given. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.