Excerpt from Seventy-Five Years in Old Virginia: With Some Account of the Life of the Author and Some History of the People Amongst Whom His Lot Was Cast, Their Character, Their Condition, and Their Conduct Before the War, During the War and After the War In February, 1900, the author received a request, through Mr. F. B. Sanborn, of Massachusetts, to read a paper on the "Changes in the Sociology of Old Virginia During the Last Half of the Last Century," before the National Sociological-Society of America, to convene in Washington on May 2, 1900. He acknowledged the compliment, and accepted the invitation; but circumstances made it impracticable for him to fill the engagement. In gathering data for the fulfilment of that task, the author filed many of the facts recited in the first chapter of this volume. Becoming more interested in the subject, he continued to write, until reminiscences grew and multiplied, and crowded one upon another, and the whole scope and design of the original intention of the writer was lost in that law of association which the poet puts into classic verse: "Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain, Awake but one, and lo! what myraids rise! Each stamps its image as the other flies." In the meantime the author saw that his reminiscences had run, in length at least, into a book; and as custom ordains that every book should have a preface, he followed the precedent. In the preface, as is usual, he furnishes his readers with the reasons which induced him to appear before them, and, unbidden, to parade his wares. 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.

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