AT CLOSE RANGE
Books by F. HOPKINSON SMITH
PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
| At Close Range | Ill., 12mo, $1.50 |
| Colonel Carter's Christmas | Ill., 12mo, $1.50 |
| The Under Dog | Ill., 12mo, $1.50 |
| The Fortunes of Oliver Horn | Ill., 12mo, $1.50 |
"You're 'it.' I'll git the trunk at Kalamazoo."
AT
CLOSE RANGE
BY
F. HOPKINSON SMITH
ILLUSTRATED
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::1905
Copyright, 1905, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
——
Published, March, 1905
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
To my Readers:
On my writing-table lies a magnifying-glass the size of an old watchcrystal, which helps me to understand the mechanism of many interestingthings. With it I decipher at close range such finger-work as thecutting of intaglios, the brush-marks on miniatures, or perhaps theintricate fusings of metals in the sword-guard of a Samurai.
At the same close range I try to search the secret places of the manyminds and hearts which in my nomadic life cross my path. In thesemagnifyings and probings the unexpected is ofttimes revealed: tendernesshiding behind suspected cruelty; refinement under assumed coarseness;the joy of giving forcing its way through thick crusts of pretendedavarice.
The results confirm my theory, that at the bottom of everyheart-crucible choked with life's cinders there can almost always befound a drop of gold.
F. H. S.
150 E. 34th Street, New York.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| A Night Out | 3 |
| An Extra Blanket | 39 |
| A Medal of Honor | 67 |
| The Rajah of Bungpore | 93 |
| The Soldo of the Castellani | 121 |
| A Point of Honor | 147 |
| Simple Folk | 177 |
| "Old Sunshine" | 207 |
| A Pot of Jam | 239 |