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                                   MY
                              UNKNOWN CHUM
                              "AGUECHEEK"




                            WITH A FOREWORD
                            BY HENRY GARRITY




                                NEW YORK
                        THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY
                                  1930


              _THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH THOUSAND_


                          Copyright, 1912, by
                       _The Devin-Adair Company_

              _All rights reserved by The Devin-Adair Co._

                         _Printed in U. S. A._






CONTENTS


  - FOREWORD
  - SKETCHES OF FOREIGN TRAVEL
    - A PASSAGE ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
    - LONDON
    - ANTWERP AND BRUSSELS
    - GENOA AND FLORENCE
    - ANCIENT ROME
    - MODERN ROME
    - ROME TO MARSEILLES
    - MARSEILLES, LYONS, AND AIX IN SAVOY
    - AIX TO PARIS
    - PARIS
    - PARIS--THE LOUVRE AND ART
    - NAPOLEON THE THIRD
    - THE PHILOSOPHY OF FOREIGN TRAVEL
    - PARIS TO BOULOGNE
    - LONDON
  - ESSAYS
    - STREET LIFE
    - HARD UP IN PARIS
    - THE OLD CORNER
    - SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THEATRE ALLEY
    - THE OLD CATHEDRAL
    - THE PHILOSOPHY OF SUFFERING
    - BOYHOOD AND BOYS
    - JOSEPHINE--GIRLHOOD AND GIRLS
    - SHAKESPEARE AND HIS COMMENTATORS
    - MEMORIALS OF MRS. GRUNDY
    - THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE
    - BEHIND THE SCENES
    - THE PHILOSOPHY OF CANT




FOREWORD


    _Life is too short for reading inferior books._

      _Bryce._


In 1878 a letter of introduction to Mr. S---- of Detroit was
instrumental in securing for me the close friendship of a man some
twenty years my senior--a man of unusual poise of mind and of such
superb character that I have ever looked upon him as a perfect type of
Newman's ideal gentleman.

My new friend was fond of all that is best in art and literature. His
pet possession, however, was an old book long out of print--"Aguecheek."
He spoke to me of its classic charm and of the recurring pleasure he
found in reading and rereading the delightful pages of its unknown
author, who saw in travel, in art, in literature, in life and humanity,
much that other travellers and other writers and scholars had failed to
observe--seeing all with a purity of vision, a clearness of intellect,
and recording it with a grace and ease of phrase that suggest that he
himself had perhaps been taught by the Angelic Doctor referred to in the
closing lines of his last essay.

A proffered loan of the book was eagerly accepted. Though still in my
teens, I soon became a convert to all that my cultured friend had said
in its praise.

With the aid of a Murray Street dealer in old books, I was fortunate
enough to get a copy for myself. I read it again and again. Obliged to
travel much, I was rarely without its companionship; for I knew that if
other reading-matter proved uninteresting, I could always find some new
conversational charm in the views and words of the World-Conversant
Author.

Fearing that I weighed the merits of the work with a mental scale
wanting in balance, I asked