Excerpt from Poems of Friendship, Love, and Hope The Author of this book was born about three miles southwest of Delta, Fulton County, Ohio, on February 4th, 1854. He grew up on a farm and was educated in a country school, Wauseon High and Elkhart, Indiana. He began teaching at 18. In the spring of 1877 was admitted to practice law at Goshen, Indiana. He was married on Octo her first, 1880, to Ella Frances Grumman, at Berlin ville, Erie County, Ohio. He has a family of three sons and two daughters. He is now engaged in the law and real estate, together with his son, Kenneth, at Lorain, Ohio, where all communications will reach him; and now, I take up the beginning of the end. In 1876, I was to publish a volume of poems; all I lacked was the means, and I have been fighting in the industrial world ever since. Have I won? Well, yes! And now I am going to the press. After taking up and dropping a name at each decade, I will call it Poems of F rienship, Love and Hope for what else of this earth interests me? Let me be a monarch of Love and thou mayest rule all else. My object is to build up and better Humanity. I go before the Public of my own free will and accord, whether for praise or condemnation, you will find me still writing. I come at eventide but salute you by saying, Good morning, here I am. N ow I really hope you will be pleased for Where do I get my cost if I fail to get praise? All else I was forced to get before I went to press. From my earliest mem ory, I liked things sweet and would I be an Author if I did not like praise? I always wanted my butter spread thickly and Whether condemnation or praise, do not be afraid to spread it on and I will greet bothwith a smile. Mr. Critic, wade in, I love a fracas; if you will fight, we will postpone dinner and put on the gloves; but for all who praise, God be with you. 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.