The great demand for Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting has already exhausted the second edition, and orders are arriving in increasing numbers every day. The publisher wishes to express his grateful thanks to the trade for the generous patronage accorded the work. Not only would we express our thanks to those who have purchased the book, but we feel deeply grateful to the trade press for the generous reviews and kindly expressions of approval that they have given the volume. We send the third edition forth with the conviction that it is an improvement over the old ones in many respects, although we think the other editions were well worth the price charged for them.

It has been almost twenty years since a volume on carriage and wagon painting made its appearance in this country, during which time the enterprising carriage painter has been wide awake. He has found many new processes and a multitude of new materials of which the workman of twenty years ago knew nothing; he has raised vehicle painting from a simple mechanical process, which was intended to preserve the surface from decay, to a fine art of the highest order, and fashionable people now take as much pride in having beautiful and stylish equipages as they do in wearing clothing that is up to date, or in securing jewels that are sufficiently brilliant to dazzle all beholders.

No one realized more fully than the writer that an up-to-date work on the difficult but noble calling of the carriage and wagon painter was badly needed, so he began to cast about for someone who was fully qualified for the task of writing such a book. He knew that the author of such a work should be a man of extended trade practice and one who could divest himself of high-flown scientific terms and make his language so plain that any workman who cared to do so could easily comprehend the instruction given. A careful survey of the field led to the selection of Mr. M. C. Hillick, whose work for the magazines during the past ten or twelve years has done so much to assist carriage and wagon painters to elevate their calling to its present high standard. Mr. Hillick has long held a high place among the best-known carriage painters in this country, is thoroughly posted on all the various branches of the business, and has the happy faculty of being able to impart his knowledge to others in such a plain, practical way that they cannot fail to understand him. His excessive modesty came very near causing him to decline, but he was finally induced to undertake the work, and Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting is presented to a generous public with the knowledge that its superior has never made its appearance in this country.

It is but a short time since the demands of the times gave birth to that great institution—the factory shop—that monster establishment from which hundreds of vehicles are turned out daily. The writer pleads guilty to a strong prejudice against the class of work done in these factories, yet he is compelled to admire the finished product and applaud the genius of the painter who can thus marshal his forces and, by working to a set of fixed rules, seem to defy natural laws, and out of it all bring a thing of beauty which, while it does not prove a "joy forever," does possess a degree of durability that we of the old school of carriage painters were led to believe was impossible. It has remained for Mr. Hillick to take us through this great establishment, and he describes the processes and gives us the formulas that are employed, in such plain, helpful language, that no one can read his words without profit as well as pleasure.

Time and space forbid (even if I had the ability to give it) a comprehensive review of this work. It would be impossible to enumerate the millions of good points it possesses, so it is best to let the succeeding pages speak for themselves. They will do it much more eloquently than I could hope to do. I am sure of one fact, and it is that if carriage and wagon painters all over the world will read and practice the teachings of the succeeding chapters they will become better painters, better citizens, and our country roads, as well as our boulevards, will sparkle with a stream of better painted and more beautiful vehicles.

When the writing of Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting was committed to Mr. Hillick, the writer expected great things of him. Now, as I look over the chapters of the completed work, I am happily conscious of the fact that I am not disappointed in the slightest degree, and I wish to thank Mr. Hillick for giving to the vehicle world a work on painting that will prove helpful to the master workman as well as to the ambitious apprentice.

CHARLES H. WEBB.

CHICAGO, April, 1903.