“Around the World in Eighty Days” has had an extensive circulation, especially in America. The title is striking. Our people like to do things quickly. Many of them would be glad to girdle the globe in forty days. They forget that “what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.” Under the patronage of Tourist Agencies it has become quite fashionable of late to do Europe in three months. These flying trips do perhaps result in some good to the tourist, but they are valuable chiefly to the agencies under which they are made.

Traveling is no child’s play. Sight seeing when properly done is hard work, but hard work is the kind of work that pays best in the long run. To see any country aright and understand it correctly one must not merely visit its fashionable watering places, large cities, splendid abbeys and cathedrals, noted art galleries, museums, etc. He must see these things to be sure, but in addition to these he must, in order to get a correct conception, go out into the mountains, into the rural districts, and there study the soil, climate and products of the country. He must commune with the yeomanry the common people, and closely scrutinize their daily life and habits. He must see, as best he can, how climate, political surroundings, education, occupation, and religion affect their character. He must project himself as far as possible into the thoughts and feelings of the people among whom he is traveling. This prepares him to sympathize with them, and to look at things from their standpoint. The traveler is then prepared to reason from cause to effect. He has gotten hold of that golden thread of truth which leads to right conclusions. He is in condition to explain upon correct and philosophical principles the Socialism of France, the Skepticism of Germany, the Nihilism of Russia, and the Pauperism of Turkey.

Having under the providence of God been permitted to make an extensive and prolonged trip through the East, I determined from the outset to get out of the beaten tracks of travel. In applying the above-named principles, I walked a thousand miles through different European countries, and rode six hundred miles and more in the saddle through Bible lands. This necessarily gave me a varied experience, and brought me into close contact with every phase of nature and human nature. At times every faculty of mind and heart was stirred to its profoundest depths. I was forced to think. And, lest these thrilling thoughts should slip away from me, I determined “to fasten them in words and chain them in writing.” I agree with Gray that “a few words fixed upon or near the spot are worth a cartload of recollection.”

This accounts to some extent for the use of the present tense in the book, and also for the colloquial style in which it is written—it was composed on or near the spot. True, since then it has been carefully revised, re-written and enlarged; but originally it was written “on the spot.” I made these pages my trusted confidant. To them I expressed my “every thought and floating fancy,” and my words formed a true thermometer to my soul. But now I release these pages from all obligations of secrecy. They may tell it in Gath, and withhold it not in Askelon. I propose to take the public into my confidence. “In short, never did ten shillings purchase so much friendship since confidence went first to market, or honesty was set up to sale.”

I have carefully excluded all opiates from these pages. Brevity is the only claim I make to wit. I have not attempted to exhaust the subjects treated. My words are intended simply to strike the reader’s thoughts which may interpret further. “If you would be prudent, be brief,” says Southey, “for ‘tis with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.”

“Clarence P. Johnson” was my man “Friday,” and from some of the jokes gotten off at his expense the reader may conclude that he is a “man-eater,” as was that other Friday of Robinson Crusoe fame. But not so. This was his maiden trip out of his native city. Such things happened to him while traveling as would naturally occur with any other youth under the same circumstances. He is a young man of fine spirit and extraordinary business capacity. He will some day be known and felt in the commercial world.

It gives me peculiar pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor John R. Sampey, D. D., for valuable assistance rendered while preparing this book for the press.

I have made free use of a wide range of literature, but trust that in each case due credit has been given to the author. Many of the measurements given were made by myself, others have been taken from reliable sources.

While abroad, I made it a special point to study the history and outlook of the Baptists in each of the several countries through which I traveled, and I have not failed to record the result of my observations. But, in order to have Baptist history correctly, authentically, and impartially given, I have secured chapters from eminent men on the Baptists of their several countries.

W. A. W.