wonder at we should find life scarcely worth
living. That fact does not make ignorance
bliss, or make it ``folly to be wise.'' For the
wisest man never gets beyond the reach of
novelty, nor can ever make it his boast that
there is nothing he is ignorant of; on the
contrary, the wiser he becomes the more clearly
he sees how much there is of which he remains
in ignorance. The more he knows, the more
he will find to wonder at.

My professional life has been a constant
record of disillusion, and many things that
seem wonderful to most men are the every-day
commonplaces of my business. But I have
never been without some seeming marvel to
pique my curiosity and challenge my investigation.
In this book I have set down some of
the stories of strange folk and unusual
performers that I have gathered in many years
of such research.

Much has been written about the feats of
miracle-mongers, and not a little in the way
of explaining them. Chaucer was by no means
the first to turn shrewd eyes upon wonder-
workers and show the clay feet of these popular
idols. And since his time innumerable
marvels, held to be supernatural, have been
exposed for the tricks they were. Yet to-day,