Excerpt from The Evolution of a Bootblack Returning from an extended Euro pean trip on an ocean steamer, I made the acquaintance of a fellow passenger, the head of the book de partment of a leading New York publishing house. In talking shop with him, I found he was interested in The Boston Floating Hospital, which I founded. But he was more interested in other lines of my work of nearly a quarter of a century. He told me the question had been asked many times whether formative or reformative work permanently suc ceeded. Using his own expression Are there any finished products? After I had given him several in stances, he urged me to write up enough to make a book and send the manuscript to him. I have not as yet found time to comply with his request, but for present purposes will give 'the Evolution of a Bootblack. 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.