ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS
OF MEN
AN IMPOSSIBLE STORY
BY
WALTER BESANT
AND
JAMES RICE
NEW YORK
LOVELL, CORYELL & COMPANY
43, 45 and 47 East 10th Street
TO
The Memory
OF
JAMES RICE
PREFACE.
The ten years' partnership of myself and my late friend Mr. James Rice has been terminated by death. I am persuaded that nothing short of death would have put an end to a partnership which was conducted throughout with perfect accord, and without the least difference of opinion. The long illness which terminated fatally on April 25th of this year began in January of last year. There were intervals during which he seemed to be recovering and gaining strength; he was, indeed, well enough in the autumn to try change of air by a visit to Holland; but he broke down again very shortly after his return: though he did not himself suspect it, he was under sentence of death, and for the last six months of his life his downward course was steady and continuous.