I WILL inform the reader at the outset that this book is written to state facts, without being con-fined to exact dates and figures.  Events that have made lasting impressions on my mind, stated as correctly as possible from memory, are narrated here without regard to the rules of fine writing.  I never kept any notes of my life, therefore the stories may appear disconnected.  When I tell you of an event it will be the truth as I remember it, regardless of how it may look in print.  I want to avoid "biography" as I write, for the reason that "biographies" are so nicely worded that the reader often has to ask whom the narrator "is giving a write-up."  Notwithstanding I am often told that I ought to get a professional "biographer" to take my life, I have concluded to reserve it for myself.

    When I read about the battles of the Rebellion, "How Major A. T. Still charged on rebels with uplifted saber, urging his men to victory," I begin to doubt history, for I know there was not a saber drawn nor any yelling during a hard fight of two hours' duration between thirty-five thousand combatants on a side.  I remember also the reporters of the sixties, who never tried to write the truth, and could not if they wanted to, because five to ten miles was as near as they ever got to bullets; and I think they are sometimes just as afraid of the truth today as they then were of lead.  I will say to the reader, if you wish to read my story, please read as I write it, and not the garbled account of some newspaper misrepresentative.

A. T. STILL.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo., June 15th, 1897.