Excerpt from The Life of Dan Rice There is no more fascinating exercise for the mind or imagination than to contemplate the career of a gifted man or woman; and the man who illustrates and adorns the profession, to which choice or chance has assigned, should ever be regarded as a fit item for history - whatever that lot might have been. But more especially is this the experience with the man, who, from any circumstances or powers of mind, bursts the fetters of a lowly fortune or position, and, rising superior to common fate, makes for himself a path to higher destiny and forms a niche in its temple which, in aftertime, an impartial world will deem him worthy to occupy. "Honor and fame from no condition rise Act well your part - therein the honor lies." The history of Dan Rice is replete with startling incident, instructive fact, and dramatic situations; whilst the trend of thought and action which that history develops, exhibits a mind, heart, and purpose, combined with the rarest elements. He has lived a varied, adventurous life, has travelled extensively, and mingled with all sorts and conditions of men, the noble-minded and the base. He has been a keen observer, a profound student of mankind, and in his own person has been subjected to almost every sort of trial, domestic or otherwise, bitter experiences which have served to expand and strengthen these characteristics which have proved to be the mainspring of his triumphs in after life. Imbued with a well-nigh insatiable love of nature, of a nomadic tendency, with just a trifling tinge of the Bohemian in his temperament - little wonder that at an early age he left the roof of his childhood and became a cosmopolite, before he had imbibed scarcely more than the primary rudiments of the school room or formed any stable habits of the right, for at that early period - when association was most likely to give bias to his character - he was cast upon the cold and unsympathetic ocean of life - no beacon light to direct his pathway - the child of circumstance - the nursling of fate. 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.

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Now in paperback: Carlyon's "masterful work of cultural and theater criticism" "--Publishers Weekly," (starred review)