[Pg i] [Pg i] ALF'S BUTTON BY W. A. DARLINGTON NEW YORK FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY PUBLISHERS [Pg ii] [Pg ii] First published in America by Frederick A. Stokes Company in 1920 Frederick A. Stokes Company [Pg iii] [Pg iii] FOREWORD It is a curious fact that since the death of the late lamented Aladdin, nothing seems to have been heard of his wonderful Lamp. Mr. Arthur Collins and other students of ancient lore have been able, after patient research, to reconstruct for us the man Aladdin in his habit as he lived and to place before our eyes a faithful picture of his times. Alike in literature and on the stage the Lamp plays an all-important part; and this makes it all the more strange that its subsequent history should have been so entirely lost. I myself incline to the theory that Aladdin allowed the secret of his talisman to die with him, and that his widow disposed of an object whose presence in her husband's collection of articles of "bigotry and virtue" she had always resented, for what it would fetch. Its tradition once broken, we cannot suppose that an old battered lamp bearing on one portion of its surface a half-effaced inscription in forgotten characters would attract much attention as an objet d'art. In fact, it would be without value or interest except to a scholar learned enough to interpret the inscription aforesaid—which may be rendered in our tongue "Rub Lightly." [Pg iv]
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