CHAPTER I

PAGE

ON AUTOGRAPH COLLECTING GENERALLY 27

Autograph collecting in relation to kindred hobbies--The genesis of the autograph--Examples of the _alba amicorum_ of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--The conscript fathers of autograph collecting--Franks and their votaries--Album specimens and their value--The autograph-hunter and his unconscious victims--Anecdotes of some recent autograph "draws."