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Copyright, 1904, by theNew York Labor News Company

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

Among the historic phenomena of what may be called "modern antiquity,"there is none comparable to that which was witnessed on the first day ofthe year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophethirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected bythe Apostles, then postponed—upon the authority of Judaic apocalypticwritings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,—to theyear 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it wasfinally adjourned sine die, was one of those beliefs, called"theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. TheInfant's Skull; or, The End of the World, figures at that period. It isone of that series of charming stories by Eugene Sue in which historicpersonages and events are so artistically grouped that, without thefiction losing by the otherwise solid facts, and without the solid factssuffering by the fiction, both are enhanced, and combinedly act as aflash-light upon the past—and no less so upon the future.

As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, TheInfant's Skull; or, The End of the World, although, one of theshortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dustyrecesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thusits educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem inthe necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitouslynamed The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a ProletarianFamily Across the Ages.

DANIEL DE LEON.

New York, April 20, 1904.

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