Excerpt from Souls in Pawn: A Story of New York Life The question "What is Truth" has never been fully answered, neither has "What is Fiction"; so I do not pretend to solve it by saying this book is either the one or the other. It is merely an attempt to paint the struggles of human souls toward God; to reveal the throbbing of real hearts through the medium of pen and ink; and to win sympathy from brother for brother. I once knew an Irish blacksmith, by the name of Billy Gog, who was a philosopher in his way; and when his parish priest scolded him for not going to church oftener, and loving it better, he said: "Father M, we're all made of mud, and wan puddle is no better'n another; your puddle happens to be the chapel kind, while mine is only the horseshoein' kind; that's all." 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.