In no way can the reader better sense the change in social customs and ideals than by reading a series of plays written in successive generations and reflecting the varying customs of the time. In some respects "The Contrast" may be considered our very earliest drama of social manners, even though Royall Tyler was not over-successful in stamping the small talk of his women as being distinctively American. Rather is it the direct imitation--without the brilliancy--of the small talk in "The School for Scandal." But, nevertheless, "The Contrast" does attempt to deal with society in New York before the nineteenth century, and in Mrs. Mowatt's "Fashion," in Mrs. Bateman's "Self," in Bronson Howard's "Saratoga" (which has been published), in Clyde Fitch's "The Moth and the Flame," and in Langdon Mitchell's "The New York Idea," we are given a very significant and sharply defined panoramic view of the variations in moral and social attitudes. The plays included in this series have very largely been selected because of their distinct American flavour. The majority of the dramas deal directly with American subjects. But it seemed unwise and unrepresentative to frame one's policy of selection too rigidly on that score. Had such a method been adhered to, many of the plays written for Edwin Forrest would have to be omitted from consideration. It would have been difficult, because of this stricture, to include representative examples of dramas by the Philadelphia and Knickerbocker schools of playwrights. Robert T. Conrad's "Jack Cade," John Howard Payne's "Brutus," George Henry Boker's "Francesca da Rimini," and Nathaniel P. Willis's "Tortesa, the Usurer," would thus have been ruled from the collection. Nevertheless are they representative plays by American dramatists. Another departure from the American atmosphere is in the case of Steele Mackaye; here in preference to "Hazel Kirke," I have selected "Paul Kauvar," farthest away from American life, inasmuch as it deals with Nihilism, but written at a time when there was a Nihilistic fever in New York City. No editor, attempting such a comprehensive collection as this, can be entirely successful in including everything which will enrich his original plan. There are always limitations placed upon him by the owners of copyrights, and by gaps in the development, due to loss of manuscripts. It was naturally my desire to have all the distinctive American playwrights represented in the present collection. Therefore, in justice, the omissions have to be indicated here, because they leave gaps in a development which it would have been well to offer unbroken and complete.