+------------------------------------------------+ | | | THE | | ROLLING STONE | | is a weekly paper published in Austin, Texas | | every Saturday and will endeavor to fill a | | long-felt want that does not appear, | | by the way, to be altogether in- | | satiable at present. | | | | THE IDEA IS | | to fill its pages with matter that will make a | | heart-rending appeal to every lover of | | good literature, and every person who | | has a taste for reading print; | | and a dollar and a half for | | a year's subscription. | | | | OUR SPECIAL PREMIUM | | For the next thirty days and from that time | | on indefinitely, whoever will bring two dol- | | lars in cash to _The Rolling Stone_ office | | will be entered on the list of sub- | | scribers for one year and will | | have returned to him | | on the spot | | FIFTY CENTS IN CASH | | | +------------------------------------------------+ The editor's own statement of his aims INTRODUCTION This the twelfth and final volume of O. Henry's work gets its title from an early newspaper venture of which he was the head and front. On April 28, 1894, there appeared in Austin, Texas, volume 1, number 3, of The Rolling Stone, with a circulation greatly in excess of that of the only two numbers that had gone before. Apparently the business office was encouraged. The first two issues of one thousand copies each had been bought up. Of the third an edition of six thousand was published and distributed FREE, so that the business men of Austin, Texas, might know what a good medium was at hand for their advertising. The editor and proprietor and illustrator of _The Rolling Stone_ was Will Porter, incidentally Paying and Receiving Teller in Major Brackenridge's bank.