Page:Paine--J Archibauld McKaney collector of whiskers.djvu/13

  ners of the globe in the hope of adding new trophies to his classified list of one hundred and eighty-seven distinct or catalogued varieties of whiskers, and the walls of his immense library are covered with bewildering sequences of facial landscapes.

In selecting the following incidents from among his manifold experiences Mr. McKackney has attempted to present only the more popular and entertaining features of his avocation. He does not introduce, for example, that important phase of his activity which deals with the whisker as a new field for nature study. His more serious and wholly scientific work, "The Whisker Book," will not be ready for publication (in three quarto volumes) before 1909. Its scope and the enthusiasm with which Mr. McKackney has devoted himself to the immense task of writing the final word on the whisker in Art, History and Music, may be glimpsed in these lines of [ix