OF

WASHINGTON LIFE.

A PLAY.

IN FIVE ACTS.

BY HENRY CLAY PREUSS.

PARK BENJAMIN, Esq., the eminent author and critic, says
of this Play, after a thorough critical examination: "The literary
merits of your play, as a picture of society-a satire with its dia-
logue-are all first-rate-built of spice, and wit, and genuine fun.
Some of your points are as keen as Sheridan's."

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

1857

1858

Oct. 22,

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, by HENRY CLAY PREUSS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia

INTRODUCTORY.

THE purpose of the author in writing this play was not so much to conform to the old canons of dramatic criticism, as to exhibit a panoramic view of characters and events, illustrative of Metropolitan life and society.

The "moral points" of the play are so plain, that "he who runs may read;" nor are they aimed so much at men, as at those principles and practices in our social and political body, which serve, more or less, to mould, and to vitiate, individual character.

It must be gratifying to every humanitarian to know that the evils here adverted to, are gradually yielding to a progressive and enlarged moral sense in the public; and should this humble effort aid, in any degree, in advancing the good work of reform, the author will deem himself richly repaid for the labor of his task.

WASHINGTON, March 10, 1857.