the following pages are reprinted, with some alterations and additions, from the columns of the freethinker. they are neither methodical nor exhaustive. i had the privilege of knowing mr. bradlaugh more or less intimately for twenty years. i have worked with him in the freethought movement and stood by his side on many political platforms. it seemed to me, therefore, that if i jotted down, even in a disjointed manner, some of my recollections of his great personality, i should be easing my own mind and conferring a pleasure on many readers. beyond that i was not ambitious. the time for writing mr. brad-laugh's life is not yet, but when it arrives my jottings may furnish a point or two to his biographer.
g. w. foote, march 30, 1891.