From the PREFACE of the edition of 1904.Many books have been written on Stairs and Hand-Railing, but so far as my experience extends, one of two objections has prevented them from being universally adopted by the operative workman.First, the books have been written by men who did not seem to think it necessary to begin at the beginning, and first teach the young workman how to build a stair of the humblest sort, and thus lead him, step by step, until he became able, by gradual and natural acquirement, to erect and complete stairs of a better description. This objection, I have found, by close observation and a knowledge of the wants of young workmen, to be fatal to the large sale of any work published on the subject; and though I am fully aware that to the workman who has, from practical experience in the workshop or in the building, obtained a fair knowledge of stair-building and hand-railing, someone or other of the many excellent works now obtainable is a necessity, and it is not intended that this work will replace the more advanced ones. Yet, I think, that even the advanced stair-builder will be able to find something here that will more than repay for the cost.The second objection I have met with to the books on this subject now in the market, is their high price. Young and struggling workmen cannot afford to pay fancy prices for books they do not understand. GOULD'S AMERICAN STAIR-BUILDER, which is the lowest priced book on the subject published in this country, costs $3.00; while MONCKTON'S NATIONAL STAIR-BUILDER costs $5.00, and RIDELL's UNIVFTRSAL STAIR-BUILDER costs $7.50; and so it is with CUPPER, DEGRAFF, LOTH and other works. Doubtless, these books, every one of them, are worth the money asked for them, and the advanced workman would not be without a copy of one or the other of them if he had to pay double the market price; but while these books may be invaluable to the advanced stair-builder, they are not at all adapted to the wants of the uninitiated; and are as much out of place on the shelves of the young apprentice as a learned treatise on the lost tribes of Israel would be in the hands of a child struggling with alphabetical word-making.I have tried to avoid both the objections mentioned; first, by presuming that the reader knows nothing about the art of stair-building when he buys this book, and must necessarily commence at the beginning, and work his way up; second, by keeping the cost of the book down to such a price that the poorest apprentice boy may be able to procure it.This book will be followed by another on the same subject, one that will begin where this leaves off, thus enabling; the student to pursue the subject to its highest domain. Of course, it is intended that each work will be complete in itself, and that both works will cover the whole ground of Stair-Building and Hand-Railing.