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REFACE
 

The history of a city is, to a large extent, the history
of the men who, through the exercise of energy, ability
and public spirit, have made it what it is; whose lives
have not been solely devoted to business and personal
concerns, but who have had the interests of their city
at heart;  and to  whose earnestness of purpose and
patriotic devotion to the good of the municipality its
institutions and public and industrial interests owe their
origin and development.    This may truly be said of
New York, the influence of whose leading citizens has
been strongly felt in the growth of its civic institutions,
and to whose commercial and political activity it owes
the high standing which it has attained among the
cities of the world.    Of men of this character New
York possesses many of whom it may well be proud,
and none in any city better deserve the honor that it
is here proposed to give them, of placing on record
the story of their careers.    Since to their exertions the
city in great measure owes its growth and prosperity,
it is fitting that they should receive the high measure
of credit which is their due, and that the coming gen^
erations should have the opportunity of learning what
was the influence, at the opening of the twentieth cen¬
tury, of its energetic and capable citizens upon its evo¬
lution, and of profiting by their example.    It is to this
worthy end that the work here offered is devoted.

Here may be read the life stories of those citizens of
the American metropolis who have been most eminent
in commercial and productive enterprise, and of those
whose professional, legislative and oflicial careers have
been most marked and valuable. Among them are
included many of the most prominent merchants, bank¬
ers, jurists, statesmen, theologians, physicians, soldiers,
authors, scientists and philanthropists of our country;
men who fought nobly for the cause of the Union in
the Civil War, men to whom is due the commercial
and industrial growth of our city, and who have given
it its present high standing as one of the metropolitan
cities of the civilized world.
 

To all those who take pride in the progress of a city
which, in the space of less than three centuries, has far
outgrown cities which were founded more than two
thousand years ago, and to-day has but a single peer
in the world, this work is offered as, in an ample sense,
a history of that city, since it is the history of the men
who have been and are now engaged in laying for it
the foundations of a marked and memorable future.
The work here referred to is practically a second edi¬
tion of ''The Makers of New York,'' one of the most
valuable books ever issued concerning New York and
its people, a work that had a large and instantaneous
success, and is still held in high value by its possessors.
This book has now been out of print for years, and the
time is certainly ripe for a suitable successor; one not
dealing with the men of bygone generations, as that
largely did, but confining itself to the influential men
of to-day. While, of course, it does not seek to be
exhaustive, it has been made a well-considered selec¬
tion from the lives of our leading men, and we trust
that it will be valuable to future historians and, like the
former, be deemed indispensable in libraries, newspaper
offices and historical societies, as well as on the book¬
shelves of prominent citizens. The record of the for¬
mer work shows that it was not a mere storehouse of
sketches of subscribers to the volume, since two-thirds
of those whose names appeared in it did not purchase
the work; and the same may be said of the present edi¬
tion, which it is proposed to keep free from any com¬
mercial considerations, putting in only those whom
editorial supervision may deem worthy, that it may
truly carry out the promise implied in its title.

This work, in truth, needs no eulogistic preface. It
speaks for itself. Alike as a splendid example of the
art of book-making and for the permanent value of its
contents, it appeals to every citizen of the metropolis,
and must long be cherished as the roll of honor of those
to whom the city owes its fame, its development and its
prosperity.