LIFE IN WASHINGTON 245 



people, it was hardly popular enough in character for 

 their publication. My father also in 1878, had become 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian and did not feel that it 

 was desirable for him to continue work of this sort, 

 especially as the Fish Commission work was growing and 

 required all the time and attention which he could spare 

 from his other official duties. All these causes combined 

 to cause a cessation of his editorial labors. I cannot, 

 however, conclude this subject without speaking of the 

 pleasure which my father had in his relationships with 

 the various firms for whom he did this work, and the 

 consideration, kindness and generosity with which he 

 was treated, both as to the salary paid and also the out- 

 side courtesies extended to him. During this period, 

 besides receiving the various publications to which he 

 himself was contributing, the Harpers sent him each 

 month a package of books, comprising all that they 

 had published during that time. I have no recollection of 

 my father's having anything but the pleasantest personal 

 experiences with Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Mr. White- 

 law Reid and his fellow editors of the New York Tribune, 

 as well as Geo. W. Childs himself, to whom he owed the 

 introduction to this class of work. It brought him for a 

 number of years an income which enabled him, with his 

 simple tastes, to lay by what he had the pleasure of feel- 

 ing, in the last years of his life, was a sum which would 

 leave his invalid wife and his daughter enough to support 

 them in comfortable circumstances." 



One of the qualifications which assisted in making 

 Professor Baird a first class "Museum man" was his 

 inventiveness. The training he had had as a boy when 

 he was called upon by his relatives to make or repair 

 household articles, set glass, improvise a bath tub where 



