ACADEMY OF SCIENCIS] BIOGRAPHY 9 



tial in crises that men and officers should know their places and duties. When a governor 

 or commandant came aboard, the social requirements must be strictly met even if the visitor 

 was a dusky magistrate from one of the Bahamas, who had been invited to dine. But the 

 moment the guests were gone he was the first to remove collar and white coat and plunge into 

 work. So far from being a snob, he was "absolutely democratic at heart and willing to encour- 

 age the most insignificant investigator and treat him as a person equal in knowledge and 

 attainments to himself." These high social gifts came from both sides of the house. His 

 father was chosen by the Century Association of New York, on the occasion of the farewell 

 dinner to Professor Tyndall in 1873, to arrange the social details. The Goldsboroughs stood 

 at the top rank socially in Maryland. Two of the family have been governors of the State. 

 Gov. Phillip Lee Goldsboro was a first cousin of Alfred's mother's father; and Gov. Charles 

 Goldsborough, governor in 1818-19, was a first cousin of Alfred's great-grandfather. 



Another striking trait of Mayor was his warm-heartedness and his feehng of responsibility 

 for the comfort of those who were associated with him. Two letters of his to Dr. E. N. Harvey 

 are worth printing because they are so characteristic. 



S. S. "HOUTMAN," 



At Celebes, Nov. 28th, 1918. 



My Dear Harvey: We miss you greatly but hope to find you in Ceylon. The Dorrego was a good old 

 roller in the heavy beam sea and we became as smudged as cats in a coal bin but the officers were nice fellows 

 and we enjoyed it hugely. We expected to rough it and give the cannibals and the anopheles a fair chance 

 at us in New Guinea but when I paid my respects to His Excellency the Governor he invited us to be his 

 guests at Government House and provided us with the Government launch to enable us to tow and to see 

 the native villages within 20 miles of Port Moresly, so we saw 40 miles of villages of a very primitive type 

 built out over the water and with natives clothed quite in the old way. 



H. E. also provided us with horses but unluckily Potts developed a New Guinea sore on his heel which 

 was quite as bad as the one you had forward so I was glad enough to get him off on the Houtman two days 

 before the time we planned for! He is now doing well but it is a slow affair and may necessitate our giving 

 up Java. 



I will in any case stay with him. 



Everyone in New Guinea has malarial fever badly from the Governor down. 100 white men out of the 

 1600 in New Guinea died this year but it is a beautiful wild country that calls you in like a siren on the rocks 

 off Cape Sorrento. I wish I could have gone up the Fly River. The cannibals there grab you by the arm 



and say U-u-u . 



Cordially, Alfred G. Mayer. 



Port Said, Egypt, Dec. SO, 1913. 



My dear Harvey: When Potts and I reached Colombo on Dec. 19th we were distressed to receive your 

 letter telling of the renewed trouble with the New Guinea ulcer. 



We confidently hoped to find you in Colombo and our disappointment was very great, especially as I feel 

 sad over having left you. I should not have been so confident that you would continue to improve and should 

 have gone with you. 



I will always reproach myself for not having done this, and will not feel content until I hear that you are 

 well and have suffered no permanent injury. 



Your spirit in saying that you were glad that the illness came after your research was finished is fine, and 

 ought to have been matched by my staying with you as long as you were ill 



Mayor's regard for the health of his party repeats the qualities of his mother's father, who 

 was the old-fashioned type of country physician, ready to respond to calls at any time of day or 

 night, and to plunge on horseback through rain and mud at the call of "the stork." He was 

 the beloved father confessor for all in physical or mental distress for miles around. He kept 

 slaves and these idolized him. He hated to sell a slave, and on one occasion a slave he had 

 sold acted so badly that he was returned to Doctor Goldsborough, where he remained satisfied 

 and loyal. Mayor recalls that a slave of his grandfather's told him how "in responding to a 

 sick call he found the Monocacy River dangerously swollen and cut one of the horses loose 

 from the carriage and rode on horseback to the opposite shore despite the frightened protest of 

 his devoted servant, who believed his master was plunging to certain death in the rushing 

 torrent." These social traits were found again in Mayor's mother, who wrote delightful letters, 

 was a charming conversationalist, gentle and kind, and a general favorite because always jolly, 

 optimistic, and extraordinarily generous. They appeared again in Mayor's uncle, Charles 



