for his great reputation as a writer has always been an important asset. 



Early in 1897, West announced the great news that Mr. Cleveland 

 had bought the house in Bayard Lane which he afterwards named 

 "Westlands," and would settle in Princeton in the autumn. Almost 

 immediately, he was elected to the Board of Trustees and, for the re- 

 mainder of his life, he took the greatest interest in University affairs, 

 especially in the Graduate School and College. Soon after Mr. Cleve- 

 land came to Princeton, I called on him and, notwithstanding all I 

 had heard of his extraordinary industry, I was astonished at his minute 

 and detailed knowledge of everything pertaining to the U. S. Govern- 

 ment and its interests. He had never been in the Far West, whereas I 

 had been there many times and had visited many of the military posts 

 and Indian agencies and had an extensive personal acquaintance in the 

 Army, but I could tell him nothing. He knew it all, both more exten- 

 sively and more accurately than I did, and that was only a small part 

 of the enormous task in which he had been engaged. 



About that time — I cannot date it exactly — some question or other 

 attracted a good deal of public interest and a friend of mine in New 

 York asked me what Mr. Cleveland thought on the subject, to which 

 I replied: "There's very little that I can do for Mr. Cleveland, but one 

 thing I can do and that is, not to quote him." That remark came to 

 Mr. Cleveland's ears and brought me in a rich reward of confidential 

 and inside information concerning his life in Washington. Strange to 

 say, I have forgotten almost all of it. 



In that same year Cope died in the most unnecessary way, for his life 

 might have been saved by an operation. Osborn had made all the 

 arrangements for a New York surgeon to take Cope's case, at a much 

 reduced fee, and Cope had agreed to go on to New York for the pur- 

 pose. Unfortunately, however, there was a marked, though transitory, 

 improvement in Cope's condition and he put oif the operation and 

 went down to Virginia on a wild-goose chase after fossils of which 

 he had heard. His condition soon became desperate and he returned 

 home to die. 



Among the many very able men whom it has been my privilege to 

 know. Cope was one of the foremost, Francis Balfour and Dr. Patton 

 being his only rivals for first place; I think Seelye was quite right in 

 caUing him a genius. He always had such an immense body of mate- 

 rial before him that he worked too fast and revised his work too little, 

 which led to the making of many mistakes in matters of detail. When 



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