he told me that he was investigating the U. S. Geological Survey, in 

 general, and the scientific iniquities of Powell and Marsh, in particular, 

 I had complete confidence in him and told him what I had heard. Of 

 first-hand knowledge, I claimed almost nothing and gave my informa- 

 tion as having been told me by others. Nothing was said about news- 

 paper publication and I had no suspicion that the caller was a news- 

 paper man and meant to print my remarks. I do not mean to bring 

 any accusation of treachery against Mr. Ballou, who may very well 

 have supposed that I knew all about his profession. Cope subsequently 

 wrote me a letter, in which he took for granted that I had fully under- 

 stood the situation. 



Some weeks later, I was greatly surprised to receive a very curt and 

 peremptory letter from Marsh, saying that the New Yor\ Herald was 

 threatening to print an attack upon him by Cope and others, that he 

 had seen the article, which contained certain derogatory statements by 

 me and demanding to know whether I had authorised the publication 

 of these statements. I immediately replied that I had authorised no pub- 

 lication and did not even know what I was alleged to have said; I also 

 wrote the editor of the Herald, asking him to suppress anything that 

 purported to have come from me. Though I thoroughly disapproved of 

 Marsh and would have rejoiced to see him removed from any connec- 

 tion with the U. S. Survey, I did not at all like this sensational method 

 of newspaper' attack. The editor of the Herald declared that my letter 

 had not been received, a perfectly incredible statement, for, even under 

 Mr. Wanamaker, the Post Office did not lose letters between Princeton 

 and New York. Had I been better versed in slippery ways, I should 

 have registered the letter and got a receipt for it. 



Marsh showed great abiHty in attempting to ward off the threatened 

 attack and was not very scrupulous in his methods of defense. Cope 

 was a professor in the University of Pennsylvania, the Provost of which 

 had been involved in a blackmailing case, the rights and wrongs of 

 which I never knew. Marsh wrote to the Provost, demanding that he 

 silence Cope, on pain of having his own scandals aired. The Herald, 

 getting wind of this, let the Provost know that he would have cause 

 to regret any attempt to interfere with Cope's freedom of speech. After 

 all this preliminary manoeuvering for position, the great gun was fired, 

 the Herald printing pages of statements by Cope and by several men 

 who had been Marsh's assistants and very damaging they were, but 

 the great sensation was not even a nine days' wonder; it fell completely 

 flat. The pubUc of those days knew nothing and cared less about such 



C 219 ] 



