THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



Wiley's remarks and mine were well received, and then a 

 local man, James J. McLaughlin, was called on. He was evi- 

 dendy a man o£ standing and culture, but to the surprise of us 

 visitors he spoke in a strange dialect that we were told was 

 Acadian ("Cajun" they call it down there). It seems that he was 

 impersonating a mythical individual whom he had made locally 

 famous and who was a native wit. He put into the mouth of this 

 mythical person a sparkling series of comments on the remarks 

 that Wiley and I had made, and upon the Association and its 

 proceedings, mispronouncing and misinterpreting any number 

 of scientific words and phrases that he had read in the news- 

 papers in the preceding few days. His speech was an overwhelm- 

 ing success. The local members of the Boston Club had a 

 hearty laugh at our expense, and we ourselves enjoyed it 

 immensely. 



At a meeting held in Denver, Colorado, in the early part of 

 the present century, I first met John Hayes Hammond. He 

 called at my office in the Brown Palace Hotel, told me that as 

 at that time he was a citizen of Denver, he wished to do his 

 share towards the entertainment of the Association, and asked 

 me to invite twenty-five men of my own selection to dine with 

 him at the Denver Club. I accepted the commission willingly, 

 and picked out a rather famous company. I remember that W J 

 McGee was one of them. When I asked him he said, "Of course 

 I'll come. They have mighty good dinners at the Denver Club, 

 But who is this man Hammond who's to be our host?" 



"Why," said I, "don't you know? He is the famous mining 

 engineer whose exploits have been in every one's mouths. He 

 is the man who was carried across Mexico in a coffin to escape 

 assassination. And have you forgotten that he is the American 

 engineer who accompanied Jameson on his disastrous raid in 

 the Transvaal?" 



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