FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



o'clock. Note that my shoes were blacked and my cheeks shaved 

 for this occasion, in psychological anticipation! 



To cap the climax, I met Vernon Bailey and E. W. Nelson of 

 the Biological Survey, two of the best outdoor men in the world, 

 at the hat window, and they brought me back to the office in 

 Bailey's automobile. 



This experience is so unusual that it makes me feel rather 

 sore about departmental office hours. I fancy that this sort of 

 thing would happen often if I could go to the Club more fre- 

 quently. It is the hour just now when all of the men who are 

 doing big things at Washington in connection with war work 

 of every kind are there together. 



I knew Robert V. V. Sewell. He did many beautiful things, 

 possibly the most notable being the Canterbury Pilgrimage 

 frieze at George Gould's show place at Lakewood. Once when 

 he was in Washington I put him up at the Cosmos Club, and 

 one Sunday morning, as we were sitting in the big lounge, he 

 said, "I like this room — its expanse and its proportion. I'll tell 

 you what I'll do. If the Club will pay for the paint, I'll do a 

 slightly reduced Canterbury Pilgrimage frieze for it." I thanked 

 him and told him that I would take it up with the Art Com- 

 mittee. As it happened, the Chairman of the Art Committee at 

 that time was Frank D. Millet. I told him with much enthusi- 

 asm of Sewell's offer, and to my surprise he almost instantly 

 said that it wouldn't do. He knew the original frieze and said 

 that it would kill any picture in the great room. I realize now 

 that he was right, although at the moment I was mean enough 

 to suspect that there was a bit of jealousy in his decision. Millet's 

 most wonderful painting was hanging on the north wall at that 

 time. It was the sketch for his "Ships in a Fog," for the Baltimore 

 Customs House. It now hangs in the Assembly Room. I told 



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