1 A This is just to reassure you, for personally I have grown used 

 to taking chances — which is to wait until the thunderbolt hits 

 the other fellow and then be careful. But the Company head 

 (Mathewson) is interested in a safe supply and something 

 practical will be done soon to furnish it. The water in the 

 flume goes to the Works and comes chiefly from Warm Springs 

 creek (on which they hold the picnics) and a good many 

 people live along its banks. So a case of typhoid along the 

 creek exposes the whole town. The water takes but six or eight 

 hours to run its course of thirty-six miles, so the germs are 

 brought down in a jolly good condition. 



Wherry wrote at this time that his duties kept him busy 

 as a "slave." His "spare time had been consumed in writing 

 more important messages!" He hoped that I was well and 

 making money "for the coin is so necessary." He did not think 

 that he could risk getting married unless there was "some- 

 thing permanent" to be gotten out of his Anaconda appoint- 

 ment. "The place is on the pig but the lab is a peach," he 

 volunteered. After which he added. "If I don't stay here, I 

 am going to Portland. It is in direct communication with 

 the Orient and might offer opportunities in this way." July 

 31, 1906, he was still "busy as a louse," and "working late 

 on a bacteriologic report (which is n g but must be done 

 to show that my intentions are good)." Regarding his water 

 analyses he had on hand "a bunch of fresh water protozoa 

 that would do any physiologist's heart good." Still "so busy 

 working for the family that there is no time to think up any 

 names for the bugs," he said: "Whenever the demand arises 

 for a laboratory assistant, horse doctor or crack clinical diag- 

 nostician, just telegraph me." I did not telegraph but I was 

 able to send him a letter requesting him to consider residence 

 in the San Francisco Bay region. Late in August he answered: 



There is no doubt about what I want to do ... If I could 

 get a start in California I would do my best to get away from 

 here, though the lab in a peach and 200 a month and expenses 

 are not to be sneered at. What do you think I could get from 

 the Oakland school? Could it stand for $1 500 a year all time 

 or $ 1 000 a year with practice on the side? . . . Let me know 

 whether you think my head is swelled or whether one could 



