86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



walked about the building, showing the Department to agricultural 

 friends from Minnesota. This was so soon after the outbreaks of the 

 Colorado grasshopper that these western friends of Commissioner 

 I.eDuc's, when he showed them into the entomological rooms, almost 

 invariably asked to see specimens of that particular grasshopj>er. 

 The Commissioner had learned the position of the book box contain- 

 ing this grasshopper on the shelves in our room, and used to go 

 directly to the box, read the Latin names on the label, open the box 

 and show it to his visitors with the pride of a learned scientifico. 

 Marx was something of a practical joker, and one day he altered the 

 position of the boxes, so that the Commissioner was much confused 

 the next time he tried to show the Colorado grasshopper to a friend. 



Riley, having largely by his own efforts secured from Congress a 

 law establishing the United States Entomological Commission to in- 

 vestigate the Rocky Mountain locust, or Colorado grasshopper, and 

 having also received an appropriation for its conduct, had gained the 

 idea that he could go directly to Congress on all subjects. Consequently, 

 that winter he called upon some of his acquaintances on Capitol Hill 

 and urged slightly larger appropriations for the entomological work 

 of the Department of Agriculture. The Commissioner thought that 

 that was his job, and hard feelings resulted which became so intense 

 that Riley was allowed to resign in the spring (1879). 



He was quite concerned about his possible successor, and wrote at 

 once to the Reverend Cyrus Thomas of Illinois, one of his colleagues 

 on the Entomological Commission, and urged him to apply for the 

 place. Commissioner LeDuc, however, did not wish to appoint any 

 of Riley's colleagues, and wrote himself to Andrew D. White, the 

 President of Cornell University. Doctor White consulted Professor 

 Comstock, who concluded that he would like to try it ; and so he was 

 given two years' leave of absence from the University and came to 

 Washington as Riley's successor. This was a very pleasant change 

 for me, and the atmosphere of the office became distinctly more agree- 

 able. Pergande and I stayed on, but Schwarz went with Riley, who 

 opened offices in his house at the corner of Thirteenth and R Streets, 

 where they continued the work of the Lhiited States Entomological 

 Commission. 



The relations between the two offices were far from harmonious, 

 Riley, of course, took his private collection with him when he left 

 the Department. He was also accused by Comstock of taking a great 

 many specimens which he should have left. During the ensuing two 

 years these men never met except at the meetings of the P)iological 

 Society of Washington which was organized as an offshoot of the old 



