92 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL.84 



resulted if he had encouraged independent work on the i^art of his 

 associates and if he could have exercised more tact in many ways. It 

 must be said that for a number of years before his accidental death 

 he was in very bad health. He had frequent headaches, and was 

 troubled with insomnia. This accounts for much of his restlessness. 

 He could sleep on a long railway journey, and could not sleep in his 

 bed at home. Moreover, he found that he could sleep in a barber's 

 chair better than he could in his own bed. It seems not to have 

 occurred to him to install a barber's chair in his house, but after a 

 sleepless night he would often go to his barber and pay by the hour 

 for a chance to make up lost sleep. All this must have affected his 

 disposition seriously, and must have accounted for some of his rough 

 angles. 



Annual appropriations increased very slowly. Field workers were 

 appointed from time to time to send in reports on field conditions in 

 different regions. A few old personal western friends were given such 

 commissions, like J. G. Barlow of Cadet, Missouri, and Miss Mary E. 

 ^lurtfeldt of Kirkwood, Missouri, J. G. Neal of Florida, and later 

 Lawrence Bruner of Lincoln. Nebraska, Herbert Osborn of Ames, 

 Iowa, and F. M. Webster, then in Indiana, and still later D. W. 

 Coquillett of Los Angeles, California. 



In 1884 Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United 

 Slates, and in April, 1885, Commissioner Loring (Republican) was 

 succeeded by Hon. Norman J. Colman (Democrat), an old Missouri 

 friend of Professor Riley's, the editor and proprietor of Colman's 

 Rural World of St. Louis, who, toward the close of his administra- 

 tion (February 9, 1888) was made the first Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, since at that date the Department was made a true executive 

 department. Secretary Colman had less than a month to serve, how- 

 ever, as the Republicans had gained control in the election of the pre- 

 vious November, and in March. 1889. President Harrison made Hon. 

 J. M. Rusk Secretary. 



These seem to be matters of slight importance from the standpoint 

 of entomology, but nevertheless they should be mentioned because 

 with the incoming of Secretary Rusk he had an Assistant Secretary 

 appointed ( Hon. Edwin Willitts of Michigan) to whom he assigned 

 the supervision of the scientific work of the Department. To Commis- 

 sioner Colman Professor Riley had had free access at all times, but 

 under the new arrangement he was seldom able to consult the Sec- 

 retary. He and Mr. Willitts, unfriendly from the beginning, became 

 still more estranged, and this official lack of sympathy with his plans, 

 added to his increasing bad health, had a very unfortunate effect upon 



