6 CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BoTANY No. 17 
the sidewalk, but I did not know the name for them. So I promptly walked 
up to a Mexican and said “Quanto dinero por una aguamelon?” He grinned 
and replied in perfect English “Five cents for a watermelon.” I knew I 
had put my foot in it but did not know how. So I sneaked off behind a 
building and pulled out my dictionary and found that sandia was the name 
for watermelon, and melon was the name for muskmelon. Since that time 
I have been a little skittish about manufacturing Spanish out of Latin. 
“THE PUSH” 
If I were seeking public commendation I should be much gratified 
at the reception of my article on this subject. For I have received more com- 
any in Government circles. I do not however care what the public thinks 
about my writings. They are printed to get certain facts before the public, 
and if the public does not like it, then it can go hang. A person who attacks 
anything must expect reprisals of all kinds, misinterpretations of his motives, 
personal spites, and the like. It has been my lot for forty years to be a 
to death if they accidentally said their soul were their own. The colleges 
are now beginning to fill up with the same brand of half wits, while the 
really big men stay out, all because real men will not endure being bulldozed. 
So it is time that someone raised his voice to stop the evil. 
To my mind there is no sin so heinous as that of assassinating a man 
by denying him his right to individual expression. And no man can sink 
lower than to become a cowardly pussy foot. 
In exposing the tricks of the cowardly pussy-foots, whose squawks are 
warn the younger generation that all is not gold that glitters. If these men 
st on their own achievements, and did not assume much more than they 
