8 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
First vice-president, J. C. Cooper, Topeka. 
Second vice-president, L. C. Wooster, Emporia. 
Secretary, D. E. Lantz, Alma. 
Treasurer, E. C. Franklin, Lawrence. 
Librarian, B. B. Smyth, Topeka. 
Curators: B. B. Smyth, Topeka; Warren Knaus, McPherson; G. 
P. Grimsley, Topeka; Edward Bartow, Lawrence. 
On motion, the report was laid on the table to await the report of 
the committee on the welfare of the Academy. 
The secretary read the following letter to the librarian from Rey. 
Jno. D. Parker, one of the founders of the Academy: 
Prof. B. B. Smyth: East OranGE, N.J., December 20, 1900. 
Dear Sir—I have received the ‘‘preliminary program” of the thirty-third 
annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science, and it stirs memories of the 
olden time. It does not seem a third of a century since Professor Mudge and I, 
with a few local attendants (called out for the occasion), organized, in my lecture- 
room in Lincoln College, the Kansas Natural History Society, which was after- 
ward enlarged in its scope and became the Kansas Academy of Science. That 
was the beginning; but Professor Mudge said: ‘“‘ We must not despise the day of 
small things.’’ Sometimes I would make a motion, and Professor Mudge would 
second it and put it to vote, and when we both voted for it the motion was carried 
unanimously. That was a blessing to have perfect unanimity. At the second 
annual] meeting, held in the Topeka Presbyterian church, I secured half rates on 
the Kansas Pacific railway for those attending the meeting, provided the secre- 
tary signed the return ticket. I remember signing the return ticket of just one 
eens who came into the meeting a few minutes to meet the requirements of the 
railway. 
Scientists were ecarce in those days, and to a scientist there were ‘chunks of 
solitude’; but I do not want you to think that Professor Mudge and I were not 
happy. I think we had more substantial enjoyment than any other two persons in 
Kansas. It was easy to run down to Lawrence, and Professor Snow was the 
prince of good fellows. You remember that where Lord Brougham sat “there 
was the head of the table,’’ and where Professor Mudge sat there was the head 
of the table. He had an inexhaustible fund of knowledge, which was enlivened 
by incidents arising out of his wide and varied experiences. He was one of the 
most charming lecturers in the West. Once he gave a lecture on the ‘‘Geology 
of Kansas”? in my church in Burlington, Kan., and he held the audience spell- 
bound until he finished. I remember some amusing incidents of his life. 
Professor Mudge was very fond of pepper, and one time, while eating and 
shaking the pepper-box over his plate, the top came off suddenly and nearly all 
the pepper came out of the box on his food. That day I noticed the professor was 
especially lively, but sometimes tears would come into his eyes. I read of a man 
who, having never seen red pepper, put a teaspoonful into his mouth to sample it. 
When tears came into his eyes he was asked what stirred his emotions. He re- 
plied that he was thinking of his grandfather. I suppose Professor Mudge must 
have been working up his genealogical record that day, for he seemed to have 
very tender emotions. 
One day, while visiting Professor Mudge at Manhattan, we went to an Indian 
burial-place and took out of a grave askeleton, and a brass kettle placed in the grave 
that the deceased Indian could use as he went to the happy hunting-grounds. 
