American Fisheries Society 321 



The time we met at Wood's Hole a few years ago, when 

 that monument to Professor Baird was dedicated there, it 

 certainly touched me to the core to think of such a man 

 as Professor Baird, a man who did not think of anything 

 but his work, a simple man of the people. 



May I be permitted to tell you of a little circumstance 

 when he hired me on an annual salary? I had been in 

 Washington doing some shad work on the Potomac River, 

 and he telegraphed me from Havre de Grace, I think, to 

 report at Washington when I was through with the work. 

 I did so, and he began the arrangement at that time of the 

 important work now so well established on the Great Lakes. 

 That was the first time that they ever provided or planned 

 for the work in Michigan and arranged for a station there. 

 I met Professor Baird on three different days. I would 

 meet him and he would spend fifteen or twenty minutes 

 with me, or as long as he could, and then, as of course he 

 had other work, he would tell me to call the next day. I 

 did so and we went on and planned out the work that is 

 now being carried on in Michigan just as it was started; 

 and he never said a word about what I was going to re- 

 ceive, or whether I was going to get anything. Up to the 

 last day, when he shook hands with me and said, " Mr. 

 Clark, good bye; I hope you will have a pleasant journey," 

 there had not been a word as to finances. That shows you 

 the kind of man Professor Baird was. I sat in his office 

 one day when some Senators called. It was the year of a 

 presidential election. I cannot tell you who was nominated 

 for President ; but the convention was in Chicago and those 

 Senators talked about the nomination. Professor Baird 

 asked if they had learned who was nominated. No, they 

 had not. "Well," he said, "I hope they will nominate a 

 good man — as long as they do not nominate me." He did 

 not want anything to do with- the political line of the work. 



I hope you will bear with me, because this is a matter 

 that I like to talk about. 



