CHAPTER SIX 



From Penikese I went to the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, wishing to take up the study of 

 fossil osteology in connection with the promised 

 curatorship of the year before. But I felt almost 

 certain that the museum would be unable to maintain 

 even its actual staff, now that Agassiz was gone, its 

 income being only about ^10,000 and its accumulated 

 debt amounting to upward of ^40,000, a sum ulti- 

 mately paid off by Agassiz's noted son, Alexander, 

 whose skillful administration of the Calumet and 

 Hecla mines made him later a multimillionaire. My 

 own resources were meanwhile running low. Conse- 

 quently, when shortly afterward I received a tele- 

 gram from Superintendent George P. Brown of 

 Indianapolis, asking me to take up the science work 

 in the High School there, I gladly accepted the 

 position. 



The capital of Indiana at first sight seemed singu- indian- 

 larly monotonous, being perfectly level and laid out ^^°^'^ 

 in regular squares around a central circle. The 

 streets, moreover, were lined with the Silver Maple, 

 a second-rate shade tree which did not appeal to 

 me. But the people said I would learn to love the 

 town. As a matter of fact, I did — among other 

 reasons because it contained an unusual number of 

 clear-headed and broad-minded citizens, to some of 

 whom I shall presently revert. When I reached 

 Indianapolis, I did not know a single person in the 

 state; at the end of seventeen years, when I left 



C 129 3 



