44 THE REV. J. G. WOOD. 



" Ant Life," and next day " Pond Life " was given at 

 Concord, Mass. And so came to an end the year 

 1884. 



Up to this time the tour had been fairly successful. 

 Fourteen lectures had been given in the course of 

 the month, and although these were less remunerative 

 than those which had been delivered at the Lowell 

 Institute in the preceding season, they had yet brought 

 in sufficient to leave a moderately substantial balance 

 after the payment of all expenses. But now- engage- 

 ments became few and far between. Those that were 

 secured were so badly arranged that very possibly along 

 railway journey had to be undertaken in order that a 

 single lecture might be delivered ; and it soon became 

 apparent that upon the tour as a whole there would be 

 no profit at all. 



The principal reason for this failure my father gave 

 in a letter from which I quote the following passages : 



At last I can tell you something about the Western lectures. 

 They have been a complete swindle. A syndicate of three persons 

 got up a scheme for a vast lecture course through the West. About 

 ten lecturers were to be engaged, and sent on a circuitous tour, so as 

 to avoid backwards and forwards travel. Payment was to be 



according to reputation. They asked H to supply five lecturers, 



each to give from thirty to fifty lectures in January and February. 

 I was considered the chief of them, and payment was to be either 

 20 for each lecture, and pay my own expenses, or 15 nett. The 

 whole idea was an excellent one, but unfortunately the three 



quarrelled, and the whole thing was thrown over. H was quite 



knocked over by the blow, and could hardly speak when he told me 

 of it. Besides all his work, postage, &c., he loses from 160 to 200 

 in his commissions, besides the injury to the prestige of his house. 

 I cannot tell you what the anxiety of the last three weeks has been. 



