288 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



FRANKFORT, Dec. 28, '75. 



... I am getting on pretty well save for a headache which promises me 

 a day of misery. The Legislature meets Friday ; I am to address them on 

 Monday. The chance for the Survey seems good, but many shake their 

 heads. I went to the governor's levee. The last I attended was seventeen 

 years ago; nearly all the men I knew then and saw there are dead. The 

 Governor and his wife are handsome and well mannered. The mass on the 

 whole are a very quiet-mannered people, not a bit loud a great change in 

 thirty years. A fine but incongruous supper, serving its purpose, however, of 

 feeding a lot of hungry politicians. 



Dec. 30, '75. 



. . . Many protests are made against my leaving on Tuesday, but I cannot 

 stand the place any longer ; it is a perfect pandemonium. To make it worse, 

 the weather is like summer, grass and flowers growing as in spring, no frost 

 since I came here. Confusion is made more hateful by good weather. I have 

 seen no one but members of the Legislature, and am sick of the work, for it 



is the hardest I have ever had to do. ... I shall have P stay here 



after I have gone to complete the task of explanation; he fits the work, 

 I am sick of the business. It will be a close fight, but the strongest men are 

 for the Survey. [In regard to the answering of endless questions, he writes :] 

 I am pretty well and rested mentally, the conundrum devil is laid for the 

 moment at least. 



Geological Cabinet, PHILADELPHIA, 1876. 



... I had a dreary but pretty easy time to Philadelphia. Came here 

 this morning and found much that needed eye and thought. We shall do 

 very well for our means; though we fall behind many nations, we are not 

 surpassed by any state in the real utility of the show. . . . 



Centennial Exposition, Friday [no date]. 



... A frightful throng here to-day, marring the earth on one of our per- 

 fect autumn days. I am in fair order, and, save for weariness of soul which 



besets my devious ways, may be said to be well. Dr. R of Frankfort 



goes with me to Cincinnati ; he is a good fellow and will light the way. . . . 

 Proctor is doing his duty manfully, and as he has his wife and children with 

 him he will be contented. Please send my compass and telescope combined, 

 the large opera-glass, rubber coat, and leggings to Morristown by express. 

 Send brown case with photograph proofs within it, pamphlet on the An- 

 tiquity of Caverns and Cave Life in the Ohio Valley, to Proctor at Phila- 

 delphia by mail or express. 



