1907] Hoover s Career 



looks too young to be a mining engineer." Yet on our 

 way that night to Adelaide, capital of South Aus- 

 tralia, Hoover explained that he had run through his 

 profession. It held nothing more for him except to lay 

 up money, of which he already had all he needed. 

 As managing partner of the (London) firm of Bewick, 

 Moreing & Co., he was receiving "$5000 a year as 

 mining expert and $95,000 as financial expert." Upon 

 his return to London, he intended to resign, complete cd idedist 

 a literary study which appealed to him, and then go 

 back to America and find some form of executive 

 work in which he could be of service. As already 

 indicated, he acted accordingly, publishing the note- 

 worthy translation by himself and his wife of Agric- 

 ola's "De Re Metallica" not long after which he 

 entered on one of the greatest forms of humane serv- 

 ice the world has ever seen. 1 



In Adelaide, a pleasant town of hospitable people, At 

 I gave a number of lectures, and in the excellent uni- Adelaide 

 versity I made the acquaintance of the professorial 

 head, Dr. John Sterling of the chair of Physiology, a 

 delightful man reminding me strongly of my friend 

 Stillman. I also met among others Dr. Jethro Brown 

 in Law, and Sir William H. Bragg, a distinguished 

 investigator in Physics, soon after called to the Uni- 

 versity of London. 



Emerson once declared that "the American is only English 

 the continuation of the English genius into new con- * 

 ditions more or less propitious." In the United States, planted 

 Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, we find essen- 

 tially the same sort of men and women, people of 



1 See Vol. I, Chapter xvn, pages 409-410. 



C 223 3 



