SIMON NEWCOMB 367 



He therefore determined to run away. After careful preparation 

 he chose September 13, 1853, as the day on which to leave. In a 

 short letter addressed to the doctor, he wrote: 



"When I came to live with you, it was agreed that you should 

 make a physician of me. This agreement you have never shown 

 the slightest intention of fulfilling since the first month I was with 

 you. You have never taken me to see a patient, you have never 

 given me any instruction or advice whatever. Beside this, you 

 must know that your wife treats me in a manner that is no longer 

 bearable. I therefore consider the agreement annulled from your 

 failure to fulfill your part of it, and I am going off to make my own 

 way in the world. When you read this, I shall be far away, and 

 it is not likely that we shall ever meet again." 



He successfully eluded pursuit and made his way to Salem, 

 Massachusetts, where he found his father who "after the death 

 of my mother had come to seek his fortune in the ' States.' " From 

 Massachusetts they proceeded to the eastern part of Maryland, 

 where at Massey's Cross Roads in Kent County, early in 1854, 

 he began his independent career as a teacher of a country school. 

 A year later he got "a somewhat better school at the pleasant 

 little village of Sudlersville." 



In the summer of 1854 he made his first visit to Washington, 

 and "speculated upon the possible object of a queer old sandstone 

 building, which seemed so different from anything else, and heard 

 for the first time of the Smithsonian Institution." Books of all 

 kinds, especially those on mathematics, were eagerly sought and 

 quickly mastered. Study resulted in research and then came re- 

 sults, culminating in the preparation of a paper on "A New Demon- 

 stration of the Binomial Theorem" which he sent to Secretary 

 Henry, asking if he deemed it worthy of publication. In replying 

 Professor Henry pointed out its "lack of completeness and rigor" 

 although one part of the work "was praised for its elegance." 

 Newcomb says of Henry's letter that "while not so favorable as 

 I might have expected, it was sufficiently so to encourage me in 

 persevering." 



A change of schools in 1856, brought him within an easy ride 



