SIMON NEWCOMB 387 



the U. S. Navy and granddaughter of F. R. Hassler, the first 

 superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey, and also great-grand- 

 niece of David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, famous as an astrono- 

 mer in the early history of this country. And to their home in 

 Washington for that city was always their home came many 

 friends. Henry, with whom he "became very intimate," and 

 other men of science were frequent visitors, but soon others came 

 once, and then again, and so the circle grew. Men prominent in 

 official life, like Garfield; statesmen, like Sumner; and officers 

 high in the military service, like Sherman, were his friends. As 

 his fame increased persons of distinction from all parts of the 

 world when they visited Washington made it their pleasure to 

 pay their respects to the astronomer. In his Reminiscences he 

 tells how in the centennial year Dom Pedro d'Alcantara, then Em- 

 peror of Brazil, sought him, and in recent years the Hon. James 

 Bryce, the present Ambassador from Great Britain, received his 

 hospitality. But after all it was among the younger men that his 

 influence was most beneficial. He was quick to recognize ability 

 and equally quick to insist on its recognition. It was Holden, his 

 "assistant on the great equatorial," who on his recommendation 

 became the first Director of the Lick Observatory, and he refers 

 to George W. Hill who was his subordinate on the Nautical 

 Almanac as "the greatest master of mathematical astronomy 

 during the last quarter of the nineteenth century." To his con- 

 temporaries he was always just and to his subordinates consid- 

 erate. 



He took his work seriously and he believed in telling the truth, 

 that is, the absolute scientific truth, not what might have occurred 

 or possibly what might have occurred, but absolutely what did 

 occur as he saw it without any attempt at circumlocution or 

 embellishing circumstances. The simple, plain, scientific state- 

 ment of fact was all that he was willing to give, and it was what 

 he demanded in return from those with whom he was associated. 

 He had not much time for the trivial, and yet whatever he under- 

 took no detail was ever disregarded as being insignificant. It 

 seemed wise to the members of the Cosmos Club to place him in 



