Last Years. 373 



make it possible to entertain the idea of coming to the 

 United States. There will be much to interest you, and it 

 is on every account desirable that you should pay this 

 country a visit, if possible. Our fifty million people will 

 soon be a hundred million, and they are developing a con- 

 tinent at a rate which must be seen to be understood. We 

 are loose and getting wild on social matters, and the car- 

 penter theory of government is predominant. Whatever 

 the result may be, the experiment is a grand one, and you 

 should not let it pass without some careful scrutiny. I 

 hope that the project will look increasingly feasible, and as 

 soon as it is fairly settled in your mind I wish you would 



let me know. 



NEW YORK, August 30, 1881. 



MY DEAR SPENCER : The last installment on Industrialism 

 has come. That and the preceding are two mighty chapters. 

 . . . I am latterly much better and more in the spirit of 

 work. I hardly mind a single pair of stairs, but a second 

 pair leaves me exhausted. I have still a good deal of sore- 

 ness connected with the lung constriction, but I think it is 

 gradually diminishing, and I hope that some tolerable sound- 

 ness may be regained before cold weather is again upon us. 

 My "goings from town" have hitherto been "jobs." I 

 hope to go to Saratoga for a week or two in September to 

 enjoy it. I suppose you will be back in London by the 

 time this gets there, and I trust you will return with the 

 full benefit of your vacation. There are great fishing 

 places on this continent in Canada and elsewhere, and I 

 think you had better plan to give next August to the sport 

 on this side. 



38 QUEEN'S GARDENS, W., September 21, 1881. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS: I arrived back in town the night 

 before last, and found your letter waiting for me. I am 

 glad to hear that you are gaining strength, not so glad to 

 hear that you are "more in the spirit of work." If instead 

 of this you would write. " more in. the spirit of p.lay,"" it 



