WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 19 



his coworkers not to feel the spark of his enthusiastic nature, the full 

 effect of his prodigious energy and versatility, and his interest in all 

 worthy things. 



The next speaker was Professor Joseph A. Holmes. 



Professor Holmes said: 



It was my special commission tonight that I should endeavor to 

 fill up any odds and ends that might be omitted in the preceding dis- 

 cussion. One of the things that has always interested me in connec- 

 tion with Doctor McGee is a thing which has been touched upon but 

 lightly, and that is McGee at play. That can be discussed very 

 briefly because, strictly speaking, McGee never played. I doubt 

 very much whether he played in his boyhood days, for certainly in 

 his mature manhood he never knew what it was to play. I was as- 

 sociated with McGee in the Atlantic Coastal Plain work, and later in 

 connection with the work of the St. Louis Exposition, Doctor McGee 

 having charge of the Department of Anthropology. One of the things 

 which always interested me in trying to study McGee at play was his 

 fairness and his gentlemanliness. I have been with McGee day after 

 day, month after month, at the work table, lunch table, and other- 

 wise. McGee never rested except when he was asleep. McGee 

 did rest well, however, when he slept. It was fortunate that he 

 did sleep soundly, and I think one of the great secrets of his im- 

 mense intellectual activity was that he rested while he rested, and 

 therefore, was able to work while he worked. 



I never heard McGee tell a story or an anecdote, or give an ex- 

 pression that cou'd not have been given before this audience. 



I remember taking a trip with him across Virginia, the Carolinas, 

 Alabama, and Mississippi. When we reached the Mississippi, I 

 asked to see some of McGee's notes, and he said he was going to 

 write them out when he got back to Washington, and the remarkable 

 accuracy with which he had remembered the details of section after 

 section of that trip was one of the marvels that impressed me about 

 him. When he got back to Washington, for some thirty-six con- 

 tinuous hours, with very short stops for meals, McGee dictated the 

 notes which developed into a volume. 



