xxxj BOSTON TO WASHINGTON 115 



puzzles in mathematics gave him an interest in making 

 rhymes. There was a remarkably pretty young lady who 

 came to one of the University festivals whose name was suit- 

 able for rhyming purposes, and Sylvester started some com- 

 plimentary verses to see how many successive rhymes he 

 could make. His intimates declare that for weeks aftenvards 

 he would say on meeting them in the morning, " I have got 



another rhyme for Miss ," and after all his friends had 



declared that no more were possible, he still kept on discover- 

 ing new ones till they amounted to some incredible number. 



On December 11 I returned to Boston, the whole 

 country being snow-clad and the rivers all ice-bound. On 

 calling upon my agent I found he had got no more engage- 

 ments for me, so I determined to go to Washington at the 

 end of the month. Considering that my lectures were so well 

 received wherever I went and so well spoken of in the papers, 

 I was puzzled to know why there was not more demand for 

 them. But later on some of my friends told me that it was 

 because I had been preceded for two years by Rev. J. G. 

 Wood, who, though a very clever artist in colour on the black- 

 board and an excellent field naturalist, put very little into his 

 lectures. Yet he had been well puffed by the same agent as 

 a " great English naturalist," and had given lectures in most 

 of the colleges in the United States. Hence, when the same 

 agent announced another "great English naturalist," there 

 were few bidders, as I was not at that time sufficiently well 

 known in America. With one exception, I had no lectures 

 whatever for three months ! 



I spent the three weeks in Boston studying the museums, 

 reading at the public library, paying visits, etc. One evening 

 I dined with the Naturalists' Club at the Revere House Hotel, 

 with such well-known men as Hyatt, Hagen, Minot, Scudder, 

 James, Gould, etc. ; and just before I left I was invited by a 

 wealthy merchant and yachtsman, Mr. John M. Forbes, to 

 a farewell dinner at Parker's Hotel to meet some of Boston's 

 most eminent men. These were Oliver Wendell Holmes ; 

 James Russell Lowell ; Edward Waldo Emerson, son of the 



