LIFE IN WASHINGTON 245 
people, it was hardly popular enough in character for 
their publication. My father also in 1878, had become 
Secretary of the Smithsonian and did not feel that it 
was desirable for him to continue work of this sort, 
especially as the Fish Commission work was growing and 
required all the time and attention which he could spare 
from his other official duties. All these causes combined 
to cause a cessation of his editorial labors. I cannot, 
however, conclude this subject without speaking of the 
pleasure which my father had in his relationships with 
the various firms for whom he did this work, and the 
consideration, kindness and generosity with which he 
was treated, both as to the salary paid and also the out- 
side courtesies extended to him. During this period, 
besides receiving the various publications to which he 
himself was contributing, the Harpers sent him each 
month a package of books, comprising all that they. 
had published during that time. I have no recollection of 
my father’s having anything but the pleasantest personal 
experiences with Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Mr. White- 
law Reid and his fellow editors of the New York Tribune, 
as well as Geo. W. Childs himself, to whom he owed the 
introduction to this class of work. It brought him for a 
number of years an income which enabled him, with his 
simple tastes, to lay by what he had the pleasure of feel- 
ing, in the last years of his life, was a sum which would 
leave his invalid wife and his daughter enough to support 
them in comfortable circumstances.” 
One of the qualifications which assisted in making 
Professor Baird a first class ““Museum man” was his 
inventiveness. ‘The training he had had as a boy when 
he was called upon by his relatives to make or repair 
household articles, set glass, improvise a bath tub where 
