136 
A MUSEUM. 
BEFORE this time, the spring of 1873, Mrs, Max- 
® well had succeeded in replacing most of 
the specimens sold at St. Louis, and had added 
so many more, they were far too numerous 
to be even properly stored in ordinary private 
rooms. 
Her friends advised placing them before the 
public, insisting that, if arranged with her usual 
taste in some large hall, by charging a small ad- 
mittance fee, they would pay their own expense 
of house-rent and care. 
In her previous planning she had hoped to have 
a home sufficiently ample to accommodate all she 
might collect, but her success in that direction 
had so far exceeded her expectations and the 
improvement of their finances, that it was evident, 
unless her work could be made self-sustaining, 
much of it must be disposed of, and further labor 
in that direction resolutely abandoned. Hitherto 
her work as a naturalist had been regarded as 
little more than a pastime between hours full 
of other duties and labors — a recreation, however, 
obtained under such protest from circumstances 
and often from friends, that nothing but an irre- 
sistible passion, united with tireless energy, and 
an unconquerable will, made her resume it when, 
through discouragement, it had often been put 
