North-East Harbor, Maine, 
Harvard University, 
Cambridge, August 6th, 1892. 
De ar Mr . Rob ins on , - 
Yours of August 3rd is at hand. 
I should be very reluctant to offer Mr. Seaton more than .filOOO. 
for the first year. In my opinion he will come for that if he will 
come at all. You can assure him that that is the regular salary 
offered to tutors and instructors who do full work in the first 
year of their service. It is the customary salary for the first 
year of service, and from ?/hat you say of him I should imagine that 
■It IS all he^ worth at his present stage of progress. Is he married 
that he wants more than AlOOO. a year to live in Cambridge? I 
have just secured the services of a graduate of Harvard College 
of the class of 1886 at the salary of 1^1000., and this man is 
married^ and has been in the habit of earning nearly twice that 
sum. It would be a very troublesome precedent to offer Mr. Seaton 
a higher salary than we are in the habit of offering our own 
graduates in the first year of their appointment. Cambridge is 
really a very cheap place to live--by no means a dear one. These 
western men think that Harvard is rich and can pay anything. 
We made a grave mistake in our dealings with Professor Coulter; 
but we v/ere helpless, for Professor Gray had opened negotiations 
with him before his death. We have now made another mistake in 
our dealings with Professor Barnes. Let us be cautious in the 
present instance. 
