SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 
WASHINGTON. D. C. 
March 18, 1955 
Dear Dr. Schmitt: 
Your letter of the 15th was delivered this morning. You will 
have received by now copies of the notes I wrote Graf and Corbin. I dojjH 
believe I will need to make any changes in my recommendation to Graf, do 
you? 
I wouldnH dare put in my brother's name* The President 
has just issued an order that the ^’marriage clause^^ is to be applied to 
8.11 new appointments and that it is to include any two members of the same 
family living under the same roof — brother and sister, father aid son, etc* 
I donH knov/ whether it is going to operate in relief appointments of this 
kind, but it has Howard Ball worried* 
I have started house hunting again. I want to get out of my 
top floor apartment before hot weather sets in, and apartments are hard 
things to find around here these days — at least the kind you can afford to 
pay for. Yesterday I saw one advertised in the 1800 block of I St. I 
Wsut down to that address and when I saw the notice on the outside of the 
house of what the apartment consisted of, I didn't even go inside to look. 
Tt was in a private house, there were several rooms — -two or three besides 
kitchen, bath, and screened in porch, hut they wanted $110 for itl This 
afternoon I got Ur. Kelly to take me up to 1600 Q Street where an apartment 
was advertised and I like it very much. It is on the first floor of an 
old house which has been made over into a small apartment house (about six 
or eight apartments in the house), faces on Q St. and has both north and 
east exposure — two rooms, kitchen, and bath for $45. have to have my 
om. telephone. If I took it alone, it would cost me about $8 or $9 more 
a month than it costs me now to live, but the restoration of the last 5 per 
cent salar^^ cut would almost take care of that. A girl from home has 
just come here to work in the Labor Department, and I am considering asking 
her to go in with me. That v/ould mal:e the expense very reasonable, and I 
think the girl would jump at the chance. I co^jld spread my furniture over 
two rooms very nicely, I think. I am almost tempted to take the place and 
take my chances at getting some one congenial to share it with me. I could 
afford it alone without going broke. The manager of the house is a Hiss 
UcCord, who used to am be librarian in the Geological Survey. Llien I told 
her I worked at the Museum, she asked if Miss Rathbun was still here. When 
I told her I was in Miss Rathbun' s office, she warmed up to me immensely 
and almost handed me the apartment right then. She seems a pleasant little 
lady. I imagine she has been retired from government service because of 
age; she seems about Miss Rathbun' s age. 
