In the spring of 1894, as already noted, I was offered 
the Curatorship of Anthropology in the Field Columbian Museum, 
Chicago, by Mr. F. J. V. Skiff, Director, who painted a glow- 
ing picture of what the future held for me in that Institution. 
A salary of $5000 was in sight, along with free and untrammel- 
ed control of the Department to carry out my ideals of what 
such a Department should be. I accepted this offer, to take 
effect June 50, 1894, and as a result side tracked the pros- 
pective offer by the New York Museum, and resigned from the 
Bureau of Ethnology, to take effect June so, 1894, 
Dr. David Tf. Day, a geologist and friend, arriving from 
Chicago, called on me on my return from a brief visit to 
Chicago, and I discovered that he had a mission with respect 
to my appointment. He suggested that I had better hold on 
to my old place in Washington tentatively, accepting the posi- 
tion for a year on trial. I at once realized that Mr. Skiff 
was using Dr. Day as a tool to work out his own ends. A few 
days later I arrived in Chicago to find my suspicions of change 
of attitude and unfriendliness well-founded, and passed through 
@ period of anxiety and humiliation. Skiff, acting consis-~ 
tently with his innate cunning - the outstanding features of 
his character, wished to keep me on the ragged edge of uncer- 
tainty. He took occasion to remark that Mr. Jones, repre- 
senting Mr. Higginbotham, had said to him that "Holmes' 
