Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1882-05-27)

be ready to talk it over with Wife, and if the worst comes to the worst I won't say that it may not be done even as things are now.

    Of course you are joking when you allude to the

possible ruin of the Establishment by the loss of Webster. It would be slanderous to consider the fate of that vast institution as hanging by such a slender thread as the presence of </u any one man > connected with it except the Founder. Upon all occasions when short sighted people have asserted that, "Professor </u couldn't get along > without Such a one." my reply has been, "Nonsense ! </u No man > there is indispensable. or ^incapable^</s could not be > of being replaced."True it is not every one who could find good preparation, but I know </u you > can always get as many as you want. </s and you know >

    I do hope that Webster will not persist in his semi-political

document, for it certainly would do him more harm than good. Politics are almost </uj never > spoken of in the Institution and nothing seems to be farther from Prof Baird's mind than "factions", "Stalwarts", "Half-Breeds and "campaigns. He only takes care that Congress gives us what we want. The Geolog- ical Survey and the National Museum are in high favor with Congress, and there is little doubt but that we will get a liberal appropriation. My presence here before July is due to the fact that in Feb. last (or March) the U.S.N.M. got a "deficiency appropriation" to the tune of $30,000.

    The Geological Survey starts out the first of July to

measure more Moqui pueblos and will return in the Autumn to make models of them. They are now making a model of the whole of Zuni, from which one set of casts (there are seven big sections of it) will be made for the British Museum, and a second for us. By-the-bye. I wonder