Transcribe Lucas, Fred A. Letter to Ward, Henry A. (1882-03-04)

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to watch my eyes carefully lest they fail me. I am perfectly willing to admit that as a fore- man over men who are not honest & faithful that I am a failure, but at the same time you must not forget that </u you > are not wholly with- out blame on the matter. You let me work </u under > the men who are now under me and it was a long time after I practically became foreman that you acknowledged me as such. In the mean time you tried Jayne and Goodhue. How did </u they > please you .What I wish is to be free from overseeing the </u men > while I plan the </u work > to the best advantage. If you wish a nautical simile I might say that while you are commodore of the fleet I wish to be captain of vertebrate zoology, and do the writing, drawing and other similar work. But as you say we can talk this over in April when I trust we may each see that the other is partly right in his opinions. Let me ask one question and then I am done. Supposing that instead of taking the liberty of procuring skins from Gerrard & Schneider I had