Iowa Academy of Natural Sciences.
Secretary's Office.
Des Moines, Iowa, Feb. 2, 1880.
Officers for 1879-80.
——————Prest.
M. W. Thomas, M. D., Vice Prest.:
Anatomy, Electricity, etc.
Hiram A. Reid, Rec. Sec'y:
Zoology, Ethnology, and kindred
sciences. Public Lecturer.
J. A. Jackson, Cor. Sec'y:
Educational Science.
John Fraser, Tres'r:
Ornithology, and Taxidermist.
Wallace Bailey, Curator:
Geology and Mineralogy.
A. R. Fulton, Librarian:
American Antiquities.
Prof. C. E. Bessey:
Dear Sir: I did not happen to see your note in the
Register of [?] until today: and I want to thank you
for it. "Professor" Paige [needs?] some of our members
believe that he could and would do great things for our
state museum project, if we would only give him a "send-
off" as President of our association, to help him in his proposed
"scientific" (!) expedition around the world, in the
interest of the Chicago Times. And enough of our members
were bamboozled by this high pretentious promise of his
to make a majority, and elect him to the nominal Presidency.
(It is only nominal, for he has never once been present at a meeting
of our society.) I opposed the scheme at the time as a sham
and a fraud: I know it was a grave mistake – and I am
quite sure it couldn't be played on us again.
Many of our own members who voted for Paige do not hesitate
to say they consider him "a fraud;" yet, because they
were induced to believe that if we gave him the refute
