Everybody here in a keen rush, the greatest imaginable continued confusion; frightful dust, regular sand storms of the desert. But I suppose there is method underneath and something like order in most essential respects will be achieved before the opening day. Inevitably, however, much behind. How is the sand to be kept down, for example, by any expedient that can be applied within two weeks?

I have not yet fully got hold of our affairs. As to that which most concerns me, I have to this moment made no sure progress. I depend wholly on Profr Sargent, who promises to come early next week—

Weather is warm and the matter very pressing.

Besides the Rhodod. Show, there are several very difficult matters which I cannot decide to my satisfaction. Exceedingly perplexing. No good solution appearing possible.

I see no prospect of getting out of the rush for an indefinite time. Our work, much of it, cannot be done until all the business of installation is over & that will not be—by reasons of delayed shipments—until after 1st of May. There are temporary roads & temporary rail tracks & incomplete drainage & sewerage works that stand in the way of a beginning, and there are large tracts where the water works are yet incomplete, & we cannot sow seed on the sands until ready to water it.

You must press me if you see affairs other than the Exposition that urgently require my attention.

If convenient you can send my hat in box and put in the hat; my hair gloves & strop—from my wash stand.

Affecty

I have a note from Eliot which suggests that you may have been expecting me to go to Milwaukee, to get the Commissioners there out of their muddle about planting arrangements but it does not give me such information as I shd need were I to set about it; nor if it did could I leave here. There will be no interruption of work Sunday. Everything favoring, it will be impossible to begin to bring half of our work to a finish, or even to trek over the ground [610]decently. We shall have to bear the blame of everybody else’s tardiness, as their operations are now everywhere in our way. I shall be bitterly dispirited if Sargent is not here Monday to help me. At least the most important part of all our work will have to be done at night after the opening of the Exposition. I cannot see any way through the confusion but there are thousands of men at work under various chiefs & I suppose by & by the great labor will begin to tell together. I don’t see how I can leave to go to Milwaukee or anywhere else next week. I am afraid that we were wrong in leaving the business so much to Ulrich & Phil. Ulrich is not I hope intentionally dishonest but he is perverse to the point of deceiving & misleading us & cannot be depended on. His energy is largely exhausted on matters that he shd not be concerned with but it is too late to try to have it otherwise, and he has the habitual perversity of a gardener in blindness to comprehensive considerations & devotion to details of finery. I cannot trust him from day to day. It {is} so easy to find reasons, in the tardiness of others, for not doing what I want done. Parts of the ground are in a desert condition—utterly neglected, and sand drifting in the wind—nothing doing toward a remedy—reason no water to be had. Plants expected from California do not arrive—arrive in bad condition & so intended operations are postponed; proper adjustments of plan not made.—I am trying to suggest why I seem to be accomplishing so little and feel it to be so impossible to leave even for a day. I think the public will for a time be awfully disappointed with our work—dissatisfied & a strong hand will be required here for weeks to come to prevent Ulrich’s energies from being wrongly directed.

There are questions constantly arising that we, and no one else, ought to be allowed to settle. Among the State & Foreign officials there are some exceedingly perverse—even disposed to take the law into their own hands, cutting trees & making walks, contrary to our rules, & generally to override us.

I am in rather better health than when I came, though the diet & domestic arrangements are very little to my liking.

Favorable weather continues. Looking for Mr Sargent at 11 this morning. Had a good trial of the electric launches yesterday. Quite up to my expectations. Operated perfectly. 200 ducks, seven swan and a lot of geese populate the waters—

Much of our work blocked and likely to be so to the end, but otherwise getting ready pretty well.

“Going about in the rain” yesterday was too much for me. I took cold & was up all night with bowel trouble and am living on toast & tea. Nearly constant heavy rain all today, checking our work sadly.

Vilmorin who lunched with us, as Rick will remember, at André’s just a year ago yesterday arrivd & called on me this morning before I was out of bed.

By & by he will visit us in Brookline. He is going first to Colorado, Califa Oregon and Vancouver, studying trees.

It is queer to see the painters at work on ladders & scaffolds in this heavy rains. They are completely drenched and I shd think their painting must be streaky—

A preliminary trial of the McMonies’ fountain is promised tomorrow. It does not look ready by any means, but it is expected that it will play before the President next Monday—

Are you expecting me to go to Kansas City next week, and do you think it critically important that I shd? I dread such a journey. There is yet a great deal of work that I ought to direct & watch after this week here.

I get wind of much misplaced criticism, by men as clever even as Burnham, because of impressions from incomplete work and undeveloped compositions.

We are in a sharp fight with the Horticl Dept & the French nursery-men. I shall appeal to Vilmorin to help us out.

Eliot came today; has looked over the ground & leaves tonight for Louisville. I have kept my bed mostly for two days with sore throat, an ulcerating tooth and much pain preventing sleep. Much relieved today & been out with Eliot.

Since I last wrote Profr Sargent has been here and helped me materially. Practically we return under his advice to our first intentions. There are points where I feel that our work is defective, and more ought to be done to fill up, fill out and thicken our plantations. What I want for this purpose is more tobacco, more brambles and the Japanese asparagus (give me the proper name). But if the plants set last year break out, thicken, spread and fall over as much as I hope they will we shall get the general result in landscape effect that we have been aiming for. A few things which we used largely and a good deal depended on, have failed entirely. We have the ducks in as well as the electric launches and though the great majority are white, they have a good [612]effect and with dark foliage the effect will be better. Work has advanced well last week but all the painting will not be done, nor all the patching of staff, I think, before the first. A larger force is employed and every day’s work tells, (a larger force, say, but I believe it is not only half as large as that I employed at one time on the Central Park and I had not a tenth of the staff that Burnham has). Weather has been very trying. Season backward, water still icy. I enclose newslip showing weather to the northward last week, wh. put in Scrap Book.

Eliot expects to return from Louisville Thursday, & I hope to be able to go to Milwaukee Friday. But the time is critical & I may not. I don’t think it quite prudent at such a time to leave matters to Ulrich & Phil, both being rather hot-headed and disinclined to much questioning & deliberation. The Electric boats are operating capitally. Nothing has been done yet at the landings, except that the main station of the Gondola service is under way. There are three landings not yet begun. Building materials sheds & rubbish still occupy much ground that must be made into walks and lawns; Nearly all the Agricultural District out to the Forestry, Dairy and other buildgs is still little better than a slough. Not the first step taken in road making or preparing the turfy places. It must be a rough place all summer, I think.

You are expecting me to go to Kansas City, Eliot says, after the first May. Tough for me, I fear.

You replied judiciously to the Columbia college inquiry. I have had a letter from McKim about. I do not intend to reply to him nor personally to Profr Ware.

Mrs. Jack Gardener & husband are here and she is examining all the work assiduously. Seems to think pretty well of it, in the whole.

We are having hard luck. Heavy rain again today. At Mr Burnham’s urgent request we are doing the best we can with the materials we have to get some sort of sylvan decorations in the Main Court—On the South side we shall have there lots of Rhododend as a permanent exhibition—Waterer’s not having arrived we shall have to use palms to balance them on the North Side, which with the rain & the liability to frost is a very hazardous operation to say the least. I don’t like it at all. In other ways we have to resort to temporary expedients merely to make a poor show for the opening; Immediately afterwards we shall be obliged to take up those plantations and use the material elsewhere and make all sorts of adjustments for the summer show.

All which will keep me here an indefinite time, for it is not business that can properly be left to Ulrich & Phil. I recognize better than before the [613]nature of the difficulties Harry had with Ulrich. He misunderstands his instructions and it is difficult not to think that he does so sometimes perversely—But the fact is he gets his head bent upon certain gardeners’ ideals in such a set way that he can’t take in ideas contrarywise and being hasty and, disposed to jump to conclusions, he assumes that he has caught one’s meaning when he has wholly failed to do so. He is so zealous and driving that one does not feel inclined to blame him but, because he is energetic, when he makes a mistake it is apt to be a big one before it is discovered.

The diet of the provisional mess Table, the noise & scurry and the puddles and rain do not leave a dilapidated old man much comfort & my throat & mouth are still in such condition that I have to keep to sloppy victuals.

Pinchot—father & son are here.

I have not been to the town nor to the Glessner’s, tho invited, not at all off the grounds since I came here.

Nothing further from Eliot.

Affctly

I wrote you foolishly that there were 2000 men employed—There have been 2000 men employed directly by Mr Burnham. This week there are twice that number, exclusive of contractors forces—Including contractors & concessionaires’ forces, there are now 10,000 men at work on the ground, and would be more if more of certain classes cd be obtained. Our work is badly delayed because teams cannot be hired in sufficient number.

We are sadly in need of plants for wh. I urgently called all last year; Rubus, Chlethra and Jap. Asparagus all resources for these seem to have failed and the want of them will be serious in its results. If you know any way to get even a few, use it.

Very bad weather continues.

My ulcer has shrunk. I still have to live on bread & milk but am going about in the rain today & getting better.

Heavy rain continues {every} day. And cold weather but not freezing. At Mr Burnham’s urgent request, we got out palms and set them in a row against the upper north terrace of the Main Court, to balance the French & Belgian Rhododendrons on the opposite side. After they were all in place with [614]great labor, I protested & showed him that the effect was bad, and he yielded the point; so today we are trying to remove them before the Ceremony. Waterer’s exhibit is still in New York as far as we know. That which is to fill the place where the palms were, and no part of our decorative work is nearly complete. I am trying to give what we have in place as disorderly an effect as possible that there may be no mistaking its imperfect condition.

Eliot & Manning were here yesterday. I saw but little of them. I think Eliot is to go to Kansas C. without me. I dare not leave here for a week or more to come. The heavy rains, the state of the roads, the confounded ceremonies and the disturbances growing out of them; the frenzy and preoccupation with abnormal duties of Ulrich, and the ready excuses offered to everybody for failing engagements are throwing all our affairs into a condition from which great care will be needed for some time in order to extricate them decently. Peabody & Stearns have twice telegraphed, trying to make appointments with me or with Eliot to meet them with King (?) at Lenox. I reply that we have engagmts at the West that will hold us for ten days to come. I conjecture from something that has been said that Stearns is in a state of huff with you—thinks that he cannot get along with you; responds in fact to your attitude toward him.

Of yesterday’s principle performance I will write Marion.

Your note advising me to go Kansas C. came two days after Eliot had left without me. All you say is true and I felt it but it would have been a killing journey to me and it was much more important that I shd be here for the present. In fact I do not see how we can fairly acquit ourselves of responsibility if I leave, as I intend next week. There are every day questions of importance coming up that ought not to be left to settle themselves, or be decided by Phil or Ulrich. The situation is a difficult {one} & I don’t know how to deal with it. Ulrich is unwittingly faithless to us. The difficulty is that he is ambitious of honors out of his proper lines; cares more to be thought extraordinarily active, industrious, zealous & generally useful, than to achieve fine results in L. A. Just that of which Harry was constantly complaining. He is all over the ground, about all sorts of business, and Mr Burnham & every head of Department is constantly calling for “Ulrich”! In going over the works with Burnham I find him constantly repeating to his Secretary: “Tell Ulrich to” ______ do this & that. I remonstrate, but it does little good. I can never find him on the work except by special appointment and then he is impatient to get away & very liable to misunderstand instructions. I hope that in another week matters may settle down out of the flurry of the recent emergency. But even then, I don’t see what is coming. I suppose that our time is out—our engagement ended, [615]and I fear that Burnham is disposed to let us go and depend on Ulrich—for Burnham is not competent to see the incompetency of Ulrich & the need of deliberate thought. I have to be cautious not to bore Burnham, who is, of course, enormously over-loaded.

I have not been once off the Exposn Gnds since I came here. Have declined two invitations to meet the Duke & other dignitaries at dinner; have not seen the Glessners; have seen Vilmorin but once. I still have some sore throat &c. but am tolerably well.

I believe that I have not written home since the inaugural ceremonies but you will have seen reports—better I hope than those of the Chicago papers which were very bad. With all the multitudinous and enormous drawbacks there was a notable success. I did not go upon the stand but was with Post & McKim where we saw better, the unveiling of the statue, and the spectacle of the grand stand & music, fountains & flags.

There is nothing more successful than the Electric Boats. The gondolas, in imitation of those of the 15th century are doubtful. Millet thinks they wd be better black. The state barges, are hardly doubtful—pretty decidedly bad. The little steamboats, running from within the Basin excursively upon the lake are worse. I am doing my best to break the contract & keep them outside. Also I am doing all I can to get suitable landing places for the gondolas; many such things which have been neglected or very badly done in the great rush. The designers & draughtsmen have been all too busy & there are many makeshifts & mistakes to be overcome. Of course, I am chiefly occupied with planting affairs—palms & subtropicals, as to which I am not at home & cannot trust Ulrich. I have to make experiments. But I am every day getting nearer to satisfaction—Generally in these things I am settling upon much simpler arrangements than we have hitherto had in view. We have a very large stock of plants which we shall not use; my drift, which Profr Sargent encouraged me to follow, being to much reserve in this respect.

I expect Eliot returning from Kansas tomorrow & to go with him to Milwaukee Sunday.

Affly

Some rain every day, & cloudy weather generally. Southerly winds & warmer today. Vegetation backward. Just a tinge of green on the willows.

I recvd this morning yours of 7th inst. Eliot left yesterday and will come to you I suppose before this reaches you.

I am very sorry that you are worked so hard—on your account, and, [616]also, on the work’s account. No one can do good work without deliberation, contemplation. Business here has drifted into a bad way, Ulrich being always in a raging hurry and impatient of the slightest delay for reflection and comprehensive consideration. Every day questions come up which he decides, if I do not interpose, off-handedly—questions of importance and difficulty. He has brought us into difficulties many times and it is great good luck that the consequences have not been disastrous— His action in diverting the freight money we were allowed for Rhododendrons, to pay freight on conifers and various miscellaneous garden shrubs which we not only don’t want but absolutely cannot use, has led to most perplexing results, for we have not by a quarter the number of rhodos that we need to fill out the spaces we have held for them—I concluded today to balance our formal plantation of Rhodos with a lot {of} laurestinas &c—very reluctantly, as the best that I could do. But I am extremely dissatisfied & regret exceedingly the whole arrangement. I do not believe we are anywhere near the end of the trouble. Tomorrow I am going to decide upon the awning plan, which is also a very hard question with no possibly satisfactory conclusion. It has been warm today and the Rhodos just planted began to droop. We have had to water them properly and cover them with old sails temporarily as well as we could.

The warm weather has brought many visitors & the grounds are far from ready. Even the best of the walks are gullied and rough with loose large pebbles or boulders. I cannot well think of leaving till I see some distinct progress made in remedying such matters, as well as those that are more plainly within our responsibility. I do not think that Burnham has a decent standard of maintenance in such things. At any rate he is doing nothing as yet to bring even the terraces and entrances to a decent condition and I have no idea what he intends— Apparently everything comes to Ulrich, who has ten times as much to do as any man can do well.

Plainly the strain upon you is too hard. It is unwise to go on. I see nothing to do but to decline business. It crushes me to feel that we are not sure to do well what we undertake. Whatever work I visit, I see that we fail to give it the deliberation that is its due. As soon as I get back to Bkline I know that I ought to start for Biltmore & Atlanta—that it is not safe to stay away longer. Yet I can’t help feeling that for the present, this is by far our most important work, and that it is the height of folly to leave it to Phil and Ulrich. To leave them here unguided from day to day, is to place them and ourselves in a false position.

I have given no attention to the Boston Exhibit. I have understood that Phil was carrying out your instructions & have presumed that they were adequate and there have been too many things in regard to which instructions needed to be procured.

I have not visited any of the Exhibitions yet but ran into Post’s Buildg once to escape a shower, and have twice taken a course through Transportation, which I thought very promising. I have not seen the Glessners yet. I [617]suppose I shall leave for NYork Sunday but don’t see how I can yet—so many things I have set down to be done before I go.

You must find some way of lessening our obligations.