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74

[[underline]] To Willie, July 26, 1925: [[/underline]] I just got back from Gahada (the Nikiforoff cottage) and it is now 10:35 p.m. but I want to write you everything. We had fearful weather for our weekend trip. It poured and poured and we were forced to resort to bridge, and then some more bridge to pass the time away. As Dave (McClenegen) detests playing bridge, I am fearful that he did not have as good a time as I had hoped he would have but I guess it was all right. No one had a coat of tan that could even begin to compare with my Willie's. How often I thought of you and wished for you. There is no one who can fill the gap that your going away has left. ...... Madame is very charming as usual. She remarked once that "apple pie is good but he is hard to unpack." And try as she would, for a long time she could not pronounce Dave's last name. Finally she got me off into a corner and had me write it out, saying, "Zat is hard one for me to pronounce. I will take it in here and study it for awhile." But finally she did get it -- "Meestaire McLenegen." ...... Following Mr. Steenstrup's advice, I have been trying to look well into the laboratory and what it offers, before doing anything. The general consensus of opinion seems to be: The laboratory is a fine place here if one has great patience, a willingness to give up any idea of ever making much money, and also a willingness to give up any idea of ever having much contact with the outside world. Dave worked in the laboratory for a year and a quarter for Dr. Newkirk and the end of that time was so dissatisfied he quit, as I once told you. Also, Taylor, who worked for Dr. Newkirk, and was a young mechanical engineer, had a similar experience. In the "Who's Who in Science," I have looked up the records of all the really [[underline]] big [[/underline]] men in the laboratory and practically every one has had education without end almost. They are all Ph.D's and have taught in various colleges for years before joining the staff of the laboratory here. From that it appears that one with a purely technical education would be at a [[underline]] great [[/underline]] disadvantage over there as far as reaching the top is concerned. Dave has told me frankly that he doesn't think I would like the laboratory. And I have spoken with others and they all give one the advice one way or another, to think long and hard before entering that game. They say that one makes no contacts with the outside if one wants to. They also say that most of one's work is not published but simply kept by the Company so that one has a poor chance of being heard of outside. It seems that one should not go into the laboratory unless one is a born scientist and moreover has a very good education preferably; that is, a doctor's degree is of considerable value. Where there is so much smoke, there must be some fire and the laboratory begins to lose some of its attraction. ...... So now my attention has been turned to the engineering departments whose line of work I was really trained to do. Engineering is not devoid of work where one has many, many opportunities to figure and puzzle and calculate on problems fit for any man to try