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#33 Ferry Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan,
December 21st, 1905.

My dear Miss Plumb:--
You will pardon, I am sure, a type-written letter which a pressure of matters growing out of the accumulation of three weeks correspondence makes necessary. The books I found in perfect condition on my arrival home yesterday, and I am glad to know that you found them interesting.

Now, concerning the article desired by Miss Cary for "Scripp": I need scarcely tell you that during a period of more years than I care to mention, I have persistently refused to grant requests of the same nature which have come to me from many of the leading journals and magazines of this country and Europe. You will quite understand, I am sure, my reasons for preventing the publication of information concerning a work which is, as yet, so incomplete. Another reason, very important at the present time, is the fact that my offer to the Smithsonian Institution or the United States Government, is still under consideration and until it is either accepted or rejected I must refrain from publishing anything but the very briefest account of the articles making up the collections. Permission from me to give the public actual descriptions of the collections would, doubtless, carry to the minds of certain people an unpleasant intimation, which I must avoid.