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No. 33 Ferry Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan.
February 7, 1905.

Dear Colonel Hecker:--

I have sent you some clippings from local papers concerning the Smithsonian matter and am now handing you here with an editorial from the New York Times and another from the New York Evening Post, both of which show a rather unlooked for favorable statement for my side of the question. As yet the Committee have not named a day for their visit to Detroit, but I fancy they will be here ere long, and I hope the four Regents will add to their number at least one or two experts in oriental art so that the Board of Regents will know better what they are doing when they come to vote either for acceptance or rejection of my offer.

Boston, Washington and Philadelphia papers have also approved quite strongly of my conditions and I shall at least have the satisfaction of knowing that my plans were not foolhardy. The more I thought I give to the matter, the stronger my convictions are of the absolute correctness of my intentions. To allow the future officers of the Smithsonian Institution to add to or detract from my own collections or to exhibit in my building things which might please their fancy I am sure would eventually destroy the underlying purposes of my own work.

A letter recently received from Tom Jerome tells me that he is in communication with you and I fancy that ere long you will be determining your plans for your visit at Capri. I hope that while in that locality you will not fail to make the trip around the Sorento Peninsula, including a day at Paestun. You know the country yourself, but it will be delightful for Henry as well.

You will be pleased to know that while in New York last week attending the Waggaman sale, I secured the famous Sesshu screen and a few rare pieces of pottery.

Miss Birnie-Philip, in a recent letter, referred to your