could come to spend a few days here. All our friends ought now to be together again.
TO W. M. GROSVENOR
Washington, Mar. 29, 1877.
⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅⋅
I am not such a dunce as to put out advertising to the lowest bidder, but I have regulated the advertising business in my Department on business principles in such a way that what cost over $40,000 two years ago and over $25,000 last year, will cost something less than $3000 this year. I should think this pretty good for a beginner.
Hayes makes haste slowly but surely. You will soon wake up and see things done. Hayes is a general like old Thomas; wants to have his wagons together when he marches, but loses no battles. You need not be anxious.
Now, I do want your suggestions, and I want them sincerely, and as many of them as possible. Only you must not find fault with me if I do not answer very promptly and at length. This Interior Department is no joke.
FROM BENJAMIN H. BRISTOW
Personal.
I thank you sincerely for your kind invitation to communicate
freely with you. It has not been, and is not now, my
purpose to vex the ears of members of the Administration with
recitals of the cruel and grievous wrongs that have been done
me; keenly as they are felt by my family and myself, I do not
feel at liberty to ask others to share our feelings. It is a long,
long story which could not be told within reasonable limits.
The substance and essence of it all is this. I committed the
