Smithson

“ When James Smithson, an English scientist, died in 1829, he gave his entire estate "to the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." This extraordinary gift, amounting to one and one-half times the Federal budget of the day, led to passage of an Act of Congress establishing the Smithsonian Institution. ”

“ You will have acquired a love for your business, and, active as you are, you will not be able to do without it.”
“You think me at the end of my confession. The worst is to come. Mr. Smithson is polite and sincere, but reserved and ceremonious, like all Englishmen. He keeps me at a distance, and appears as if my errors and loss of property, which of course he is aware of, gave him some superiority over me. ”

“ Smithson. Louis followed his advice, and begged an interview with his employer. It was then in the month of June. The conversation took place without witnesses, in the open air, on a fine summer evening. I give it as related by Louis.
“Monsieur,” said he, “I am aware of your interest in benevolent objects. The workmen you employ, and whom I superintend under your orders, are not in your eyes mere instruments for the increase of wealth, but men to whom you wish to be as useful as circumstances will allow.”
Mr. Smithson was never lavish of his words. ”

“ Rich, yes; Mr. Smithson is rich; but, as Lady Maulevrier says, he has made his money heaven knows how.'
'Mr. Smithson has not made his money heaven knows how,' answered Lady Kirkbank, indignantly. 'He has made it in cochineal, in iron, in gunpowder, in coal, in all kinds of commodities. Everybody in the City knows how he has made his money, and that he has a genius for turning everything into gold. ”

“ Smithson touched on larger economies, such as either affected the welfare of others, or the honour and standing of the great House of Hanbury, she was inflexible. Her establishment consisted of somewhere about forty servants, of whom nearly as many as twenty were unable to perform their work properly, and yet would have been hurt if they had been dismissed; so they had the credit of fulfilling duties, while my lady paid and kept their substitutes. Mr. Smithson made a calculation, and would have saved some hundreds a year by pensioning off these old servants. But my lady would not hear of it. ”

“ Smithson always seems to have regarded the circumstances of his birth as doing him a peculiar injustice, and it was apparently this sense that he had been deprived of honors properly his which made him look for other sources of fame than those which birth had denied him, and constituted the motive of the most important action of his life, the creation of the Smithsonian Institution. ”

“ He had no sons. His daughter Elizabeth had encouraged the homage of a handsome young fellow of that day, named Smithson. She was told Hugh Smithson had spoken in terms of admiration of her beauty, and she laughingly asked why he did not say as much to herself. Smithson was the son of ‘an apothecary,’ according to the envious, but, in truth, the father had been a physician, and earned a baronetcy, and was of the good old nobility, the landowners, with an estate, still possessed by the family, at Stanwick, in Yorkshire. ”

“ Smithson just looked at the letters, and went on with the old subject.
“Now, my lady, it struck me that if you had such a man to take poor Horner’s place, he would work the rents and the land round most satisfactorily. I should not despair of inducing this very man to undertake the work. ”

“ Nothing is well done that we do not like to do. Has he manifested an inclination for any special occupation?”
“Louis is a civil engineer. He would like to find a place somewhere in that capacity.”
“Ah! he at length remembers he is a civil engineer!... He wishes to turn his acquirements to some account?... It is a wonder! He need not exile himself for that. You know Mr. Smithson?”
“Is not he the cold, ceremonious gentleman who came to see us Sunday?”
“The very one. Mr. Smithson is a wealthy Englishman who has been in France these twenty years. He came on account of his health. ”

“ On the contrary! Again, he fell silent, considering the situation which Smithson had presented, and, as he reflected, his frown betrayed the emotion natural enough under the circumstances. At last, however, he mastered his irritation to some degree, and spoke his command briefly. “Well, Smithson, apologize to her. It can't be helped.” Then his face lighted with a sardonic amusement. “And, Smithson,” he went on with a sort of elephantine playfulness, “I shall take it as a personal favor if you will tactfully advise the lady that the goods at Altman and Stern's are really even finer than ours.” ”

“ Lesbia was fain to own that Rood Hall was even better than Park Lane. In London Mr. Smithson had created a palace; but it was a new palace, which still had a faint flavour of bricks and mortar, and which was apt to remind the spectator of that wonderful erection of Aladdin, the famous Parvenu of Eastern story. Here, in Berkshire, Mr. Smithson had dropped into a nest which had been kept warm for him for three centuries, aired and beautified by generations of a noble race which had obligingly decayed and dwindled in order to make room for Mr. Smithson. ”

“ Ah! it's to be a shop, is it? And what sort of a shop— public-house? We want one."
"Better ask Mr. Smithson; the house is his."
"Oh! it's Mr. Smithson's, is it?"
Jones walked away much relieved.
Mr. Smithson had long talked of removing himself and his earthenware to some larger tenement than that which he now occupied; a pleasant neighbour he was not; but anything was better than the fear which had for a moment seized the heart of Richard Jones.
The workmen did not linger over their task, indeed, Mr. Smithson took care that they should not. ”

“ Smithson, as we said, took a pew in a fashionable church, and in a desirable position. Thither, accompanied by his fashionable-looking wife, who, in her turn, was accompanied by her richly-bound prayer-book, he resorted on Sunday mornings. The attention of the devotees around was at once attracted by her, and stray glances would slip from the leaf of the prayer-book to the “new person” near by. “N’importe,” Letty might say, as did a celebrated English dandy when an hundred opera-glasses were leveled at him, “Let them look and die.” With her attire no fault could be found. ”

“ The plain marble sarcophagi near the landing-stage marks "the tombs of Washington, and Martha, his wife." The house after his death was bought and presented to the nation by "the women of America."
We had to give up all idea of seeing the Smithsonian [43] Institute, a Gothic building of red sandstone, standing in its own park, presented to the city by Mr. Smithson, an Englishman. And the Patent Office we found was not open at this early hour of the morning. Inventive genius is here protected and encouraged. ”

“ Smithson asked her how she liked the arrangements of the saloon and cabin, she said she thought they would do very nicely. 'They would do.' Nothing more.
'It is dreadfully small, of course,' she said, 'when one is accustomed to rooms: but it is rather amusing to be in a sort of doll's house, and on deck it is really very nice.'
This was the most Mr. Smithson had for his pains, and he seemed to be content therewith. If a man will marry the prettiest girl of the year he must be satisfied with such scant civility as conscious perfection may give him. ”

“ Horner.
Day after day Mr. Smithson seemed to grow more fidgety, more annoyed at the state of affairs. Like every one else employed by Lady Ludlow, as far as I could learn, he had an hereditary tie to the Hanbury family. As long as the Smithsons had been lawyers, they had been lawyers to the Hanburys; always coming in on all great family occasions, and better able to understand the characters, and connect the links of what had once been a large and scattered family, than any individual thereof had ever been. ”

“ Smithson's country houses. I knew the world well enough to be sure that this kind of thing would never answer with a man like Smithson. It is only one man in a thousand—the modern Arthur, the modern Quixote—who will marry a whole family. I told Belle as much, but she laughed. She felt so secure of her power over the man. "He will do anything I ask him," she said.'
'Miss Trinder must be an extraordinary young person,' observed Lesbia, scornfully. ”

“ Smithson, who smoothed away the difficulties inseparable from all beginnings. At seven in the evening, Louis, laying aside the title and functions of an engineer, became the friend and teacher of the workmen. They assembled in a large room where benches, tables, and a library were arranged. At first a certain number of workmen came through mere curiosity. They found what they did not expect—a teacher who was competent, kind, ready to converse with them and teach them what they wished to learn, and this with a heartiness quite different from an ordinary schoolmaster. ”

“ Aren't they my property?”
“Yes; but they are not suitable for walking up birds. They’re for driven grouse, you know.”
“I should like to use them,” said Mr. Smithson wistfully. “They look smart.”
“But you will never be able to save the empty cases, walking all over the moor,” said Angus; “and they are valuable. If you were going to stand in a butt, it would be different.”
“Oh, very well,” grumbled Smithson. “I suppose we must all economize these days. I’ll take some of the other kind.” He plunged his hand into the compartment containing the ordinary pegamoid cartridges. ”

“ Catherine sat down. She had learned to wait until Dr. Roberts had sent off preliminary sputtering fireworks before he uncovered his serious purpose.
"I happened to learn that Smithson, in the local social department, was interviewing Dr. Waterbury. Had seen him twice. So I was at once suspicious. Smithson, you've met him? Well, he's the type of parasite this kind of organization attracts, unfortunately. We haven't many here, but they exist. Afraid to finish up a job, because then another may not turn up. He's nursed along his study of sanitation, I should blush to say how long. ”

“ In case of necessity, I shall have a violent dispute with the engineer, which of course will oblige Mr. Smithson to interfere.’ I know he is not disposed to jest about such matters. Once the affair is brought before him, the engineer is lost. I will not give him a week to remain at the mill after that.... Such is my idea; what do you think of it?”
“Durand, you are a genius. Your plan is admirable. The moment my uncle finds the engineer is trying to propagate his religion, he is lost, as you say. You must put your project into execution without any delay.” ”

“ Its publications were distributed throughout the world to every scientific and literary institution of good repute, and in exchange they sent their own publications. In this way an immense collection of scientific periodicals and journals was received, and the Smithsonian library became one of the most extensive in the world in this department. Books came in freely from other quarters and the support of the library became a great burden to the Smithson fund. ”

“ On those occasions Smithson scores high. A man with immense wealth has always chances. No doubt, if you were to marry him, the peerage would be easily managed. Smithson's money, backed by the Maulevrier influence, would go a long way. My grandmother would move heaven and earth in a case of that kind. You had better take pity on Smithson.'
Lesbia laughed. That idea of a possible peerage elevated Smithson in her eyes. She knew nothing of his political career, as she lived in a set which ignored politics altogether. Mr. Smithson had never talked to her of his parliamentary duties ”

“ During his residence in London he cultivated the society of authors, artists, and men of science. "His mind was filled with a craving for intellectual development, and for the advancement of human knowledge. To enlarge the domain of thought, to discover new truths, and to make practical application of these for the promotion of civilization, were the great ends he had constantly in view." Smithson possessed large means ”