Transcription:
ARNOLD ARBORETUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Jamaica Plain, Mass., May 3, 1898. My dear Muir: I have yours of the 25th telling
me of your efforts about the reservations. You or somebody has evidently put in some good work, as on Saturday all the members
of the Public Lands Committee of the House agreed to oppose the Senate amendment wiping out the reservations. It won't do
to stop here, however, as a few senators are strong in their determination to break up the whole reservation business and
the rest of the Senate is entirely indifferent to the subject. All I know about is contained in this note which reached me
a few days ago. I suppose he is off to Paris again unless the Government has grabbed hold of him to build a fort or some other
foolish tiling of that sort. I guess you would be cranky if you had such a troublesome job on your hands as I have, although
I suppose you would have no difficulty in gathering the flowers of an Abies on the top of the Sierras, a Palm in the Everglades,
and another on an uninhabited key between Florida and Havanna, all in the same week. Come east this summer and we will go
and see those Apalachian trees together and get Canby to go with us. Faithfully yours, C.S. illegible John Muir, Esq.
Martinez, Cal. 02424