I had such an odd letter from a New York pilot who has just built a fine vessel and wished to name it after T. W. Higginson as a Christian, philanthropist and a whole string of epithets which were quite intoxicating till they ended with “and one of the most eminent bankers in New England.” This not being my strong point I was convinced at last that he had jumbled George H. [the father of Henry Lee Higginson] and me hopelessly together, so I sent the letter to George H.—with the less reluctance as he [the pilot] delicately hinted at least that I should be expected to provide ‘the maiden suit of colors’ at $75 in return for the honor.
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of my being appointed. .. . Heard from Stephen [his brother] that he had urged me for President of Harvard College! . . . I might add that I am to be President of Harvard University because one zealous relative is pushing me. But I think I had better wait fifty or a hundred years ere announcing so extreme an impracticability as that.’
At one time he received an invitation to become chancellor of the State University of Nebraska. ‘Such things gratify me,’ he said, but ‘I should give up my literary life very unwillingly.’
He was also urged to apply for the collectorship of Newport, which he declined to do. Some of the attentions which he received caused the recipient much amusement.
For instance, he wrote in 1877:—
Books for libraries press. Freeport, New York. 1914.
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