WCP1253

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

May 23rd. 1901

My dear Will¹

We were very glad to have your long letter with the account of your explorations, & that you enjoy your work. Your account of Durban Cathedral was very interesting to me as I had never seen it but passing in the train & had somehow got the idea that it was small! The day before your letter arrived a lady was calling here who was speaking about it & admired it greatly.

I have been, & am still, very busy. First, Hicks² & his wife came. They almost insisted upon Mrs. H. giving us a recitation, as we had a lot of people ^{ladies mostly,} & she gave an almost unknown tragedy of Browning's [2] which I thought most strange & really improper without first asking me to read it. It was really one of those subjects which not only I could not read aloud before ladies, but which I was ashamed to sit & hear read! In fact I was disgusted with the whole performance which was solely to show her wonderful memory.

Then lately we have had lots of visitors, among them the Russian translator of my Wonderful Century,^3,4 — also Mr. Teherkoff who is now at Christchurch printing translations of Tolstoy's works.

And in the middle of my chapters on Astronomy I have had to stop to make lots of corrections & additions for a new Ed. of [3] Darwinism,⁵ and now I am to get ready the "Wond. Cent. Reader". Mr. Wiliams,⁶ who was getting up the illustrations &c. having gone to America last autumn, the corrected proofs were sent him to see about some missing illustrations &c., & they have never come back & he has vanished into space — cannot he found anywhere!! or heard of!!!

Then, twice, I have been up to London to go Estate-hunting with Mr. Shaw⁷ — an American settled in England, — a kind of patent-agent & inventor. He is a great friend of D^r. Abraham Wallace⁸ & between them they have invented a new bottle-stopper simpler & more perfect than any thing yet, & which [4] they expect will produce a fortune. One firm of "bottlers" in London have seen it, and they say it will save them £.20,000 a year!

Then they have another discovery, of a young inventor, which Mr. Shaw has added to and perfected, for getting gold out of quartz by an electric current. He tells me that all stamping is done away with. Blocks of quartz of any size & any degree of richness or poorness have all the gold taken out of them & separated by one operation. It will save millions, & if it is as successful as he says, will make them millionaires.

With his help & Swintons⁹ we have got out a definite proposal for a small company or club to buy an estate, & we are only waiting to see how many will join, & then I & he are going again to choose the best 2 out of about 6 or 8 Estates & have the one the majority like best.

In haste | your affect. Pa | A. R. Wallace [signature]

He is a pleasant & clever man, & is himself inventing a new telegraph which he says will beat Marconi & Tesla to fits. He wants a country house to experiment.