[Letter] July 31,1888,Ludlow,VT. [to F.H. Giddings]

July 31, 1888, Ludlow, VT.

Dear Mr. Giddings.
      Your letter has
forestalled one I was about
to write explaining what
I know about the
situation. You will soon
know more than I do.
I am delighted at the
turn the thing is taking.
If you get the place for
a year they will never
give you up if they can
help it.
 The alternative
appears to be someone else
for three years,
say, Prof. Jenks of Knox College.
(This confidential unless they
give the fact to you, as they
probably will) or, on
the other hand you
for a year, with me as
a possible chance at the
end of the time. They
want two strings to their
bow. It seems that I
can promote what I most
desire, viz. your
appointment, by continuing
to say I will take an
offer into consideration
at the end of the present
year, if they choose to make
one. I do not think they
wish me to say I would
accept it, and I certainly
would not be willing now
to definitely accept it, if
I had only myself to consider.
 Oh dear! I have
felt all through this
correspondence the absurdity
of my having any stronger
claim on that place than
you have. The only reason
for it is the chance
fact of my having a
completer academic record.
That is something that I
expect soon to see equalized.
 I hope moreover
that I have made clear
my own attitude. I
desire first and throughout
to see the appointment
conferred on you. If any
thing should prevent that
the place would lie between
me and the rest of the
'field'. In that case I
now think I should let the
field have it; but I am
willing to retain it as
a contingency. Moreover
it seems to be tolerably
clear that I can promote the
one year lectureship
appointment, and thus as
I hope your permanent
election to a professorship,
by holding the thing open
as a possibility at the end
of the year Miss. Thomas
intimates that if they
do not see a probability
of doing something more
agreeable to their wishes, they
will be likely to appoint
Prof. Jenks for three years.
They want you with the
probability that they will
want and have no one else;
yet, as it seems, they have
a desire for a second string to
the bow.
 Is there in the
tone of this letter or of my
former one anything that
sounds like Bemis in one
of his least happy moments?
Is there a savor of patronage
about it? If there is burn
the letters, and when you get
hold of me use your ample
muscle in holding my head
under a pump.
 I have lately been
wondering who has been writing the
every effective and sound tariff matter
in the Republican. The mystery is
solved.

       Yours Very Truly,
             J. B. Clark

 Address Littleton N.H.