[Letter] November 3,[1894],[Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore] [to F.H. Giddings]

November 3, [1894], [Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore]

Dear Friend:
          Will you be
very good and keep a
big secret? It will not
do to have it escape,
just yet from your
immediate personal
charge. I have under
consideration a quasi-official
invitation to come to the
Johns Hopkins as the
head of a new department
of Political Economy. The
salary is not named, as
yet, and until it is I
shall hardly feel that
the offer is definite.
The conditions of work
are favorable. I should
meet the graduate class
five times a week, but
should lecture only three
times. There would be an
assistant and some
non-resident or resident
lecturers. I tell you,
while the thing is not
mature, because it is
my impulse to consult
someone, and you are
the one I feel like
consulting. If the thing
takes a shape that is
quite definite, and on
the pecuniary side, satisfactory,
I shall ask for your
advice. It would do harm
to have the facts
prematurely known.
 My student, Bentley,
tells me that a Mr.
Crook, a member of
your class at Columbia
has been a student of
Simmel, and knows
all about him and his
work.
 I go to Boonton,
N.J. on Friday and to
Amherst on
Saturday. If there is
time between travels to
call on Saturday a.m.,
before the eleven o'clock
train leaves New York, I
want to give myself the
pleasure of doing it. It can
be only a very short call,
this time. If I am
not there by 10 a.m. do
not expect me and do
not remain at home
in case any engagement
calls you away.

      Yours Very Truly,
         John B. Clark

I recall your number as
150 West 79th St. If
I am right never mind writing
to tell me so.