[Letter] January 20,1895,Amherst [to F.H. Giddings]

January 20, 1895, Amherst.

Dear Friend:
         The news
brought by your letter
as supplemented by my
wife's explanations,
is a great surprise,
and a very pleasant
one. There is no
environment that I
should so much enjoy
as that at Columbia.
It goes without
saying that the presence
of such friends as
are on that faculty
would make my life
what it has never
before been. At
Northampton I had
good friends in the
town but no very
intimate friend on
the faculty except the
President. Here I have
Morse - and all is
well in that quarter,
likewise I am making
friends in the faculty;
but the environment
can never contain what
that at Columbia would
afford. I shall
certainly do as you
suggest, namely, keep
the Johns Hopkins
matter in status quo.
Fortunately, they have
themselves put it into
that condition for a
time. When their
trustees next meet I
do not know. As they
have taken plenty of
time I have the right
to do the same. I
do not now feel sure
that they will make
the election. I fell into
the error of supposing
that the action of the
Executive Committee
was decisive.
 President Gilman
writes that I must
still regard the whole
matter as confidential.
Considering that large
questions, like that of
finishing and furnishing
a house, providing
for work at Amherst,
etc. hinge on the
decision, he will
scarcely expect that the
seal of secrecy shall
be for many more
weeks unbroken.
For a while yet I
think it is best to
conform to his
wishes, and keep the
matter within a
very limited and wholly
trusted circle.
If we 
do as much as that
he can not reasonably
blame us.
 Many thanks
for your kind
thoughts and wishes.

      Yours Very Truly,
         John B. Clark