_Vailima_, _Samoa_, _March_ 25_th_, 1894.
MY DEAR MR. JOE H. BATES,—I shall have the greatest pleasure in acceding
to your complimentary request. I shall think it an honour to be
associated with your chapter, and I need not remind you (for you have
said it yourself) how much depends upon your own exertions whether to
make it to me a real honour or only a derision. This is to let you know
that I accept the position that you have seriously offered to me in a
quite serious spirit. I need scarce tell you that I shall always be
pleased to receive reports of your proceedings; and if I do not always
acknowledge them, you are to remember that I am a man very much occupied
otherwise, and not at all to suppose that I have lost interest in my
chapter.
In this world, which (as you justly say) is so full of sorrow and
suffering, it will always please me to remember that my name is connected
with some efforts after alleviation, nor less so with purposes of
innocent recreation which, after all, are the only certain means at our
disposal for bettering human life.
With kind regards, to yourself, to Mr. L. C. Congdon, to E. M. G. Bates,
and to Mr. Edward Hugh Higlee Bates, and the heartiest wishes for the
future success of the chapter, believe me, yours cordially,