in the preservation of the wild game of
the Park and of the Park itself from the more determined encroachments
of private greed.

[Illustration: Hiram M. Chittenden]

The second year of my services as superintendent, some of my friends in
Congress proposed to give me a salary sufficiently large to pay actual
expenses. I requested them to make no effort in this behalf, saying that
I feared that some successful applicant for such a salaried position,
giving little thought to the matter, would approve the applications for
leases; and that as long as I could prevent the granting of any
exclusive concessions I would be willing to serve as superintendent
without compensation.

Apropos of my official connection with the Park a third of a century
ago, is the following letter to me, written by George Bird Grinnell.
This personal tribute from one who himself has done so much in behalf of
the Park was very gratifying to me.

New York, April 29th, 1903.

_Mr. N.P. Langford St. Paul, Minn_.,

Dear Sir: I am glad to read the newspaper cutting from
the Pioneer Press of April 19th, which you so kindly sent me.

In these days of hurry and bustle, when events of importance
crowd so fast on each other that the memory of each
is necessarily short lived, it is gratifying to be reminded
from time to time of important services rendered to the nation
in a past which, though really recent, seems to the
younger generation far away.

The service which you performed for the United States,
and indeed for the world, in describing the Yellowstone
Park, and in setting on foot and persistently advocating the
plan to make it a national pleasure ground, will always be
remembered; and it is well that public acknowledgment
should be made of it occasionally, so that the men of this
generation may not forget what they owe to those of the
past.

Yours very truly,

GEO. BIRD GRINNELL.

The Act of Congress creating the Park provided that this region should
be "set apart for a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people," but this end has not been accomplished except
as the result of untiring vigilance and labor on the part of a very few
persons who have never wavered in their loyalty to the Park. It may
never be known how nearly the purposes of the Act of Dedication have
escaped defeat; but a letter written to me by George Bird Grinn