I objected to the thanks.

I could not with any large degree of sincerity thank the "Alta" for bankrupting my lecture-raid.
After considerable debate my point was conceded and the thanks left out.
[Sidenote: (1902.)] [Sidenote: (1904.)] [Sidenote: (1897.)] Noah Brooks was the editor of the "Alta" at the time, a man of sterling character and equipped with a right heart, also a good historian where facts were not essential.

In biographical sketches of me written many years afterward (1902), he was quite eloquent in praises of the generosity of the "Alta" people in giving to me without compensation a book which, as history had afterward shown, was worth a fortune.

After all the fuss, I did not levy heavily upon the "Alta" letters.

I found that they were newspaper matter, not book matter.