American AcornsPDF page 87, printed page 79
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HISTORICAL WORK 79 before going into print. Mr. Bancroft's authority of course was paramount, and the later work was hurried. Writers were rushed and shoddy work was done, consequently when the work was finally published and went to the critics, it was picked to pieces, ruthlessly unjustly criticised and condemned. The outer bark being rough, the whole tree, root and branch, was declared unsound. Perhaps the blow fell harder on Mr. Oak than on Mr. Bancroft. I think it did. As an old friend expressed it on reading his autobiography, "His whole soul thirsted for the recognition which he knew his work merited." Mr, Bancroft, while a good writer, always commanding attention and inspiring interest, was not a good historian. He built a showy edifice, but had not the patience to establish his foundations deep enough and secure enough to endure the storms and waves of criticism. His ambition o'erleaped itself. The work he claimed to have done was beyond the power of any one man. Had he been satisfied to acknowledge himself as what he could perhaps rightfully claim to be, editor-in-chief—and had published the names and speci- fied the work of each of collaborators, his reputation would have been more savory and the ends of justice more nearly complied with. But he risked all, assumed authority for all, won out fin- ancially and made a fortune. What should he care for critics or reputation? What was the final result? From the day when Mr. Oak left the library in June, 1887, and started on a tour of the state, hoping to recover his health, and during the succeeding years leading his hermit life at Siegler's Springs, trying under the mountain pines to woo back the strength spent in Mr. Bancroft's interests, not a kind word nor an expression of interest or sym- pathy came from Mr. Bancroft. All claims were ignored, all promises forgotten. Surely, all graft is not confined to oil kings, beef barons and railway magnates. Mr. Bancroft stands convicted by his own testimony of pub- lishing as his own work, history of which he only read the proof- sheets. After waiting fourteen years for Mr. Bancroft to keep the promises he had so repeatedly made; his health gone, his means going, and his desire to print the family record, on which hte had spent ten years of hard labor, being uppermost in his mind,
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