“DEAR SIR: I will give you $10,000 for one hundred lectures in Great Britain this summer, paying all the travelling and hotel expenses for yourself and Mrs. Talmage from the time you sail from America until you return; settlement to be made weekly. “Yours truly, “J. B. POND.” * * * * * The following morning I called again at No. 1 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, the Doctor’s home, and he read me a letter which he had prepared in duplicate: “J. B. POND. DEAR SIR: I will deliver one hundred lectures for you in Great Britain, beginning within three weeks, for $100 a lecture, you paying the expenses of myself, wife, and daughter from the time we sail until you return. “Signed, “T. DEWITT TALMAGE.” * * * * * I mailed a note accepting his proposition, and he gave me the subjects of his lectures. He wrote a note to the secretary of the Leeds Y. M. C. A., saying that I would soon be in England, and that all arrangements must be made with me. He told me that he had already secured passage on the _Gallia_, to sail in about a week. The next morning found me on board the _City of Berlin_ bound for England for the first time. While on the steamer I wrote a letter to the editor of _The Christian Herald and Signs of the Times_ stating that I was coming over to see if arrangements could be made for some lectures by Dr. Talmage, and that I would stop at the Westminster Palace Hotel and hoped to pay my respects to him soon after my arrival. I also wrote Mr. John Lobb, whose address Dr. Talmage had given me, editor of a new religious paper, _The Christian Globe_, who had also asked permission to print some of Dr. Talmage’s sermons. Upon my arrival at the hotel in London, I found several gentlemen waiting to see me: Dr. Baxter, of _The Christian Herald_; John Lobb, of _The Christian Globe_, and Henry Thorn (brother of Charley Thorn, belonging to the family of famous actors of that name), who was secretary of the Leeds Y. M. C. A. All wanted a private interview then and there, but I was very tired. It was past midnight, and I set a time for meeting them the following morning.