week and expenses.’ He gave me four large blocks nearly ‘full page’ to start on and the rest [Illustration: _William Hamilton Gibson_ _Age, 23_] will come along as fast as I want them; and will amount to about $400 worth of work. Besides this I have plenty of work from Filmer, in a hurry, another very large job from Appleton (on stone), stacks of work for Leslie and plenty else besides, scarcely knowing where to begin. My bill to D. App. & Co. for my trip was considerably over $100, which they paid without a word not even wishing an item. “It does seem rather strange to me that whatever I undertake to do, always ends in success, and in _unexpected success_. To be sure it is done by hard work and I do not see why any one cannot succeed who will put their shoulder to the wheel, be ambitious and full of resolution to surmount all difficulties. So far I have not made a failure, and one reason has been that I have not attempted a thing to which I did not feel equal. I am thankful that I do succeed, and I recognize, through all my experience in business, and in my efforts to advance, the ever present help and guidance of a good and kind Providence.” On the 29th of October, 1873, he was married to Miss Emma L. Blanchard of Brooklyn. The occasion was made the more interesting by the marriage of his sister Juliet, and the double service was performed by Mr. Beecher. In the following spring he made a sketching trip to Washington, D. C., making pictures for “Picturesque America.” He was now doing good work and receiving constant employment. He says of the Washington sketches, especially having in mind a “combination” which included many of the public buildings: “BROOKLYN, _Apr. 19, 1874_. “MY DEAR MOTHER: “I am only going to write you a few lines to-night (which by the way has generally been my expressed intention every time I have written) and for fear that I may possibly overstep that intention I have selected a larger sheet of paper than usual, and expect at least to confine the limits of my letter therein.