Territorial politics of wyoming. I encountered gracious and wellinformed experts in the sources that i was seeking and their goals seemed to be to make my work and research as productive and rewarding as possible. The working atmosphere of the archives was congenial, stimulating, and fun. A friend of mine, the distinguished historian of the election of 1896, Hall Williams and i, would work at library in the library of congress until 5 00 in the afternoon when they closed, have a bite to eat and we could come over to National Archives, which was open until 8 00. So we made the most of every single day. Whenever i returned, as i did during the next decade, i had the same sense of enjoyment, productivity, and professionalism as experts, professionals engage their citizen users to the best of their abilities. The cliches about lazy government employees, repeated ad nasuem by unknowning politicians, had no validity within these walls. Instead i became convinced, as im sure most historians w