Vol 3 Section 0214

Kaltenleutgeben, July 4, ’98. News that Samson has destroyed the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba; that our troops have closely invested the city & that it must surrender. Also that our transport-fleet has at last arrived at Manila. Dr. E.C. Parker & Corneil Dunham are here to enjoy the news with us [NB 42 TS 56].

A photograph of Sam taken by Henry Ranchings is given this date by the MTP.

July 5 Tuesday

July 6 Wednesday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam replied to a letter, statistics, and a check from Chatto & Windus (theirs not extant). The book statistics were exactly what he wanted. The check was “beyond expectations large—would the English government “raid it with an income tax” if they deposited it in a London bank? Sam asked Chatto to check on two plays he’d translated and sent to people in London—did they still have the plays?

Do you think you can send somebody to Beerbohm Tree & to Charles Frohman (Savoy Hotel) on a cussed errand for me? Some 2 months ago a Lieut. Col. Lane-Bowen [sic Bowyer-Lane] of the Nimrod Club, 12 St. James’s Square, wanted to look at a play which I translated (“Bartel Turaser”), & I wrote Bram Stoker to let him take it. Afterward L-B wrote me that he had submitted it to Tree. I have written him (L-B) since, but get no answer. I don’t even know that Tree has the play at all. If he has, it’s all right.

By request of Chas. Frohman I recently sent him a translated play (“In Purgatory”) and derned if I hear anything from him. It was so recently, that I think maybe he & Gillette must have already closed their theatre

      left London. If he got the piece it’s all I care to know. / Sincerely … [MTP]. Note: Herbert Beerbohm Tree—see July 1, 1897 entry for bio info. Col. F.B. Bowyer-Lane.

Sam’s notebook: “The copyright article contains 7,000 words & will make 8 pages” [NB 42 TS 56]. Note: the article in question here was “The Great Republic’s Peanut Stand.”

July 7 Thursday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Robert Collier (Lord Monkswell; 1845-1909), British Liberal politician.

Dear Lord Monkswell: / I feel like a criminal for putting you and Lady Monkswell and Mr. Murray to such a deal of trouble. You must try to forgive me. Mr. Murray’s British & German statistics cover all the necessary ground, & I am very glad to have them. I have altered my MS to suit.

Sam wrote they were “pleasantly housed” and would stay until cold weather “drives us back to Vienna.” He wished they were back at Tedworth Square in London but they “couldn’t carry Leschititzky along,” and it was Clara’s piano that “condemns us to abide away from home” [MTP: Joseph M. Maddalena catalogs, No. 1, Item 35]. Note: This is not the Collier of Collier’s Magazine, but the Second Baron Monkswell. Sam’s June 20 request for publication numbers had since been answered (Collier’s reply not extant).