Vol 3 Section 0732
Jones will remember better. It was Jones’s scheme. By it, a number of men were to buy a privilege to subscribe for the stock, & pay $5,000 each for that high privilege. Jones bought one, & so did Mackay, but the others declined & the scheme broke down. I have met Jones within the past year, & he was hearty & did not ask me to buy back his privilege.
I am very glad you set John [Jones] right in the matter, & I will go & see him; I know he was not intentionally in the wrong—that is not his character.
There were men (poor ones) who bought a few royalties of me on my assurance that it was a good thing. That was quite another matter, & I paid those small sums back as soon as I was able—an aggregate of $3,000;
I returned to a millionaire (a purchaser of royalties) his note for $45,000 to keep it from going to pay the Webster debts; but if the note had already been paid, I would have allowed him to lose it.
Your handwriting shows no age, Joe, & I am glad of that; it has the same grace & firmness it had when you were 24. I shall be 67 at the end of the year, & sometimes I feel old, but not often. But I am persistently old in this: my this-world interests are decaying, & my other-world interests have already disappeared. Wine & beer do not invite me any more, & it has taken me 5 months to drink one bottle of Scotch whisky, my pet of all brews. But I smoke all day, & I get up twice a-night to do the like. When I get smoked out—well, it will be a sign!
The Madam & Jean send enthusiasms of regard & wishes for a visit from you—& I the same [MTP].
Sam also wrote a note to H.H. Rogers.
Great Scott!—why didn’t I stay & tend to that business myself. Pull him in again, & send for me.
We expect to leave for York Harbor in the last half of June, in the Kanawha. I told Mrs. Clemens I invited you & Mrs. Rogers & all the friends you please, & she said it was an impudent speech after your generosity.That is what I get for trying to do the handsome thing by you.
I rushed home yesterday to do some work—& didn’t do it.
Mrs. Clemens had a bad time with her heart last night, & for a while could only breathe when sitting up; but she is in much better shape, now, & has gone to the osteopath. She wouldn’t allow him to come here— double rates & the Hartford house not sold [MTHHR 487]. Note: source gives no explanation for the “Great Scott!” item.
Mary Geary for Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam: “Your letter received. I note what you say about ‘Tom Sawyer’” [MTP].
May 17 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, enclosing a letter from Thomas B. Reed to the Rev. M.M.J. Cooper, Rector of St. Christopher’s, Rum Cay, Bahamas. The letter announced a donation of a church organ by Reed.
I believe the enclosed is calculated to deceive. If it has that luck it will load that island onto Tom Reed for one while. His free-handled purse will be in for many an assault; & as for his name, it will be given to all the male babies for a generation or so to come. If he lives up to his opportunities, Rum Cay will disappear from the charts by & by, & “Tom Reed’s Sand-Pile” will take its place [MTHHR 487-8].
Livy’s diary: “Annie Trumbull & Archie Welch came about tea time: Archie returned to Hartford on Sunday, Annie remained until Monday. We had in for dinner Saturday evening Mr & Mrs Perkins & Mr & Mrs Delafield: time added to Archie & Annie, Mr Clemens & me made 8 for dinner” [MTP: DV161]. Note: Archibald A. Welch, president of Phoenix Mutual Ins. Co., Hartford. Mr. & Mrs. George Walbridge Perkins, Sr.; Mr. & Mrs. Richard Delafield.
Franklin G. Whitmore wrote to Sam, sorry for and explaining the delay of sending a sketch of the replacement mantel for the Farmington Ave. home, as requested. He revealed it was state senator Henry Roberts who had made the offer of $35,000; Roberts and wife had been impressed with the property
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.