Vol 3 Section 0928
I destroyed it. In fact, I know your verdict when you returned from reading it. It is the right verdict; the work was crudely done—& in fact such things can not be inoffensively worded while a man is still alive: there are loving reverences & gratitudes which we can pay the dead without offence—but these are now forbidden in the case of the living, & their absence make a lack which cannot be supplied. You are the last man I should ever select to pay with printed acknowledgments for a service done for affection’s sake. But now & then the newspapers mention the kindnesses that I was wrong in leaving these kindnesses unendorsed & unconfirmed. But I shan’t degrade our friendship again, but keep it up in the high place where it belongs; & I want you to forget this mistake which I have made—made reluctantly & against my judgment.
I am here to put a stopper on the Bliss pair, if it can be done. I have seen two of the 5 directors, & shall see those 2 & a third one this afternoon. The Blisses are the other two that complete the Board. I am glad I came. So are these 3 directors. They were getting very uneasy abut their Company. There was reason for that apprehension. I probably return home to-morrow, but shall return & help them talk to the Blisses if they desire it.
You will be sailing to-morrow, & I am glad of that, for you will surely be a gainer by each day spent in the repose & charm of Fairhaven [MTHHR 530].
Note: Source appendix G contains Sam’s tribute to Rogers, so it wasn’t destroyed. American Publishing Co. had been threatened with a lawsuit by Harpers charging contract violations. Sam pushed Harper & Brothers’ offer to purchase Am. Pub. Co. and the directors agreed to pressure Frank Bliss to negotiate. Harpers would buy out the smaller company in October.
June 5 Friday – Hartford: Sam’s notebook: “Interview with Ward Jacobs, Chas. Clark, & Geo. Gilman” [NB 46
TS 18]. Note: See Sam’s letter to the Company’s stockholders, dated after June 10.
June 6 Saturday – Hartford: Sam’s notebook: “Interview with Jacobs at his bank—noon. Lunch at the Club” [NB 46 TS 18].
From NB entries, it seems that Sam likely returned to Riverdale either this evening or the following day, since he noted Samuel Bergheim’s arrival by train on Sunday.
Rev. Dr. William Curtis Stiles (1851-1911), wrote from NY to Sam. “I am preparing for the house of G.W. Dillingham Company a Book: ‘Out of Kishineff’ to be issued within a very short time. Included in the book, as an addendum I shall include representative opinions from well-known Americans, both Jews and Christians. … Will you kindly give me a brief expression of your sentiments to be included in the book?” Stiles listed several questions about Jews, why they were persecuted, relations with Christians, etc. [MTP]. Note: Out of Kishineff, by Stiles (1903), dealing with a Jewish massacre. Stiles was a clergyman, first for the Universalist Church and then for the Congregational. He was also an editor on the Standard Dictionary and co-editor of Modern Sermons by World Scholars. Mark Twain is not mentioned in the book.
June 7 Sunday – Riverside, N.Y.: Sam’s notebook: “Bergheim—arr. By 11.17 train?” [NB 46 TS 18].
June 8 Monday – Clara Clemens’ 29th birthday.
Sam’s notebook: “Visit & ask Duneka if he has proof that [Bliss] has transgressed. Show MS to Mr. Rogers. / [Horiz. Line separator] / See Collier & Mr. Rog. / [Horiz. Line separator] / is it 1/2 above cost on all books, old & uniform?” [NB 46 TS 18].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas F. Gatts, attorney in St. Louis for the 1904 Fair, “touched
deeply by the desire of my friends of Hannibal to confer these great honors” but unable to accept them. Sam did not
wish to “become a party to my own exalting. I am humanly fond of honors that happen, but chary of those that come by canvass & intention” [MTP].
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.