April 17 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on Thomas B. Reed’s note to H.H. Rogers [MTP].

[Reed:] I still think we had a most lovely trip, & I am still grateful; I am told, however, that you had trouble immediately after I left. Which leads me to counsel you not to take the yacht out unless you have on board persons of such weight with the community that they can keep the boat level. The Colonel, Hutton, Foote, & Mr. Twain are all well enough in their way: quite interesting people, but they lack gravity. / Very truly yours /T. B. Reed

[Clemens:] This is well meant, but not well reasoned: for a yacht needs virtue as well as ballast. / Mark [MTHHR 483-4n1].

Sam’s notebook: “In New York in 1895 (when I was 60) Cheiro the palmist told me that I should become very wealthy in my 68th year. (I was a bankrupt & heavily in debt at the time, & I properly thanked him. He said it again in London two years afterward, & I properly thanked him again. Shall I be able to complete my thanks next year? If not, can I sue him for breach of promise? / His other prophecy of ‘95” [NB 45 TS 10].

Livy’s diary: “Mr & Mrs Kingsley, Mr & Mrs Tatlock, Miss Martin, Mr Bradley, Mr Rodman Gilder, Mr Foley (?) dined with us” [MTP: DV161].