August 12 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean at Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y.
I have just received your letter, dear Jean, & am very sorry for that stupid & entirely inexcusable botch which Mr. Smith has made in the Papiniano matter. Clara broke it to me yesterday, & I won’t deny that it did certainly add a ton or two to the load which Bliss is furnishing me to carry. I proposed to send a cable saying “Take your Papiniano & go to hell with it,” but Clara & I could not agree. She wanted to insert “dam” in front of Papiniano, but I felt that your mother would not approve of that; & so we split upon that trifle & sent no cable at all. Explain it to your mother, so that she will see that although Clara tried to get me to do wrong, I stood out & done right.
I believe the thing I should recommend would be that we keep Papiniano, put up with the swindle, & live in the hotel until we can get the house—but we will do whatever your mother prefers.
Mr. Poor has a villa there which he is not using, and Harry Harper wants to speak to him about it. I will now call Harry up on the telephone & ask him to call up Mr. Poor & let’s talk & make inquiries.
So I will cut this letter short, & attend to it.
After saying good-bye to Clara I ran up to see Reeves & ask questions; then ran to Helmer’s (his dam shop is shut up till Sept. 7); then down here, expecting an appointment with Doubleday—& got it—for noon-I don’t suppose Clara took the right railroad, but I done the best I could—I needed to be within telephone call, & to be at the hotel, here before 10. Cheer your mother up, & tell her we’ll try & pull through, all right, as regards Florence—which will begin to smell like Tarrytown, presently.
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Telephone from Harry Harper tells me Mr. Poor has rented his villa [MTP]. Note: lined out text shows Sam’s prior intentions.