February 19 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Rev. L.M. Powers of the Universalist Church in Haverhill, Mass., a collector who had requested autographed copies of books:
You make it so pleasant for me to say yes, & so easy, that I can’t say no although my conscience demands it. I do smoke, though not to excess, there not being hours enough in the 24 for that.
One of the maxims which I have written in the books has been in print, but not the other three or four— they are of yesterday & the day before.
I shall issue a small book thro’ Harper presently, & will try & not forget to autograph a copy & mail it to you.
I shall be glad to autograph that other 6 whenever it is handy to send them to me [MTP].
Note: Schmidt reports on one maxim given to L.M. Powers, a collector: “One should not pay a person a compliment and straightway follow it with a criticism. It is better to kiss him now and kick him next week.” Inscription written on fly leaf of HF from the L. M. Powers collection. Reported in Kansas City Star, April 10, 1911, p. 6. See also Nov. 9, 1905 to Powers. This is the same inscription and copy of HF that the MTP catalogs (UCCL 13114) to an “unidentified person”: [MTP:Samuel T. Freeman & Co. catalog, Mar. 23, 1936, Item 66].
Sam also inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “Only he who had seen better days and lives to see better days again knows their full value. Truly Yours, Mark Twai. Feb. 19, 1902” [MTP:Merwin-Clayton Sales Co. catalog, Apr. 4, 1911, Item 277].
John Y. MacAlister wrote from London to Sam: “We had a very satisfactory Plasmon Meeting the other day, when Bergheim assured us that we ought this year to pay a dividend of 15%.” The rest of the letter dealt with details of the Plasmon venture and expansion into France, with “inquiries from Switzerland, Italy, and elsewhere” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Sales £4000 a month / Average of 1901 was a little over £2,000 a month. / Average of 1900; first four months, nothing ;next 8 months about £200 a month.”