June 21 Sunday – James Burton Pond (1838-1903), longtime tour manager of Mark Twain and others, died at his home in Jersey City, N.J. after an amputation of his leg on June 17. The New York Times reported his death on page 1, Jan. 22. Funeral services were to be held at Pond’s home on Tuesday evening, June 23 with burial at Woodlawn Cemetery, New York. Sam, who had recently been a pallbearer at the funerals of Charles Dudley Warner, J.D.F. Slee, and Frank Stockton, may have attended the services, though he made no mention of it in his NB. One source claims Sam did not hear of Pond’s death for months.
June 21, after – Sam wrote a letter to William Webster Ellsworth. “A fund? Raise it? It is easier to raise the dead. A pension is the thing. I have tried it, & I know. Get people to put up a monthly sum…” [MTP: American Art Assoc.—Anderson Galleries catalog, 9 Dec. 1936, Item 146].