June 9 Sunday – In Elmira, Sam acted as pallbearer at the funeral services for J.D.F. Slee (John De La Fletcher Slee; 1837-1901) who died on June 7. The Elmira Daily Gazette, June 10, 5:2, reported the funeral:
LATE J.D.F. SLEE
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The Funeral was Held at the Residence Sunday Afternoon.
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The Funeral services over the remains of the late John D. Fletcher Slee were held yesterday [June 9] afternoon at 4 o’clock at his late residence on West First street. A large number of friends of the deceased were present. Officers Dillon and Gitchell of the police department were detailed as special guards, and many carriages lined the street from Main to Columbia. The Revs. Samuel E. and Annis Ford Eastman officiated.
The remains were this morning [June 10] taken to Buffalo for internment. The pall bearers were: Z.R. Brockway, General C.J. Langdon, James L. Woods, Samuel L. Clemens of New York, and Colonel D.C. Robinson. [Note: the Eastmans were both ordained ministers (Congretationalist) and ardent supporters of Women’s rights; their daughter, Crystal Eastman, and her younger brother Max Eastman became famous in their own right.]
Melville De Lancey Landon (“Eli Perkins”) wrote to Sam on Colonial Club, N.Y.C. letterhead:
About 25 years ago I got out an 8. mo. 500 page volume. It was a subscription book, and the publisher who published the “Royal Path of Life” sold over a million coppies of this book. I think the publisher is now dead or retired sick—or ought to be. A man who can sell 1,250,000 of “Heroes Home & Mother” deserve annihilation.
My book was called “Wit & Humor of the Age.” …I put into it of my own articles. …and 5 of “Mark Twain”….
Well the other day when I thought the book was dead I ran up against it. It had Mark Twain’s head in gold on the cover and was labelled
Library of Wit & Humor
BY
Mark Twain—and others!
After examining the book my madness turned to amusement—
First I said:
“Well Mark Twain has got gaul!”
Then I saw that somebody else had furnished the name and that you, being stronger than the rest of us sat like a golden statue of Buddha on the book. …
I hope you will win and shame the pirates [MTP]. Note: Sam forwarded Landon’s letter with note to his attorney Augustus T. Gurlitz on June 12.