March 12 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
To-day came Miss Smith to ask me to discuss Mrs. Astor’s late literary subway explosion, & I said my price would be $5,000. She told me how the Journal had been misusing me & my name. (I write this March 13.) Paul R. Reynolds came to get me exclusively for a magazine. Represents Sampson Low & others, London. Address, 70 Fifth Ave.” [NB 45 TS 5]. Note: see Mar. 10 on the Astor article in question, which evidently Sam wanted to settle out of court for. Miss Nixola Greeley Smith, granddaughter to Horace Greeley. See her note to Sam for Apr. 10, 1902.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Evarts Benjamin, H.H. Rogers’ son-in-law.
I thank you very much. I leave to-morrow with Mr. Rogers, but Mrs. Clemens will continue the raid, along with the daughters. She has made a collection of houses, & when she has finished her pilgrimage she will know all about the houses between here & the pole, & in addition will know which one, she wants—& that’s a fortunate make of mind. I think it was Strafford whom they called “Thorough.” Dear sir, he wasn’t in it with the madam! [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
I thanked you straight out of the deeps of my heart for that dedication, framing the thanks as I read your words, and phrasing them in the swift and decisive way which results from strong impulse—and so, when you reproached me it caught me unexpectant and I did not know where I was at. Was it a case of thinking I had wound my watch when I hadn’t? Did I merely write the letter in my head, and carry away the impression that I had put it on paper also—and hadn’t? God knows—or His reputation is over-rated. In any case I was as sorry as a person can be who has seemed unthankful when he was not; and I hoped you would run up here and see us, and let me disburden myself. I was not able to catch you at your father’s house, where I went to ask a question as to your dates and movements, and stayed a couple of hours and wanted to stay a couple more— saw more of your father than he had seen of you, he said; by which I knew you had no time for visiting trips among friends.
We have been scouring these regions for a week, now, hunting for a house to buy, and so in the course of one of these raids we stumbled upon Mrs. Bigelow’s sister in her granite castle and had the pleasure of making her acquaintance. Mrs. Clemens will go on seeking, but I am killed [MTP].
He disclosed that the Kanawha would set sail the following day, Mar. 13.
Sam also wrote to Frank Bliss enclosing a copy of his Mar. 8 to George B. Harvey.
This is four days, & no reply to the above, which went to Colonel Harvey on the 8th. I have had letters from the Harpers since, upon other matters; if there had been anything objectionable it would have been mentioned—so you can go ahead, it is all right. And I am glad; for I gave them that book as a spring book only—not a Christmas book; an “objection” would cause me to take the book elsewhere at once [MTP]. Note: A Double-Barelled Detective Story was issued as a 179-page book in Apr. 1902 and collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays and Stories in 1904.
William H. Hoyt of Hoyt & Co. wrote to ask Sam for authorization to spend from 100-200 dollars advertising the Hartford home. “I neglected to speak of that yesterday….I will repeat as I did yesterday, verbally, that in case of a sale…I will agree to return to you, all moneys spent in advertising…” [MTP].
George W. Reeves of Hoyt & Co. also wrote to Sam, giving updates on specific properties in Tarrytown, Irvington and Hastings. He offered to come up and give Livy information; and also to go to Hartford if Sam so desired [MTP].