October 26 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Dine with Dunham?” [NB 43 TS 27].

At the Hotel Earlington in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Sylvester Baxter, who had attended Warner’s funeral in Hartford on Oct. 23.

DEAR MR. BAXTER,—It was a great pleasure to me to renew the other days with you, & there was a pathetic pleasure in seeing Hartford & the house again; but I realize that if we ever enter the house again to live, our hearts will break. I am not sure that we shall ever be strong enough to endure that strain [MTP: Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain’s Letters, p.701]. (Sam’s “&” marks replaced.]

The Hartford Courant interviewed Sam on his visit to Hartford for the funeral of Charles Dudley Warner: “What Mr. Clemens Said,” p. 10. Covered was the shock at Warner’s death, remembrances of the Monday Evening Club, his plans for the winter (to spend it in NY if he could “find a house that would not bankrupt us”), his good health owed to Plasmon, and his desire not to return to vote if not a close election [MTCI 368-70].

Dr. Channing H. Cook for American Plasmon Syndicate wrote to Sam about Plasmon. He saw where Sam was interviewed by his old paper, the Courant, “and that you gave Plasmon a fine send-off. I have written to Hartford today for twenty five copies…as I am sure I can make good use of it.” Sales had increased from 187+ lbs. the prior month to 224 lbs so far in Oct. [MTP]. Note: Dr. Cook would leave the Syndicate in Dec. 1901, under charges of dishonesty.