October 7 Monday – R.G. Newbegin wrote to Sam that Thomas Reed had called his attention to the fact that a letter had been sent in their company name “reported to have been signed by you.” Newbegin blamed W.I. Squire, another agent in Toledo, Ohio; he understood Sam’s indignation, was sorry that the matter occurred, and would do their best to see it didn’t happen again. He confided Reed’s assertion that the act was “forgery in the third degree” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Newbegin’s account of the fraudulent circular.

Edmund C. Stedman wrote to Sam:

My Dear Clemens=

Imprimis [Latin: in the first place]= Don’t answer this letter. A letter that needs no reply is the only one I care to receive. But let us confess that it was different when we were—not sages, but lovers.

My first cousin, William E. Dodge, tells me that he is almost your next-door neighbor, and is going to pay his respects to you—but feels that you are in Riverdale for peace and seclusion; and he evidently wished me to let you know that he comprehends all that in advance. He goes to Riverdale himself—and has these thirty years—to get peace & seclusion. Now, he is one of the whitest men on earth, able, cultured, hospitable, companionable.

Stedman added that Livy would find the Dodge ladies “equally nice.” “Of course, W.E.D. is an out-and-out nabob, but I have easily forgiven him that, and he don’t mind my poverty.” He ended by saying after his Yale Bicentennial poem “comes off, on the 23d,” he wanted Sam to read it [MTP].