July 17 Tuesday – Richard Watson Gilder of Century wrote to Sam (who enclosed this letter to H.H. Rogers on Aug. 17):

Before leaving London I had your telegram [July 6] about the impossibility of “promising.” While that, of course, disappointed me a good deal, still the very word “promise” leaves a little hope that perhaps a promise might be made later; that is, within a certain time when it would still be available for us.

On arriving back in the U.S., Gilder reconsidered and wrote that the publishers were willing to pay Sam “very high rates” for a submission, as much as $3,000 for 15,000 words. He asked Sam to cable his answer collect [MTP].