April 9 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Canon Wilberforce / both of us—1.30. / J. Ross Clemens, / Bath Club, 7.30, 24 Dover / Ward the artist—sit for portrait” [NB 43 TS 6b].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England, Sam finished his Apr. 8 to H.H. Rogers:

P.S., April 9. Mrs. Clemens is greatly troubled about that Plasmon-cure, and wants me to write you and tell you to boil it before using….

Oh, hell, I says, he won’t ever take all that trouble, I says. But she said:

“Nobody ever takes it raw but yourself. The fact that it cured you in 2 months of a fiendish dyspepsia of 8 years’ standing 3 years ago and still keeps you sound, is no proof that another person can take it raw and have the same results. All of London physicians boil it—there’s 20,000 of them and only one of you. Ask him to follow them, in medical matters, and ask you for advice in matters of finance only.”

As the genii say in the Arabian Nights, “I hear and I obey.”

Rice says he is going to join you. Lucky rascal! / SLC [MTHHR 438-42].