May 7 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Jim Clemens—dinner / Royal Academy / Mr. Roche—6 to 7—here / Bergheim has returned from Paris. Rothschild takes 6 months’ option on French plasmon patent—can then make it final or withdraw” [NB 43 TS 9-10].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Bertha von Suttner in Vienna. The following is headed “Copy” and “(Rough draft)”:

It is ever so kind of you to remember me, & I thank you for it. I wish I believed in the Czar, now, as before the Finland episode: in which case I should hold it a pleasure & a privilege to be allowed to come & hear him praised.

I am not as young as I was. I realize it when I put the Finland tragedy & the Hague Comedy together, & find that I want to cry when I ought to laugh [MTP].

Note: The Peace Conference at the Hague, which met from May 18 to July 29, 1899, had been called by the Czar of Russia. Clashes between governmental organizations in Russia and Finland were frequent at this time, as Russia exerted influence in Finland.