September 30 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Bros.

I have written “A Horse’s Tale”. It is just finished—15,000 or 16,000 words, I should say at a rough guess. It has several characters and is pretty lively—Miss Lyon likes it nearly as much as I do. Can you illustrate it and get it into Harper’s for Jan. and Feb—and issue the booklet in Feb? And can’t you sell simultaneous rights to the Ladies’ Home Journal & split your expense? Or to Colliers?—Or to both? [MTP]. Note: “A Horse’s Tale,” some 17,530 words first appeared in Harper’s Magazine in two installments for Aug.-Sept. 1906 and with five illustrations by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock. Harper’s published it as a book, A Horse’s Tale in Oct. 1907 [Rasmussen A-Z 210]. In his Oct. 1 to Clara, Sam revealed he’d written the story “with an eight-day drive & rush—a dangerous process.” Sam would have begun the tale on Sept. 23, only Sam also wrote to Minnie Maddern Fiske about “A Horse’s Tale”: “I have just finished the story, & I guess it will do. / I am asking the Harpers to try to get it into the Jan. & Feb. numbers, though it is pretty short notice” [MTP]. Note: Fiske had inquired about such a story on Sept. 20.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens worked at revising until 7 o’clock. Too many hours for the revising of a manuscript is a prodigious piece of work” [MTP TS 103].

September 30 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Byron Williams of the Chicago Press Club declining his invitation of Sept. 27 to a press club banquet in N.Y.C. [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs this reply as “on or after 27 Sept.” Three days estimated postal time from Chicago to Dublin is allowed here.

September 30 after – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a reply to Frank H. Mason, American Consul in Paris, France. “Couldn’t get the letter of credit into this envelop—so I have sent it by itself in another. Let me know if you receive it” [MTP]. Note: Mason’s letter is not extant. Did Sam make a loan to Mason or was he repaying a debt?