July 9 Monday – NYC: Sam again spent time in lawyers’ offices and at Standard Oil’s office.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Belle Greene is offering me—giving me a very beautiful thing—& as I grow older in these days, I find that it is not a thing to be spurned; for she is giving me a big burst of very lovely affection, & the valuation of it is almost as great as intellect I find. In fact somehow I feel the need of just the strength that affection gives & the friendship of ABP [Paine] is god-born. He stands for a great amount of my strength just now & I wish he might always—for he is a rare creature & strong [MTP TS 94]. Note: contrast this sentiment about Paine with her entry on June 28.

Joseph Mills Hanson wrote from St. Louis to ask Sam if he recalled an incident about Captain Grant P. Marsh a veteran steamboatman in 1858-9. Marsh was an intimate friend of Horace Bixby. Hanson was engaged in preparing the personal recollections of Marsh for publication [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Grant Marsh incident is correct as Mr. Clemens remembers it. It is so long ago that he has no recollection of any of the river men except the few he was associated with for a considerable length of time.”

J.T. Arnold wrote a fan letter from Chattanooga, Tenn., enclosing a newspaper clipping (not extant).

Will expect in the next account of an interview, to find you reading one of Scott’s novels, and crying over the fall of feudalism. Crying over the grave of Adam showed that you had a tender heart in your youth; but crying over the fall of feudalism and slavery would clearly show, that at approaching old age, your heart was still tender, even mellow. I remain one of your numerous readers and admirers [MTP].