August 8 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore. He complained of lumbago from “Carrying Jean up & down in the car, on that red-hot 12 hour trip.” He told of Jean’s whimpering and of Susy and Clara’s stoicism during the ordeal.

Poor Susie was so worn out that I couldn’t even entertain her by showing her the ties had been torn & smashed by the broken axle…I tried to gaudify the interest of my topic by explaining to her that we all came within less than three-quarters if a hair’s-breadth of going to smash & destruction, but she only responded, with indifference, “But as long as we didn’t, papa, what does it amount to?—let us get in the car again” [MTP].

Miss Landsmaunin wrote a fan letter in German from Bremen, Germany to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “An American girl who wants to display her crude German.” A note in the MTP file disputes that the girl was an American and also that her German was crude