July 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James B. Pond. He was impatient to contract with Cable, who didn’t jump at $350 per week. Sam didn’t want to consider others; evidently, Pond had suggested Thomas Nast:

“O damnation, I would rather pay Cable $450 a week & his expenses than pay Nast $300. I don’t enjoy roosting around & waiting.”

Sam wanted a final answer by July 15, and if it took a day longer, he’d “have made other arrangements” [MTP].

In Elmira Sam wrote to Mr. H. Speight (this may be Harry Speight 1855-1915).

No, it was at the Plow inn Ottenhöfen … a girl of about 18, the landlord’s daughter. There was nothing German about her form or features .. These were American decidedly–but she was German, born & bred. After several months of uninterrupted German uncomeliness, she was to me superhumanly beautiful … 

[Note: TA pages 213 (Oxford facsimile ed.): “We took our meal of fried trout one day at the Plow Inn in a very pretty village (Ottenhöfen)” and p.489: “And I remember that the only native match to her I saw in all Europe was the young daughter of the landlord of a village inn in the Black Forest. Why don’t more people in Europe marry and keep hotel?”. ABE books Bookseller: Sophie Dupre ABA ILAB Calne, WIL, United Kingdom; Inventory # SD31792; accessed April 29, 2009].

Charles A. Dana for the New York Sun wrote to invite Sam to Long Island next Saturday afternoon, “and pass the sabbath there under my roof? The billiard table is good, the light beautiful, and the society first rate” [MTP].