July 8 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to John C. Black, Commissioner of Pensions, Washington, D.C. Sam received a June 29, 1885 letter from Black that a pension application had been denied on June 23 [Brooklyn Eagle, July 17, p6]. Sam responded:

I have not applied for a pension. I have often wanted a pension often—ever so often, I might say; but in as much as the only military service I performed during the war was in the Confederate army, I have always felt a delicacy about asking you for it. … very truly yours / S.L. Clemens, / Known to the police as / Mark Twain [MTP; also in the July 21 Halifax Morning Herald and other newspapers].

Samuel E. Moffett wrote from Kingsburg, Calif. to clear up the “annoyances” which he was sorry his mother had written about to Sam. He did not see farming as an end. He explained that a vineyard seemed a good way to make a living, increasing in value, worked by hired men, etc. He’d used his leisure time to study. He revealed plans to write books on history and political science [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote to ask Sam to send his idea of a heading for the subscription statue [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Gen Grant & Gov Stanford are furnishing letters to the Sultan of Turkey”