September 7 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Elisha M. Van Aken:
“Dear Sir / You are forgiven!” [MTP]. See Sept. 5 from Van Aken, photographer.
Sam returned to Elmira. Probably on the train, he wrote to his brother Orion Clemens. The relationship between Clemens and Webster had rapidly deteriorated through the spring and summer. Sam’s several notebook entries enumerated claims and accusations against Webster. Part of the friction between the two had to do with Sam’s inability to pull profits out of the company to float the Paige machine, as he was hamstrung by the Apr. 1 “Memorandum of Agreement” outlining the duties and privileges of the three partners. Webster, probably wary of Sam’s headlong grandiose plans for the typesetter, had wrung an agreement from Sam to keep $75,000 capital in Webster & Co. This letter unleashed several indictments against Webster; it’s interesting Sam would share such matters with the brother he often resented.
These are secrets — not to be spoken of, & not to be referred to in letters to me or others. The firm of C. L. Webster & Co. have paid out in cash in the 6 months ending Sept. 1, $105,000 cash, about a third of it unnecessarily; but still we cleared $23,000 in spite of it. After this, things are going to be done on a business-like basis, & the half-year ending Apl. 1, will make a better showing. I woke up 6 weeks ago, to find that there was no more system in the office than there is in a nursery without a nurse. But I have spent a good deal of time there since, & reduced everything to exact order & system — insomuch that even Webster can run it now — & in most particulars he is a mere jackass. I could never interfere before; the former contract was so ingeniously contrived that for two years I have had no more say in the concern than an errand boy; & to ask a question was to invoke contemptuous silence, & to make a suggestion was to have it coolly ignored.
Sam related how Webster had turned away Ignatius L. Donnelly’s Shakespeare book, “had probably never heard of Bacon & didn’t know there was a controversy.” Sam concluded Webster had thrown away $50,000 in that case. “He made the mistake of his life last April” [MTLTP 229-30].
Frederick J. Hall wrote Sam “a long glowing letter” arguing for Alessandro Filippini’s cookbook. He offered that the Delmonico family, “are willing to do anything in their power to forward the sale.” Hall wrote that the cookbook could be a “slow and steady-selling book,” without needing an intensive canvass. [MTLTP 231n1]. The Table: How to Buy Food, How to Cook It, and How to Serve It (1888). See Gribben 231.
Alfred P. Burbank telegraphed Sam “All right I thought instructions had been left with Mr. Whittemore [sic] I will advance money unless you wire Whittemore to honor draft before Saturday” [MTP]. Burbank also wrote Sam, asking to excuse his unbusinesslike way of doing business; he’d been sick.
Pratt & Whitney Co. per Amos Whitney sent Sam a formal notice that unless their bills for work on the typesetter were paid “on or before Saturday the 10th inst.” They would stop work [MTP].
Charles Webster & Co. wrote to Sam, “pleased to say that Mr. Webster is feeling very much better.” The major portion of the letter is about the cook book by Delmonico’s cook, Alessandro Philippini. [MTP].
Charles Webster also wrote from Far Rockaway, N.Y. explaining the reason for his “long silence,” his sickness. He invited the Clemenses to “spend a few days with us” on their way back to Hartford [MTP].