August 17 Saturday – In Elmira Sam telegraphed Richard Watson Gilder of the Century:

…put into the proofs every alteration and every modification you would like made and I will then decide at once [MTP].

Sam also telegraphed and wrote to Francis Dalzell Finlay, answering his July 29, which had been delayed. Sam attributed the delay in the forwarding of the letter to “the carelessness of my business agent in Hartford,” (Franklin G. Whitmore.)

But all is not lost, save honor. I have telephoned a telegram to Elmira — distant two or three miles, down yonder in the valley — & by this time it is on its way to P.O. Box 2082, New York, & so your daughter will get it, if you be gone.

I am scribbling this note in desperate haste while I keep a transient & impatient farmer waiting in the road to carry it down for me. Its mission is to say welcome to you & Miss Finlay to this Great Country of Ours, & to beg that the pair of you will fill a niche in our house (meaning beds) between some departing & some to-arrive guests for a couple of days — in straighter English, we beg you twain to give us the 10th and 11th of October if by possibility you can, in Hartford [MTP]. See Aug. 29 for Finlay’s humorous response.

Webster & Co. Sent Daily Reports from Aug. 5 to Aug. 17 [MTP].