October 22 Tuesday – William Dean Howells received Sam’s Oct. 21 and sent an answer that Elinor Howells was not well and not likely to be all winter. The two men shared the curse of puny spouses. However, Howells hoped to come alone.

I may go to you for Sunday next, and it will be a great joy for me. I’m getting good out of your book, the whole way along, and I guess I can fetch it for the Jan’y (the next) Study. It’s a mighty great book, and it makes my heart burn and melt. It seems that God didn’t forget to put a soul into you; he shabs most literary men off with a brain merely.

 — We are both so sorry for dear Mrs. Clemens’s suffering.

In Hartford, Karl Gerhardt sent his Equitable Life insurance policy, signing over the $1,000 net value after premiums paid to Sam, for investment in Paige typesetter royalties.

On or after this date Sam forwarded Gerhardt’s policy to Franklin G. Whitmore asking him to “Please attend to it, Brer W.” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook carries an entry with this date that he offered his friend Edward “Ned” Bunce royalties on the Paige typesetter at the same price he’d given Clara Spaulding Stanchfield [3: 524]. Note: Bunce was cashier of the Phoenix National Bank in Hartford.

Charles H. Taylor for Boston Globe wrote to Sam: “I received your second letter and am in communication with Mr. Holmes, and will give you due notice of our coming.” Taylor also announced the annual dinner of the Boston Press Club on Tuesday, Nov. 12 and urged Sam to attend [MTP].