August 17 Sunday – Sam was in Keokuk, Iowa at Orion and Mollie Clemens’ home, at his mother’s bedside.

John Brusnahan foreman for N.Y. Herald compositors was anxious to see his newspaper install a Paige typesetter, and wrote Sam an “anxious” letter to “make a move” after learning the paper was considering installing a Mergenthaler Linotype on trial [MTNJ 3: 575n3]. Whitmore no doubt received this letter, as he then telegraphed Sam with unnecessary urgency the next day, Aug. 18.

“Rudyard Kipling on Mark Twain,” from the Allahabad The Pioneer and The Pioneer Mail, was reprinted on page five of the New York Herald. This is Kipling’s account of his August 1889 unannounced visit to Elmira to meet Mark Twain. Reprinted in Scharnhorst, Interviews.117-26.

Rudyard Kipling wrote from Villiers Street, Strand, London to Sam:

What a shame! I never thought about lunch. But they is always that way the Authorities a many of them. It’s because they esteem their own cookery more than the conversation of others. But I will, with your leave, take that lunch later. I’m very glad that the interview didn’t offend. It was written out & done before I left Elmira that night [MTP]. Note: “that night” was Aug. 15, 1889. See entry.