December 4 Thursday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam: “I took a run down to San Francisco for a day to see Jones. He told me there would be no use seeing Hayward or Hobart as they had recently sustained a loss of upward of a million in some mining speculation.” Jones told him that he wasn’t going to deal with men who would have to struggle to raise a quarter million, but was “going straight to Westinghouse, Carnegie, Morton, Jay Gould, etc. any one of whom, if he could get him interested, could organize the company without difficulty” [MTP].
Alexander Brown wrote to thank Sam “for having aided me with an advance order for The Genesis.” Brown hoped Sam liked the work and would be very glad to know his opinion of it. Sam wrote, “Don’t know what he is talking about” on the envelope [MTP]. Note: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. would send Brown’s book on Dec. 10, which is why Sam didn’t know yet. See Gribben 86.