September 27 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook in Florence:

Sept. 27. Hired landau & 2 horses & coachman of Picci at 480 francs (lire) a month for 8 months, which covers everything (wages, board, feed, &c), except the coachman’s bed & pourboire [gratuity]. Either party can annul the agreement by giving 15 days’ notice to the other [NB 32 TS 27].

This is the earliest date MTP has established for a note Sam sent to Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin (1850-1910), a renowned heart specialist in Florence. Baldwin, called a “gifted healer,” treated a generation of Americans who traveled through Italy, including Henry James and wife, William Dean Howells, and Edith Wharton. Sam requested a prescription of laudanum for Livy [MTP].

Note: this request is labeled by MTP as late as June 13, 1893. Sam would have need of the good doctor in later years. He may have known the young doctor in Connecticut, where he practiced from 1881 for a few years, though no record of contact was found.

Sam also sent a note of acceptance for some engagement for himself only to Mrs. Baldwin; Livy was not well enough to attend [MTP].

Mrs. Wilder Smith sent a wedding invitation to the Clemenses for her daughter, Edith Wilder to Mr. Charles T. Welles, to take place on this day in Hartford [MTP].