April 6 Thursday – At Richard Watson Gilder’s office, on Century Magazine letterhead, Sam wrote to Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State in Cleveland’s cabinet, repeating his support for Frank Mason as Consul General at Frankfurt, Germany.

Through me, Mr. Cleveland knows all about Mason but Mr. Gilder of the Century thinks it will be best for me to bother you a little about him, too — & so I do it, & you will pardon me for I am not trying to do the United States a harm but a service [MTP].

Sam also wrote a letter, again on Century letterhead, to the US Secretary of Agriculture, J. Sterling Morton (1832-1902), asking for “a few choice breeds of seed-corn.” As an afterthought he wrote,

A handful of choice (Southern) water-melon seeds would pleasantly add to that lady’s [Janet D. Ross, his Florence neighbor] employments & give my table a corresponding lift [MTP].

Back at the Hotel Glenham, Sam responded to a request (not extant) for an article from Irving S. Underhill (1866-1937), son of Sam’s old Buffalo friend, Charles M. Underhill. Since he was only to be in the country “a few days” and all his time was taken, Sam wrote that he could not write an article, but as to the old article Underhill spoke of, he was “welcome to use any part of it, or all of it.” Sam also sent regards to Underhill’s parents, and thanked his father for his note [MTP].

Note: The article is not identified. Charles M. Underhill was a partner and “Western Manager” in the J. Langdon Co., [MTNJ 3: 568n270]. “Adam’s Diary” was turned down by the Century as well as Cosmopolitan, but the latter magazine took “Is He Living or Is He Dead?” (which ran in the Sept. issue) Irving Underhill was preparing The Niagara Book, a volume which he hoped to promote Niagara Falls with, catching some of the crowds traveling to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in the spring and summer of 1893. Right after this letter Sam agreed to revise the piece and sell it to Underhill for $1,000 [BAMT 5]. See Apr. 14. Underhill would later publish a few of Sam’s late works, and evidently had solicited an article for an unidentified magazine. MTL 5: 138n1.

In the evening Sam gave a dinner speech at the Carnegie Dinner, New York City [Apr. 5 to Carnegie; Fatout, MT Speaking 660]. From Sam’s notebook:

Thursday, 6th. Dined with Andrew Carnegie, Professor Goldwin Smith, John Cameron, Mr. Glenn. Creation of League for absorbing Canada into our Union.The paper read & discussed. Carnegie also wants to add Great Britain & Ireland [MTB 964; NB 33 TS 5-6].

Henry Clay Vedder wrote an article for the New York Examiner, for which he was currently editor. The article was part of a series of “Living American Writers.” Tenney writes: “A conventional view, noting MT’s serious purpose, and integrity, praising his historical novels, and, still more, those about the Mississippi Valley. Unfortunately, MT is insufficiently understood and appreciated, especially in England.” See also Vedder’s American Writers of To-Day (1894) [22]. Note: The Examiner was a New York Baptist newspaper; Vedder editor from 1876-1894.