December 3 Sunday – Sam started at 11:45 a.m. for a noon “breakfast engagement” at the home of Judge Charles H. Truax, 1992 Madison Ave. He arrived late, but “Nobody was surprised.” The meal was not served until 3 p.m. He had to leave at 5 p.m. in order to make a dinner engagement with William Dean Howells at his apartment, 40 West 59th St., some 110 blocks away, “22 miles in snow & slush!” [MTHL 2: 655n1; Dec. 4 to Livy].

Later in the evening Sam met with Towner K. Webster of Chicago, Charles Davis and Henry H. Rogers at the Murray Hill Hotel. He wrote of the meeting in the first of two letters to Livy the next day (Dec. 4):

Mr. Rogers mapped out a reformed contract & Webster will have it drawn by a lawyer here & submitted to Mr. Rogers for approval. Then he will take it to Chicago & see if he can get Paige to sign. If it shall seem best, Mr. Rogers & I will go out there.

Then Mr. Rogers mapped out a plan for absorbing the royalties which is worth a dozen of the one devised by Webster. A singularly clear-headed man is Mr. Rogers — this appears at every meeting. And no grass grows under his feet. He takes his steps swiftly, yet no stop is bungled or has to be taken over again. If nothing comes of all this work, nobody will be to blame but Paige [LLMT 280-1].