December 29 Friday – At 1:30 a.m., Sam finished his Dec. 28 to Livy
2 in the morning, now, & I better go to bed. I love you my darling & think you are the dearest woman in this world. / Saml [MTP].
Later in the day Sam was able to write Livy a longer letter. He’d had two business calls while putting on his shirt. When he got downstairs for coffee, George Warner was waiting for him to tell him about Dr. Whipple, “mind curist,” and take Sam to see him.
We went — 328 Madison ave. He could tell me of no mind-curist in Europe; said they would be jailed promptly if they attempted to practice in France.
Sam’s notebook offers more on the “Mind-curist”:
Dec. 29, 12, noon. Went to Dr. Whipple, 328 Mad. ave. for mind cure — cold & cough of long standing — little or no relief from medicines. He sat with his face to the wall & I walked the floor for ½ an hour. (Midnight.) Don’t know if he is the reason, but I haven’t coughed since [NB 33 TS 45-6].
Sam then went to the office of the Connecticut Co. and read them a letter about the latest developments from Chicago and the typesetter. Sam warned them about “intimating” that he and H.H. Rogers would “yield any inch or half an inch” in their position.
Sam also wrote he’d seen Mr. Potter in the horse-car.
He is just as majestic & handsome & young-looking as ever — but spoke of taking his grandson to the opera the other night. He asked with warm interest after you & the children. [Note: this may have been Edward T. Potter, the architect of the Clemens Hartford house.]
Sam also wrote of meeting a “society young lady of 30 at dinner last night [at the Rice’s] who claimed mind-cure lessons had cured her from the effects of drafts” [LLMT 285-6].
Sam wrote a short letter to H.H. Rogers, enclosing a letter from Chicago that Caleb B. Knevals asked him to read to Rogers, then to pass it on to “the other Knevals at 32 Nassau” (Lambert and S.W. Knevals).
I have just left Mr. Frink feeling rather depressed on account of that $75,000 commission.
Newton will probably arrive from New Haven an hour from now.
The Farnham Co. of Hartford have apparently agreed to do whatever Hammersley advises [MTHHR 30-1].
Note: George A. Frink was one of the brokers involved in the Conn. Co. Sam was to receive $75,000 in stock as commission for “inducing” Rogers to invest $150,000. As it turned out, he invested only $78,062.69 before the machine’s failure, so Sam’s commission was less [n1]. The source identifies Newton as an attorney for Charles R. North, the inventor of the justifier for the Paige typesetter who had evidently taken a securities interest in the machine in exchange for part of his labor. Sam’s Mar. 1 to Livy identifies him as a New Haven attorney. The 1894 New Haven City Directory shows only one attorney named Newton, that is Henry G. Newton (1843-1914) with Newton & Wells on Chapel Street. Newton would be personal counsel for William Jennings Bryan in the famous 1904 Philo Bennett will case.
Sam told of his movements after meeting Henry G. Newton:
The moment Mr. Newton was out of sight around the corner I ran to Fourth avenue & boarded the first car & reached Mr. Rogers’ house in 57th Street at 6 o’clock, to report in detail my interview with Newton & my earlier interview with the Vice President of the Conn. Co., (the one wherein I was obliged to make him squirm a little). Advising Newton to go to Mr. Rogers within 24 hours & for me to get in ahead & warn him that Newton was coming & prepare him to back me up at all points with an unyielding front.
But he & Mrs. Rogers were just starting out to a dinner party, so we made an appointment for 10.30 this morning [Dec. 30]. I remained, & dined & spent the evening with the children: Harry, nice boy, 14 yesterday; Mrs. Duff, 22 or 23, pretty & intelligent — has been a widow 4 months; & May, 19, school-girl, also pretty and intelligent. They all have their father’s sincerity & charm & winning ways [Dec. 30 to Livy].
Note: Newton represented Charles R. North, the inventor of the justifier for the Paige typesetter who held royalties on the machine. Cara Rogers Duff (Mrs. Bradford F. Duff, later Mrs. Urban H. Broughton; sometimes seen as “Clara”); Henry Huttleston Rogers, Jr. (1879-1935) was “Harry” a young man Sam grew quite fond of.
Charles Ethan Davis telegraphed Sam:
Stone has just submitted Paige proposition to Knevals. Difference is too small to let matter hang fire push matters there in order to hold Paige [MTP].