December 30 Saturday – In New York at 1.p.m. Sam wrote a short note to H.H. Rogers, asking if Henry G. Newton accepted (for his client Charles R. North) wouldn’t it be “judicious” to get it in writing? Sam emphasized this was only a suggestion to Rogers, who undoubtedly was much wiser in business, “from one accustomed to teach his grandmother how to suck eggs” [MTHHR 31].
Sam also wrote another very long letter to Livy, relating all the events of Dec. 29 and this day.
In New York Sam was up at 9 a.m. Frederick J. Hall called before Sam was finished with his coffee. As Hall left, H.H. Rogers arrived.
I gave him a full account of the two interviews — at which he was amused, of course — & then he found that a wise idea which he had suggested last night was one which had already occurred to me at a late moment & been used on the Vice President of the C.C. [Conn. Co.] — which made him remark that great commercial intellects were pretty sure to break out in kindred inspirations.
He wasn’t going to be at his office this afternoon, so I undertook to find out where Newton was stopping & send him to 57th Street. Also to fetch Rice to the Manhattan Club at 5.45, where Standard Oil’s Archbold is to give us a dinner & take us to the Coffee-Cooler’s prize-fight at the Athletic Club.
[Notes: John Dustin Archbold (1848-1916), executive with Standard Oil, and one of the nation’s earliest oil refiners. He was also president of the board of trustees for Syracuse University from 1893 until his death, and was the center of a scandal involving a contribution to the Republican party and the 1904 campaign of Teddy Roosevelt.]
The N.Y. Times, Dec. 31, 1893, p.8 “Boxing for Athletes” reported the packed New York Athletic Club for three professional matches, including:
The last bout of ten rounds between the New-York Athletic Club’s favorite, Frank Craig, the “Harlem Coffee Cooler,” and “Joe” Ellingsworth, at 158 pounds, was so one-sided that it was utterly devoid of interest. Ellingsworth, once a light-weight champion, is now in the sere and yellow leaf of boxerdom, a “back number.” He had neither the strength to stop nor the agility to avoid his young and vigorous opponent, who worked his long, powerful arms alternately as piston rods and flails. The end for Mr. Ellingsworth came toward the finish of Round No. 6, when a love tap on the “point” from the negro’s glove sent him “down and out.”]
Sam then wrote about changing appointments with the mind-curer (Dr. Whipple) with George Warner. Sam’s noon appointment was thus changed to 12:30 p.m. He then went back to the Conn. Co. and to find Henry G. Newton; then to Dr. Rice’s to tell about the Manhattan Club time, then to Dr. Whipple’s:
…arriving on time, & took half an hour’s treatment. He sits silent in the corner with his face to the wall, & I walk the floor & smoke….I tried the mind-cure out of curiosity. That was yesterday. I have coughed only two or three times since. Maybe it was the mind-cure, maybe it was the powders [Rogers provided].
Sam then wrote about a mind-cure miracle on Mrs. Edward Perkins’ son, who was now playing football for Yale; also that Elinor Howells was taking mind-cure, which was to be of strictest secrecy from Mrs. Mead (Mrs. Larkin G. Mead; Mary J. Mead, Elinor’s sister-in-law).
Sam continued with the day’s developments on Paige:
Urgent telegrams daily from Chicago to the C.C. saying do accept Paige’s terms — don’t let him get away from us — he is bound to lose patience presently. We have answered — “Mr. Paige must accept our terms.”
This morning the same sort of telegram — with this warning: “If you don’t hurry, Paige will get tired waiting.” C.C. very very anxious. “What shall we answer, Mr. Rogers?” Mr. R. said pleasantly but gravely: “Say, at this end we are already tired waiting.”
That card was well played. It shed a new light on the situation; also caused a shock. We have been reserving it. It is interesting to play games with a partner who knows how to play & what to play & when to play it.
Sam sent some new Pudd’nhead Wilson calendars published by the Century Co. after Sam “turned the atmosphere purple” over changes made to his “language in two of the maxims.” He wrote of a humorous joke “complaint” given by members of the New York Stock Exchange against the President (or Vice President) of the Exchange, whose name was Wilson — that he’d been “partially concealing himself behind a fictitious name — Pudd’nhead — that he was “damaging the very business he” was “elected to foster.”
Sam added at 4:20 p.m. that he’d just received three of Livy’s letters, postmarked Dec. 16, 18, and 19. He was concerned about Susy’s health; it made him anxious to close up the Chicago efforts. He would go first thing Monday morning about the $3,500 the Century Co. hadn’t sent her. He would “attend to the Modern Language book,” and “write Joe about the experimental letter.” In the margin Sam wrote that Mrs. Rice was “so set up by the success of her evening that she is difficult to live with now.” He added the bit about teaching his grandmother how to suck eggs that he’d penned to H.H. Rogers [MTP; not in LLMT].
George N. Stone telegraphed to Sam: “Final proposition wired to Mr Rogers today see telegram to him immediately” [MTP].
At the Manhattan Club, Sam dined with Dr. Clarence Rice and John Dustin Archbold; after dinner they attended prize fights at the New York Athletic Club [Dec. 30 to Livy].