May 8 Tuesday – In New York at noon Sam wrote to Henry H. Rogers, who was on a trip to W. Virginia. Sam headed the letter with Rogers’ office address:

Enjoy your trip; be perfectly tranquil concerning this office. Miss Harrison & I are running its affairs in the most admirable way. I am going up, presently, to eat your luncheon for you, for you need to keep well nourished when on a long trip, & I don’t think much of the West Virginian cuisine.

Sam added an excerpt from Livy’s letter about the “tremendous debt of gratitude” owed Rogers. He stated that she wouldn’t allow any more “furloughs, but she must let me come & be on hand when the public test begins” for the Chicago Herald. Sam’s plans were to take Livy to Aix-les-Bains for a “6-weeks course,” then “deposit her for a sea-bath course somewhere within easy reach of Paris,” and return to the US after the beginning of July [MTHHR 52].

In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens, thanking her for her letter which arrived that day (not extant), while he was at a reception for Dr. Clarence Rice’s new Post Graduate College.

I packed my gripsacks & sent them to the ship before I went out to dinner; & now I follow myself — the first time I ever started on a sea-voyage in evening dress. Perhaps nobody has done it before — so it is high time somebody did it.

Sam also wrote a short note to William C. Edgar (1856-1932), editor, journalist and author, at this time manager of the Minneapolis Northwestern Miller. Edgar organized a movement in 1891 to give a shipload of flour for the relief of Russian peasants. Evidently, Edgar had solicited an article.

I have in my mind a small yarn wherein a western flouring mill figures rather picturesquely, & if I can put it on paper in a way to satisfy me you can have it for five hundred dollars if you like.

Sam directed Edgar to notify Katharine I. Harrison if he was interested and she would write him [MTP].

Sam also wrote a short note to Frederick J. Hall asking him to speak to Mr. Rogers about an unspecified project. Sam wrote he did not have the authority now to speak, but Rogers did. Sam announced he was going to “Europe for a short time,” and hoped things would be in “better trim” before he returned.

Good-bye. I wish you all possible good fortune [MTP].

Sam also wrote his sister Pamela Moffett a short note:

I write a line in great haste, as I have been out to dinner & must now pack my gripsack & get aboard the steamer before midnight.

I am sending those advertisements to Livy by mail, as I have to attend a dinner in London & lose a day. I hope she will try them on Susy [MTP]

Eben Alexander (1851-1910), US Minister to Greece, wrote Sam, the letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s June 18 reply [MTP].

Sam boarded the S.S. New York before midnight.