October 19 Friday – At the Hotel d’Angleterre in Rouen, France, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers about Watson Gill’s proposition to publish all of Webster & Co.’s old books. Gill was a bookstore owner who previously purchased remainders of LOM. (See Apr. 23, 1887; Jan. 16, 1889; Nov. 30, 1889 for previous dealings with Gill.) Gill’s offer was half-profits or a royalty. Sam thought it “a good chance to squelch the old Gill-contract which ties up ‘Old Times on the Mississippi’.” He advised that he’d sent Gill’s letter to Bainbridge Colby with some suggestions, as well as writing Gill that “whatever arrangement you and Sterne [sic] & Rushmore approve of will be satisfactory….” (Colby was an attorney with Stern & Rushmore.) Sam was upbeat about the work being turned out by the Paige typesetter on the Chicago Herald, and compared it favorably with that of the Mergenthaler Linotype machine. Sam was somewhat bored:

I wish I had Harry [Rogers] here. There is absolutely nothing to do, and I have so little skill in doing it [MTHHR 86-7].