May 26 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother Orion. This letter is not extant but was quoted in a June 17 to Samuel Moffett from Pamela Moffett.
We are all in good health, & Livy looks young & fresh & spry. I have very little time in which to select and prepare my readings, but I will make up by working double tides till I start west. We shall start about mid-summer. We sail for Australia from the Pacific Coast in August. Livy and Clara go with me around the world, but Susie refuses because she hates the sea, & Jean refuses because she can’t spare the time from school.
Sam also included that the “new Co. in Chicago has a capital of $200,000 par (& is worth that),” and had a contract to make 20,000 typewriters. This new company, Regius Manufacturing Co., gave one share for ten of the Paige Compositor Co. shares, and Livy was exchanging her old stock in this ratio.
It is a bitter, bitter come-down; but it is the will of Him who doeth all things as well as He can; but He has never seemed to me to have much gift for business. / All our loves to both of you / Sam [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
It seems plain that I am not going to have time enough to do the work in front of me with thoroughness before starting west. We leave for the hilltop tomorrow [Quarry Farm], & then I shall begin at once & work ten or twelve hours a day — half the time on Joan, Book III, & that other half on my three readings: thus shifting the burden back & forth & resting both shoulders. I have already arranged to being about a week from now & practice the 3 readings privately once & perhaps twice on the convicts at the Reformatory — twice, is my intention: next I am to go to Ithaca & practice them on the Cornell students. This provides for 9 nights (if Joan can spare them to me), & will put me in fairly good shape for the platform.
Most of the rest of the letter has to do with remaining Paige typesetter issues concerning H.S. Ward, the Knevals brothers, Livy’s shares, Urban H. Broughton’s forthcoming report, Bainbridge Colby, and what he saw as Livy’s rights having been threatened by the new company, when Regius Manufacturing Co. took over Paige Compositor Co. (See MTHHR 148n1 for details.)
Another plan for the readings that didn’t come to fruition:
Pond is making out the route, & expects to have it done in a week. I am hoping it will so shape itself as to let us start west from Boston & give us a week in Fairhaven. In which case I should very much like a chance to practice my 3 readings on that village in the new Town Hall — either free or with a trifling admission, the money to go to the [Millicent] Library or some local charity. After that, I ought to be able to go on the road without a book in my hand. Think it could be managed?
After his signature Sam advised Rogers that Harper’s would send $200 for his article, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” which would run in the September issue [MTHHR 146-9].