June 26 Wednesday – At Quarry Farm, Sam was served with a subpoena brought by Thomas Russell & Son, printers and bookbinders, a creditor of Webster & Co. This was published on June 4 in the NY Times (see entry); the debt was $5,046. This was the subject of Sam’s PS finish for his letter to Rogers he began June 25:

P.S. This paper has just been served on me. Is it necessary that I obey it and appear in court in New York July 5? The doctor has just gone from here; he says I’ll be able to travel by that date. / SLC [MTHHR 157 and n3].

Note: from the source: Another subpoena (Now in CWB [Clifton Waller Barrett Library]) ordered Mrs. Clemens to appear on 19 July 1895 before the Honorable M.L. Stover, one of the justices on the Supreme Court of New York. Clemens’s eagerness to settle the matter resulted in an arrangement which was worked out before the case was taken to court.

Sam wrote another letter to H.H. Rogers, exasperated at Colby’s travel and his carbuncle healing “slower than chilled molasses. I’ll go to Cleveland on a stretcher.” A time limit had not been added to the draft of the Harper’s contract and Sam couldn’t go to New York to get it done.

Don’t you think you can arrange a meeting with J. Henry Harper and amend and sign the contract? And won’t you, please?

It should not be difficult. In the present draft he has left himself a limit — he can terminate the contract in 10 years. All right, let me have the same limit; let both sides have the privilege of quitting in 10 years from date.

Isn’t that reasonable? & aren’t our other suggested modifications (heretofore sent you), fair & reasonable?

Sam ended with word that the doctor had arrived [MTHHR 157-8].