August 19 Monday – From J.B. Pond’s diary:

Monday, August 19th. We are at Vancouver still, and the smoke is as firmly fixed as we are in the town. It is bad. “Mark” has not been very cheerful to-day. He doesn’t get his voice back. He and I took a walk about the streets, and he seemed discouraged, I think on account of Mrs. Clemens’s dread of the long voyage, and because of the unfavorable stories we have heard of the Warrimoo. We leave Vancouver, and hosts of new friends, for Victoria, B.C., and then we part. That will not be easy, for we are all very happy. It makes my heart ache to see “Mark” so downhearted after such continued success as he has had [Eccentricities of Genius 222].

In Vancouver, B.C. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, worked up over the actions of the new Paige Co. and wanting to institute a lawsuit:

It was always my strong impression that the Paige Mf. Co. had no shadow of right to throw my royalties back on my hands and seize my stock whether I liked it or not.

I have been carefully reading clause Third of the paper signed by me Jan. 27, 1894 (a copy of which you sent me some time ago) and I now seem to see that I was right.

Sam suggested John Stanchfield (who married Clara Spaulding) of Elmira to bring the lawsuit if Rogers agreed. Sam enclosed a letter to Stanchfield for Rogers to send if he agreed. $15,000 was involved. He pointed out that the suit would have to be brought in Livy’s name and asked if it could be brought right away. Then he turned to the family’s preparations and the limited visibility due to forest fires:

We (Mrs. C. and Clara) are busy packing. The trunks will go on board the ship in the morning. The vessel has been on a reef and is now about to come out of the repairer’s hands. She was not greatly damaged. The smoke is so dense all over this upper coast that you can’t see a cathedral at 800 yards. It makes navigation risky even in daytime — and at night very difficult and dangerous [MTHHR 185-6].

Sam’s enclosed to Stanchfield survives, and narrates the agreement he signed on Jan. 27, 1894 with the new Paige Compositor Co. and how it detailed the value of his 150 pre-existing “royalties” on the machine. Sam quotes the clause in question, and wrote:

And I proposed to put the matter in your hands & bring suit, if my reading of clause Third is correct. Won’t you consult with Mr. Rogers & get his powerful help? The stock was in Mrs. Clemens’s name, & as Mr. Rogers has a full power of attorney for her, he can act for her just as if she were present [MTP].