January 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Frank Marshall White, thanking him for his note which reinforced Sam’s belief that White could not “be guilty of such seeming discourtesy.” Also, Livy passed along Sam’s regrets that the cable from the N.Y. Journal asking for a rundown on “the Reichsrath’s affairs” had come “much too late” [MTP].
Livy also wrote to Samuel E. Moffett, now in N.Y. on the staff of Hearst’s N.Y. Journal:
Ever since your letter reached us I have daily intended answering it.
We all feel as you do about your Uncle Orion’s death. It is impossible to believe it. Your Uncle Sam feels that although he had been unsuccessful in his life he was most fortunate in his death. It does seem a beautiful way to go when ones time comes. …
Livy passed along Sam’s regrets about the N.Y. Journal applying too late for him to cable information on the Reichsrath disturbances. Before closing with solicitations on the Moffett family, she wrote:
He wishes me to say that in future if Mr Hurst [sic Hearst] desires, in case anything startling occurs he will cable it to the “Journal” without waiting for the Journal’s request for it: but that if he does that he shall “charge like smoke.” Your Uncle Sam really prefers doing Magazine work but would occasionally do the other in case there was something of moment enough to demand it & the pay were sufficient.
In the air there is much prediction that when the Reichsrath opens there will be disturbances and possibly a revolution: so there might be things of vast importance to cable. I say this last of my own accord not from anything your Uncle Sam has mentioned [MTP]. Note: No incoming from Moffett since Sam wrote him on Nov. 28, 1897 or since Orion’s death on Dec. 11 is extant. From Livy’s reply the date of Moffett’s letter is not clear, but would have come after Dec. 11, and likely a week or two before her reply, given her opening remarks about her delayed but intended answer.
Rogers wrote to Sam acknowledging his of Dec. 16 and 21. Rogers noted Sam’s thoughts about the Barrow claim which clarified the matter; Rogers would try to contact Barrow. He explained the $171 as a 3% divident on 57 shares of Brooklyn Gas Co. stock purchased for Livy, and paid with $5,000 from Charles J. Langdon. The stock would not go to the creditors. He summarized Sam’s holdings and indebtedness:
We have now in our hands $29,982.95 in cash. After we pay the last 25% dividend, namely $6,648.33 (leaving out Barrow, Grant and the Mt. Morris Bank) we will have remaining $23,334.62.
The balance due the Mount Morris Bank: $21,244.13
The balance due Mrs. J.D. Grant: 1,471.55
The balance due Barrow: 11,147.04
$33,862.72
Rogers admired what it took for Sam to write FE, and thought it a “remarkable production.” He enclosed a critic column from Harper’s and added he “very frequently hear it spoken of and always in the kindest terms.” He also gave a paragraph to a recent dust-up between Helen Keller’s principal, Arthur Gilman (he ran the Cambridge School for Young Ladies) and her teacher Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. Helen’s studies had been going well. Dr. Clarence Rice’s new house was progressing. Rogers related beating Rice “easily” at billiards last week using Sam’s cue. “We never get together in that old room but we are reminded of and talk of you most incessantly.” Young Harry Rogers rec’d his copy of FE from Bliss and also one that Sam had shipped from London. The extended family was well and the Benjamins had been visiting. He would ask Miss Harrison to answer Sam’s questions about the amounts owed Mrs. Jesse Grant. After his signature, Rogers added a PS; he’d rec’d a letter from Edwin F. Mayo which showed losses of $4,300 on the PW play for 1896 and 1897. Edwin was the son of the late Frank Mayo, who took over upon his father’s death. Frank Mayo had shown and sent profits to Sam before his death. Rogers added a diagram for the “18 inch balk line” which was a rule in billiards used in the last championship matches [MTHHR 311-4]. Note: The Harper’s Jan. 1898 review was by Laurence Hutton.