September 10 Thursday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I have just read the sheaf of letters brought from you by my wife, and it makes my bones ache to think of the work and thought and persistency and patience they represent. I do not see how you ever held out to finish such a lagging and discouraging and troublesome job. …And you have got the victory at last — as you always do. You have brought about a consolidation of my interests which is far more advantageous to me than I could have expected or could have counted upon. It secures to my wife and children one sure source for their bread and butter, and I am deeply grateful to you. Chatto said that a better arrangement could not have been invented.
Sam also thanked Rogers for placing Livy and Clara in the St. Louis for their return; they’d arrived the morning before (Sept. 9).
Our original plans are all swept away by our unspeakable disaster; therefore we go to London to-morrow, and shall get a house there and shut ourselves up in it and bar the doors and pull down the blinds and take up the burden of life again, with one helper the fewer to put heart into my work as it goes along. I shall write the book of the voyage — I shall bury myself in it….
It kills me to think of the books that Susy would have written, and that I shall never read now. This family has lost its prodigy. …
Fortunate Frank Mayo, to die in prosperity, not in adversity. I wonder his son does not attempt to take his place in the piece [PW play]. Charley Langdon thinks Evans claims commanding rights in it. If he possesses them it must be by some contract with Frank Mayo which you and I know nothing about [MTHHR 234-5]. Note: Charles E. Evans, partner of the late Mayo, whose son, Edwin Mayo later prevented the sale by Evans of the partnership assets. (See note 1 of source.)
Sam also responded to a letter of sympathy (not extant) from Franklin Whitmore. He disclosed they would give up their Guildford house the next day (Sept. 11) and go to London “to hide from men for a time, & let the wounds heal.” He gave Chatto & Windus’ address as a forwarding and wanted to be informed should a renter for the Farmington house be found, which means that John and Alice Day were no longer renting there [MTP].
Sam added a very long PS that the MTP puts as between this date and Sept. 13, on renting the Farmington Ave. house, possibly to the Barney’s. It would be necessary for Patrick McAleer to move out; Livy wanted the gardeners, the John O’Neil’s to then take Patrick’s quarters in the stable. Sam thought the house should rent for more than the Day’s paid; he felt $1,200 per year. Other notes allowed for some space reserved for Livy’s storage [MTP].
James B. Pond sent a copy of Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s Majors and Minors: Poems. (1895) inscribed: To S. L. C. / fm / J. B. Pond / Sept. 10 ’96 [Gribben 207].