May 1 Monday – Katy Leary and Jean Clemens left for Dublin, N.H. to get the Greene house ready for Sam. Isabel Lyon would leave on May 5 to join the pair. The nearest railway station was an hour’s drive; from that point it was three hours to Boston or six hours to New York [Lystra 46].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Jean taking Katie and Katie Laundress left today for Dublin. Mr. Clemens went out today and bought a pair of glasses for a dollar and a soft felt hat for $1.50. He loves a soft felt, but oh they aren’t stylish hats and at dinner he was sweet and gay and went at once to bed after dinner and to sleep.
Gilder came in this evening and we had a nice talk about Santissima [Clara]. Then he told me a dear little [Joseph] Jefferson anecdote. … Rodman talked about the Kipling-Putnam lawsuit and how he told too how several years ago Will M. Clemens tried to publish a book on Mr. Clemens, a book something like the Ken of Kipling—all made of clippings and things, but Mrs. Clemens didn’t wish it and so Rodman said that that book with its correspondence between Mrs. Clemens and Will M. Clemens’s wife was probably lying festering waiting to be printed.
Teresa found a home for Bambino today, with an Italian woman on 11th St. [MTP: TS 55]. Note: the maid, Teresa Cherubini, who had returned from Florence with the Clemens family. Ken of Kipling (1899).
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Jean, Katie, the Launderers & Prosper left for Dublin. / Mr. Clemens called on Mrs. Hapgood at the Garlington Hotel” [MTP TS 17]. Note: Prosper was Jean’s very large dog.
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote John B. Stanchfield, with possibly a copy to Sam. He had been unable to secure world rights to the insole due to “Lee’s inflated idea as to the value of his four foreign patents.” The three-page typed letter covers details of various propositions, royalties and paments to Lee [MTP]. Note: Frank B. Lee of Buffalo became assignor to the Lee Electric Insole Co., NY. [Google books]. The insoles were made from aluminum with a plate of copper in one and a zinc plate in the other, designed to produce an electric current that would immediately begin to relive rheumatism.
New York Telephone Co. wrote to Sam, enclosing a memorandum showing rate changes in his contract for telephone service—for 1,000 local calls the rate would be lowered from $90 to $72 [MTP].
Katharine I. Harrison wrote to advise Sam that Mr. Chase, the stock broker in Boston (Chase & Barstow), had had to carry the $43,125 needed to purchase stock for a few days and requested $8.75 interest on that amount. (See Apr. 19 from Harrison). Would Sam send a check or should she draw it from his “book” there? [MTHHR 583n1].