April 6 Thursday – At Richard Watson Gilder’s office, on Century Magazine letterhead, Sam wrote to Walter Q. Gresham, Secretary of State in Cleveland’s cabinet, repeating his support for Frank Mason as Consul General at Frankfurt, Germany.
Through me, Mr. Cleveland knows all about Mason but Mr. Gilder of the Century thinks it will be best for me to bother you a little about him, too — & so I do it, & you will pardon me for I am not trying to do the United States a harm but a service [MTP].
April 7 Friday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.:
Wrote Charley [Langdon] to ask Mr. A. to pay his note, beginning May 1 & paying $5,000 a month for 9 months. / $5,000 a month for 10 months, beginning 10 months hence. Told him to merely make the offer but by no means to insist / Apl. 7 — Dined with Rudyard Kipling & family. Chas. Warren Stoddard there [NB 33 TS 6].
April 8 Saturday – In New York, Sam lunched at Andrew Carnegie’s [Apr. 7 to Carnegie; NB 33 TS 6]. Kaplan writes, that Carnegie “tried to interest him in a scheme for absorbing Great Britain, Ireland, and Canada into an American commonwealth” [318]. In the evening, “dined at restaurant with Dr. Clarence C. Rice & Dr. Bangs” [NB 33 TS 6].
April 9 Sunday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.: “Sunday 9th Dined with Mrs. Ratcliffe” [NB 33 TS 6].
In Venice, Livy wrote to Sam. Jean suffered from a cold with a bad cough, and could not adventure in the gondolas. They expected to return to the Villa Viviani in Florence on Wednesday, Apr. 12. A bundle of newspapers from various places had come for Sam, and Livy was upset by the contents of some:
March 21 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook on his departure from Florence:
Mch. 21. Drove to station with Livy, Susy & Jean. / Wm Walter Phelps arrived presently. He & I went to Genoa by the 11.35 train, arriving at 6.25 [NB 33 TS 4].
Sam and Phelps traveled 166 miles to Genoa, where Sam spent the night in a hotel [Mar 22 to Jean Clemens].
March 22 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed in the Kaiser Wilhelm II at 11 a.m.” [NB 33 TS 4].
After boarding and departure, Sam began a letter to daughter Jean on the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II that he finished on Mar. 23:
March 23 Thursday – Sam finished his Mar. 22 letter to daughter Jean:
In this ship they call you to meals with a bugle. When it is wandering about the far distance of the vessel it sounds quaint & sweet —
“O sweet & far from cliff & scar,
The horns of elfland faintly blowing.”
March 24 Friday – En route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York, Sam wrote to daughter Susy, relating an anecdote told by the nephew of Longfellow about Professor Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard and his introduction of his lifelong friend, William Hunt.
March 25 Saturday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. The ship likely was at Gibraltar by this time.
March 26 Sunday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook on board: Sunny & beautiful. No sea. [NB 33 TS 4].
Meanwhile, in Florence, Livy wrote to Sam:
Youth my darling: How I should like to be out at sea with you today. It is here absolute perfection, a little cooler than yesterday which was about like July.
March 27 Monday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:
Monday, 27. Up at 2.30 a.m. Passed AZORES 3.30 P.M. / D.O. Wills / Navy Cut / Bristol & London (in yeast. powder cans) [NB 33 TS 4].
Susy Clemens’ letter of late March to Louise Brownell relates her breaking Florence tradition:
March 28 Tuesday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:
Tuesday, Mch 28. The usual brilliant sunshine, the usual soft summer weather. Sea polished & nearly flat — almost a dead calm. We have never had a sea that disturbed the dishes on the table to speak of [NB 33 TS 4-5].
March 29 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook on board the Kaiser Wilhelm II:
Wednes. 29. Nice ball on deck, with colored electric lights. I opened it with Capt. Störmer — waltz, with overcoat. Danced the Virginia reel, with Longfellow for a partner [NB 33 TS 5].
March 30 Thursday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook: “Smooth till midnight, then rough.” Sam also noted costs of music, stewards, smoking, and boots (polished) [NB 33 TS 5].
March 31 Friday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. Sam’s notebook:
Good Friday, 31st. Exceedingly rough — a deal of rain. A very steady ship, but of course this sort of a sea makes her roll heavily — as it would any ship [NB 33 TS 5].
May 1 Monday – Still at Dr. Rice’s home in New York, Sam sent a civil note to his brother, Orion.
I am less nervous now….If the weather is fair in the morning I go to Elmira, & will stay on the hill at Susie Crane’s until I am sound & hearty again. With love to you both / Sam [MTP].
May 11 Thursday – In New York at the Murray Hill Hotel, Sam wrote to Ida Langdon (Mrs. Charles J. Langdon) on Webster & Co. letterhead. After relating his communications with Livy upon arriving and seeing enough Hartford people at the hotel to call it a “suburb of Hartford,” Sam thanked her:
I sail at 10 Saturday morning, & am all ready, though my shirts ain’t; they are in the wash.
May 12 Friday – In New York, Sam was out in the city nearly all day until 9 p.m., including “a little visit” with Charles Dudley Warner. At midnight Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, who had come from his home at 48 West 59th Street to say goodbye.
I am so sorry I missed you….I expected to get up to your house again, but got defeated.
I am very glad to have that book for sea entertainment, & I thank you ever so much for it.
May 2 Tuesday – In the morning Sam left New York and traveled to Elmira, a nine or ten hour trip. He stayed at Susan Crane’s Quarry Hill home.
May 3 Wednesday – Franklin G. Whitmore wrote to Sam, “glad to hear that you are better & well enough…to travel.” Whitmore mentioned mailing Matthew Arnot’s note to Charles Langdon and lists a $25 bill from Dr. Porter and a Murray Hill Hotel bill for $30.65 [MTP].
May 4 Thursday – The Panic of 1893 got into high (or maybe more appropriately, low) gear with a severe contraction of the New York Stock Exchange May 3 and 4. Financial reverses would worsen, ultimately forcing the downfall of Webster & Co., as well as the Paige typesetter. From the N.Y. Times, p.10, “Financial and Commercial”:
VERY NEARLY A PANIC ON THE NEW-YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
Wednesday, May 3 — P.M.
May 5 Friday – At Quarry Farm, Elmira, and still in bed recovering, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He wanted the note for $3,000 sent in error to Whitmore re-drafted in Livy’s name and sent to Charles J. Langdon, as he kept her power of attorney. Evidently, there had been a good quantity of LAL sales:
If we could corral 27 LAL’s every day — & could afford it — our financial bowels would soon begin to move.
May 6 Saturday – In Elimra at Quarry Farm, Sam wrote a short note to Livy:
May 7 Sunday – At Quarry Farm Sam answered Susy’s recent letter, describing familiar places at the farm, including the children’s playhouse, Ellerslie, which had,
…just been furnished with a bran-spang-new shingle-roof at great Expense, & Mrs. Crane says that the owners of Ellerslie are a hard lot in the matter of repairs & taxes.
Sam also described the barn and each horse that Susy and Jean would have been familiar with:
May 8 Monday – In Elmira Sam thought he’d “steal a moment” and write to Mary Mason Fairbanks, now in Newton Mass. with her daughter. Sam’s letter reads as a response to Mary’s (not extant) and her news that Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Journal, had criticized one of Sam’s unpublished pieces, in an article as Sam’s next letter to Hall reflects. Sam marked the letter “Private & Confidential” due to his reference to Edward Bok: