September 19 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Lyon sent Sam’s biographical sketch by Moffett to the Knickerbocker Publishing Co. Sam’s letter with enclosure is not extant but referred to in the Publisher’s Sept. 20 letter [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Gerald Thayer dined here. Wrote a lot of letters this morning, and then because Mr. Clemens didn’t sleep he couldn’t work today. He came down stairs early and after he’d taken a little walk I played to him for a long time. I have the Chopin Funeral March so that he likes it now. You can’t play such a composition even on a machine without practice and thought about what you’re going to practice [MTP TS 100].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Miss Clemens went to N.Y. & Katie joined her there” [MTP TS 29].

Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers replied to Sam’s Sept. 16, answering what the “new book” was—it was “made up of extracts from your various works relating to newspaper experiences…under the title of ‘Editorial Wild Oats’.” Duneka listed the sketches used, and then observed:

The articles lend themselves naturally to a little book of this character and lend themselves also to general advertising. They are in your best little vein, I think, and form a permanent contribution to American literature relating to the humorous side of journalism. Perhaps I have not answered the inquiry you really made, and if this is not a reply, may I in turn ask you what is the new book you suggested doing anonymously [MTP]. Note: Sam’s response to this is estimated to be ca. Sept 20.

Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam, enclosing a letter from John Simeon Bergheim. He would ask Bergheim to pay one-third of the expense on the Plasmon case to date, then reported the following:

Just after the Court decided in our favor, [Harold] Wheeler got an injunction out restraining us and them and everybody else from doing ANYTHING in connection with the Plasmon matter until after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had adjudicated the case. To-day Wheeler violated this injunction himself by serving us with papers in a proceeding which he has started in the New York State Supreme Court covering the same point that is to be decided by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All the lawyers connected with the affair, except Wheeler’s pal Byrne, are splitting their sides over the thing [MTP].

Thomas S. Barbour wrote two to Sam, the first “a hasty note from the station this morning”: “I assure you your letter of Saturday is appreciated, difficult as it is to think of it as fair to yourself. We shall like to distribute the pamphlet widely in addition to sales, and shall appreciate much suggestion of names by you.”

The second from Barbour’s Boston office: It occurs to me to add the names of G. Stanley Hall and William F. McDowell to the names of petitioners I noted. The suggestion, as to an annex to the footnote, should have read more as follows:

“Sic transit the ingenuous king’s investigating of himself, that pleasing substitute for the crude scheme advocated by such emotional impracticables as John W. Foster, Lyman Abbott, Henry Van Dyke and other deluded petitioners of the American President and Congress—an inquiry into conditions in the Congo State by the States responsible for its creation.”

You will know that the paragraph is but a suggestion, to be made characteristically telling by yourself. / Very sincerely yours … [MTP]. Note: for “King Leopold’s Soliloquy.”

C.H. Chalmers wrote on Electric Machinery letterhead, Minneapolis, MN to ask if Sam had published his articles on Mary Baker Eddy in book form [MTP].

William Webster Ellsworth for the Century Co. wrote to Sam “making my annual call on the people who have been good enough to subscribe to the Pond fund. You offered $50 a year for five years from September 1903, and I shall be glad to have a check at your convenience.” Son of Major Pond, James. B. Pond, Jr. (“Bim”) had one more year in school and then Ellsworth hoped the fund could send him to college [MTP].

George Iles wrote on Park Avenue Hotel stationery to Sam. He had just returned to New York for the winter and wished to pay respects [MTP].

September 19 ca. – Isabel V. Lyon for Sam also answered H.E. Heller’s Sept. 16 letter [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs this as “on or after 16 Sept.” Three days estimated postal time from Salamanca, N.Y. is allowed here.