April 28 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, about checks sent, her St. Louis letter received, and sending Orion some English newspapers he wanted. Sam observed about Orion’s late employment to Bliss:
Dear Sister:
Yes we got your St Louis letter—& before this time, no doubt, my banker has collected your $30 check from yours—so if I had gone away & forgotten to tell you, your next bank statement would have shown you that it was all right. I can’t imagine how I could have neglected acknowledging recpt. of the check at once—I usually attend to such things immediately— it is the only sure way, & there is no excuse for [ever] doing otherwise.
Your remarks about Orion are very just. I always recognize his many merits & excellent virtues when he is out of my sight, but he is sure to irritate me & make me see his less pleasant [features] when he is with me.
As to the English papers, he could have had them all—he surely never said he wanted them; or if he did he must have done it shortly after my return, when I was working on the English book & regarded the papers as indispensable.
I will send some to him now. He will grow where he is now, & will succeed, provided he jealously but quietly preserves his dignity, has no familiarities with [subordinates,] never allows the “insolence of the office” to creep into his spirit, & wins the first battle where superiors attempt to infringe upon his territory. “Give a nigger an inch & ”—he never can be made to understand, after that precedent, why he shouldn’t take more inches; hence there never can be an end to it.
Orion became Bliss’s slave, his errand-boy, his door-mat, merely because he did not shut flat down on the first interference. And yet he went there armed with such power that he could have made Bliss his slave. Bliss would have blacked Orion’s boots, rather than have a rupture with me.
But he bided his time, & it came. Orion did a thing which was utterly inexcusable—it was the act of a half-witted child, & I could not [say] a word when he was discharged, not with-standing he did this foolish thing with an honest intent to do me a brotherly service—& came almighty near ruining me.
Livy had a severe attack of diphtheria, & went home weak as a child. She telegraphs that she is resting & getting strong, but I haven’t very good faith in it. However, she will get strong there. The muggins is well they say.
The novel is finished, & we are well satisfied with it. It will take ten days more to lick it thoroughly into shape, & then I leave for Elmira.
The cellar of the house is dug, & the Masons will now go to work. We have many applications from publishers, of course.
Love to all of you.
Sam.
P.S. Vergennes would be a good place for all of you. That mountain air would make you all wonder how you ever had any bodily vigor in a flat-land.
But Lastine would suit my style, even better still [MTP, drop-in letters].