August 14 and 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Dr. John Brown. The butler, Sam’s “black George” had taken a card from Dr. Stearns, who was on his way to Scotland, and forgotten to tell Sam. Sam wrote of new baby Jean Clemens and of his hope to “cross the ocean on purpose to show” Brown the baby if they were “well two years hence.” Susy was “a wise & slender maid of 8 & upwards, now, is very good & lovely, & an able student of the dreadful German tongue.” Sam added a note on the sales of Tramp, and on a:

…new plan for international copyright—that of deftly turning the flank of Congress & achieving the thing through the Department of State, in the form of a treaty with foreign powers.

He added a note about the Stylographic pen, that carried its own supply of ink [MTLE 5: 143].

On Aug. 15 Sam added that Livy objected to him not mentioning Clara: 

“(aged 6 ½ —or 5 ½, I forget which) & her many & unusual gifts mental & physical; but I said I left the child out purposely; because you did not know her. Then I was commanded to put her in—which I have done” [MTLE 5: 144].

About this weekend, Sam received a letter from Moncure Conway dated Aug. 12. Sam wrote Conway’s temporary address in his notebook. Conway was visiting his sister, who had married Francis A. Marsh, professor of philology at LaFayette College in Easton, Penn. [MTNJ 2: 358n8].