May 21 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam & Livy: great hopes for Josie’s getting well; more about the Grant busts—he offered to sell “outright my share of royalty in Grant bust (Terra Cotta) for $10,000…and cancellation of indebtedness to you, reserving the right to withdraw this proposition after June 15, 1885, is that fair?” [MTP].

Charles J. Langdon wrote: “I was hunting among the telegrams here yesterday expecting one from another party when I came across the enclosed. Please note it with care, and lay the fault where it belongs, viz! to the telephone” [MTP]. Note: enclosed lost telegrams to and from Clemens to Langdon from May 1884, with misspelled names. Sam wrote on the env., “Queer!”