July 12 Monday – In Elmira at Quarry Farm, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, his business agent and longtime friend, covering a variety of personal and business matters. The 500 cigars Whitmore sent had arrived; he was glad to hear that William Whitmore, Franklin’s son, was compositing record numbers of ems per hour; Sam agreed Franklin should sell the American Exchange Co. stock at par; Whitmore’s answer to the “Stickney-machine people” was “first-rate — go ahead”; Sam enclosed $3,000 for Bissell’s bank.

We are here on top of the always-cool hill, after four or five days & nights of hell-sweltering weather in Keokuk. But barring those few days, we had the pleasantest & completest pleasure trip a family ever took. We left here June 21 & got back day before yesterday — 10th [MTP]. Note: It was to be an idyllic and restful summer at the Farm:

Sam also wrote to Frederick J. Hall, now on the staff at Webster & Co. A book by “Dr. Fulton” [possibly Robert Lardin Fulton 1847-1920, author of Epic of the Overland (1924), a story of the building of the transcontinental railroad; or, John Fulton’s The Beautiful Land. Palestine, As it Was and As It Now Is, etc. (1891)] could not be published in the coming winter due to obligations made for Pope Leo XIII’s book and General George McClellan’s book. Hall should communicate that with Fulton or Charles A. Dana, of the New York Tribune. Sam added that his “copartnership agreement” with Webster did not allow him to take on books without Webster’s consent. Sam also asked if another check had been sent to Julia D. Grant. He wanted a list of the gift-copies sent of Grant’s book with details and didn’t think the second volume had reached many of them. Note: During Webster’s absence, Hall was handling some personal tasks for the Clemens family. Between Hall in N.Y. and Whitmore in Hartford, many details might be attended to.

I ordered my coachman, Patrick McAleer, to draw on you to pay for a pair of horses, but I doubt if he gets them.

Sam also wrote a short note to Chatto & Windus, his English publisher, responding to their June 22:

It was a blessed day that I struck the idea of heaving the translators onto your shoulders. You know how to sugar-coat them & make them feel good.

He liked their idea of a cheap English edition of HF. He expected to travel to England next May [MTLTP 198-9].

Sam also responded to Moncure Conway’s June 21 letter that they could not take on any more books, since they were now under contract for six books and they could only handle one or two a year. Webster & Co. Was so stacked up they couldn’t publish Sam’s Library of Humor, which would have to “remain ready for a long time” [MTP]. Note: this work was published in 1888.

Sam also sent thanks to Miss Jay H. Gibson, from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, who had sent Sam a longish poem clipping newspaper article [MTP].

Webster & Co. Wrote a short, typed note informing Sam that they’d received a cable from Charles Webster in Rome: “I had a long private interview with Pope Leo XIII to-day.” Sam wrote on the letter,

In England a “long private interview” with the Queen would make him a nine-days’ lion of colossal proportions, & a public pet. The Pope holds the wider sovereignty [MTP].