July 14 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a short note to Frederick J. Hall. Howells had sent Sam a page from Publishers’ Weekly (XXX, 37-8, July 10, 1886) highlighting a legal opinion by a Federal judge (Hammond) in Memphis involving that a bookseller could not sell books directly to buyers in violation of the original subscription plan of the copyright owner (the book in question was James G. Blaine’s Twenty Years of Congress.) This article led Sam to conclude that a suit against “that pious son of a dog” John Wanamaker of Philadelphia would stop his practices and perhaps win damages. Wanamaker had been selling Grant’s Memoirs under the subscription price. Give the case to Alexander & Green, Sam wrote, “& if they approve, let the attack begin” [MTP; MTHL 2: 572n1; MTLTP 200n1].

Sam wrote to General James Barnet Fry and accepted an invitation to read before the Military Service Institution of the U.S. at Governor’s Island, New York on Nov. 11 at 8 P.M. In his notebook he listed General Theophilus F. Rodenbaugh (sometimes seen as Rodenbough), Secretary and General James B. Fry, invitation committee. The organization was made up of about 1,200 current and ex-officers who donated their time for the welfare and entertainment of old soldiers [MTNJ 3: 244n65]. Note: the source merely gives the acceptance for this date; no letter to Fry for this date is extant; written acceptance is assumed.

July, mid – The J.D. Slee family of Buffalo visited the Clemens family sometime in mid-month, as referred to by Sam in July 17 to Underhill [MTP].