July 15 Thursday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett. He told of almost missing seeing the Moffetts in Chicago and of the comfortable rail trip home. He added a paragraph to soothe Pamela’s sensitive nature:

I love you, & I am sorry for every time I have ever hurt you; but God Almighty knows I should keep on hurting you just the same, if I were around; for I am built so, being made merely in the image of God, but not otherwise resembling him enough to be mistaken for him by anybody but a very nearsighted person [MTP]. Note: Sam loved to tease his mother, and even his brother, but the lack of such teasing in his letters to Pamela shows he was aware of her sensitive nature; there probably had been some recent remarks, which prompted this apology.

Sam also wrote to Karl Gerhardt, advising him about the Israel Putnam Monument Commission for a awarding a contract for an equestrian statue of the colonial soldier. Sam referred to Robinson (probably Henry C. Robinson), the statue and the fact that statuary committees seldom award a job on time. Hattie Gerhardt also had appealed to Sam to speak to Robinson but Sam felt he’d said all he could [MTP; MTNJ 3: 253n84].

Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells, obliged for the legal decision sent.

I have sent it to my lawyers, with instructions to find in it a chance to go hammer-&-tongs for that unco-pious better-mouthed Sunday school-slabbering sneak-thief John Wannemaker [Wanamaker], now of Philadelphia, presently of hell.

Sam also noted he’d just received a cablegram from Webster who’d had a “long private interview” with the Pope [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Edith Anna Somerville (1858-1949), who had sent him a copy of her Mark Twain Birthday Book (See June 30 entry). The book was still in Hartford but her note of June 30 was forwarded to Elmira and waiting upon Sam’s return from Keokuk. The calendar-book would prove disappointing [MTNJ 3: 244n64]. Somerville would soon (1886) undertake her first collaborative literary effort with second cousin Violet Martin (1862-1915). Martin wrote under the pen name “Martin Ross,” and the pair met this year. They would write The Irish Cousin in 1889, and go on to a long collaborative relationship, which many suspected was lesbian as well as literary. Somerville was perhaps as good an artist (she studied art in Paris in 1884) as she was a writer, also a suffragist and an avid sportswoman who illustrated children’s books. Sam referred to her book, sent to Hartford; he had a “high curiosity to see it, for you have accomplished what I once failed in.” which was a reference to his aborted work on a calendar for L. Prang & Co (see Feb. 29, 1884 entry) [MTP].

Sam also answered the letter of an unidentified female autograph seeker, who Sam showed great sympathy for (“afflicted as you have been”). Explaining that their recent trip to Keokuk held “social exactions & interruptions” that “were incessant, for we were visiting my mother & she has many friends” [MTP].

Sam also wrote a one-liner to Franklin G. Whitmore sending a $435 check for deposit relating to his scrapbook account [MTP].

Frederick J. Hall wrote advising that Sam’s share of the Grant profits was $63,142.87 and he would issue a check in whatever amount was desired [MTLTP 200n4].                                    

William Hamersley also wrote to Sam, a follow up letter on the 1887 typesetter exhibition in London [MTP].

Franklin G. Whitmore wrote a two-page letter from Hartford: the weather was “hot & musky.” Sam’s “letter of the 12th inst. Duly recd! Many thanks for mine. I have deposited the check for $3000 to your [account] at Geo. P. Bissell & Co.” Whitmore also offered stock prices, and would write the Stickney Machine Co. [MTP].