August 6 Friday – Back in Elmira Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens, responding to her Aug. 2 letter which detailed Orion, Pamela, Ma and herself being poisoned by bad milk while on an excursion:

Dear Molly —

      What a terrific adventure! We are all glad it was no words, though goodness knows it was plenty bad enough….

I am just back from a week’s absence in New York, Hartford & Philadelphia. All hands are well, here, & send love [MTP].

Sam also wrote a letter of thanks to Georgiana R. Laffan (Mrs. William Mackay Laffan) for the “most luxurious good time” he had at their Lawrence, N.Y. Summer residence [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frederick J. Hall, enclosing a letter by James Grant Wilson (1832-1914), American soldier, editor and author, founder of the Chicago Record, a journal of art and literature.. (Sam spelled it “Willson.”) He directed Hall to get a photo of himself at Sarony’s and send it to Willson. He also told Hall to send the first and second volumes of Grant’s Memoirs to Station-agent Collins at the Hartford RR station. Sam also enclosed a “squib” which he was about to send to Laffan of the NY Sun, but decided to pass it through Whitford to Laffan. Sam expressed hope that Wanamaker would sue him for libel in New York. A news article in Philadelphia quoted Wanamaker that Sam had fallen asleep in court. Sam’s answer he wished printed in the Sun:

I did not go to sleep in the court room: I fainted. It happened in this way. One of Mr. John Wanamaker’s clerks was talking to me, & I said, “You ought to know that man’s character well. You look like a man accustomed to low wages & hunger. Now in view of the fact that he has been picking Mrs. Grant’s pocket in the intervals of keeping Sunday school, is there really any kind of property that he wouldn’t take, in case he wasn’t being watched?”

The man answered with a grave judicial impressiveness which imparted indescribable weight to the words he uttered. Laying his hand softly upon my shoulder, he looked me in the eye & said: “Dear sir & friend, if John Wanamaker had been around just after the crucifixion, I should not have been oppressed with these life-long doubts as to what went with the body.” That is how it happened [MTP].

Sam also responded to Charles Webster’s letter from Europe, and said reading it made Livy want to go abroad. In response to Webster’s tale of meeting the Pope, Sam wrote about meeting the Emperor of Russia during his Quaker City excursion.

…but in the presence of the head of two or three hundred million subjects, whose empire girdles the globe, & whose commands find obedience somewhere in all the lands & among all the peoples of the earth, I should be impressed to a degree which would tie my tongue & make me temporarily unentertaining — yes, & uncomfortable. But I should like to swap courtesies with the cardinals & archbishops first rate. They are nearer my size. I could have a good time with them [MTP].

In relating his time and the case in Philadelphia, he mentioned Franklin B. Gowen, who suggested a clause to plug a loophole in subscription agent contracts.

Note: Gowen was an attorney and president of the Philadelphia & Reading RR in the 1870s and 80s. He was identified with undercover infiltration of the Molly Maguires, a secret Catholic society of mine workers; died by gunshot wound under suspicious circumstances — suicide or murder?]., who died of a gunshot wound that was never judged suicide or homicide.

Sam also wrote (not extant) to William H. Gillette in New York, apparently being his gracious self about the “debt” that Gillette felt he owed for his start on the stage. Sam saw this as an “investment” in Gillette, not as a debt [referenced in Gillette’s Aug. 9].

John R. Brown of Kansas City had started a business called, “The Universal Tinker Co.” Based upon Sam’s idea of regular home inspections and combining a wide range of needed house repairs. He wrote and thanked Sam for his idea, and enclosed an advertising card: “Combines all Branches of Work under One Management — Carpenters, Masons, Plumbers, Gass Fitters, Painters, Paper Hangers, Kalsominers, Cabinet Makers, Glaziers and others” [MTP].