August 7 Saturday – In Elmira Sam responded to his mother’s recent letter. He was glad that Orion and Mollie and Pamela were no longer sick. He remembered the weather there on their visit.
Yes, it was pretty hot weather. Now here, when a person is going to die, he is always in a sweat about where he is going to; but in Keokuk of course they don’t care, because they are fixed for anything. It has set me reflecting, it has taught me a lesson. By & by, when my health fails, I am going to put all my affairs in order, & bid good-bye to my friends here, & kill all the people I don’t like, & go out to Keokuk & prepare for death [MTP]. Note: Sam loved to engage in this sort of serious teasing with his mother.
Sam also remembered the way a Dr. Jenkins of Keokuk took care of Jean Clemens when she hurt her arm, and tall tales Miss Jenkins told so well they were believable, such as her claim that it was so hot there she didn’t use a stove, but just cooked on a marble table with natural heat.
Sam also responded to a letter (not extant) from William Dean Howells. Evidently, Sam had referred a piece to Howells for publication by George Iles (Montreal author and editor), who had used the pen name, “G. Grist.” Sam felt it was “a good squib” but didn’t know whether it as “suitable or not.” Sam conveyed that he was in an “odd position for a valuable author,” in that he had other books to publish ahead of his own and if he should write a book, felt he wouldn’t be able to publish it for ten years; that if he went to another publishing house it would reflect his lack of confidence in Webster & Co. About his recent trip to New York and Philadelphia and Hartford Sam wrote:
I had a hand-shake with Mrs. Howells & S — (that reminds me that I called Pilla Susie). If I had met them an hour earlier I would have gone to Boston for a day. So it was lucky: You’d have lost a day [MTP]. Note: it’s not clear where Sam saw Elinor and Mildred Howells, but medical specialists were being consulted for Winnie’s condition, and New York seems most likely.
Sam also sent a short note to George Iles, who had sent him a funny piece (not extant) for his opinion.
It is good, without question, & I’ve sent it to Howells with the suggestion that he find place for it in our Library of Humor if he has not yet closed & coopered-up that work for the press. It pillories a sin which is not called up for punishment often enough [MTP].
Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 35 to 16 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].