September 14 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, who had sent a statement and notes for deposit, as well as a pamphlet of compositors’ prices. Sam noted that the English (as now) always seemed to make their own systems that don’t always translate across the Atlantic:

…I seem to discover a most curious thing: that over there you measure type by the 1000 ENS instead of ems, & have done so all this century. I can’t see how we came to change [MTP].

Sam also dropped a one-liner to Franklin G. Whitmore that the Clemens family would leave Elmira on Friday, Sept. 17 and reach Hartford ten days later, on Sept. 27 [MTP].

Sam also wrote again to J. Chester of Lincoln University. A version of his letter is in his notebook:

Rev. J. Chester:

Your confession received. The Arab proverb says: When a man deceives me once, it is his fault; when he deceives me twice, it is mine. When you play your confidence game on me again (Buco-steerer for “Christ.” [ )] It’s safer [3: 255].

John A. Morrison, visiting Hartford from Durban, Port Natal, S. Africa, wrote a complimentary letter to Sam about his works:

I can assure you your writing has wiled away many a weary hour in my home in South Africa. Have read your works over and over again and I never fail to catch my friends when I read them the “Particulars of the Great Beef Contract” “My First Watch” or how “Tom Sawyer” had his granny’s fence whitewashed [MTP].

Franklin G. Whitmore wrote agreeing with Sam on the risks regarding “speculating on margins — what ruin and poverty inevitably follow this form of gambling.” He disagreed with Sam that “all men will embezzle sure when the pinch comes.” He also wrote of an unpaid note concerning Karl Gerhardt and Col. William N. Woodruff for $1,500, which was to be paid from orders for Gerhardt’s statues. Whitmore ended by saying he would “be very glad to see you…next week” and hoped the travel day would be pleasant [MTP].