September 18 Saturday – Webster & Co., per Frank M. Scott wrote of Frederick J. Hall being “obliged to go West in regard to the account of R.T. Root, he owing us some $36,000.” Whitford felt Hall should go see Root. Scott wrote of trying to catch Sam at the Normandie Hotel, then the Gedney House and finally the Murray Hill, where Sam had just left for Hartford and home. Other good news: Webster had closed with a publisher in Brussells, and the McClellan book was selling nicely [MTP].

Scott’s letter contradicts a N.Y. stay of more than one day. It may be that the Clemens party had left N.Y. for a one-day outing Springlake Beach, N.J as suggested in Sam’s notebook just before Sept. 17. Thus Scott, if he was being truthful, assumed they’d left for Hartford. (Frank M. Scott would later prove to be an embezzler.)