November 5 Monday – All was not well at Webster & Co., even after the resignation of Charles Webster. Arthur H. Wright wrote two letters to Sam, one of which was marked “CONFIDENTIAL”:

There are a number of points which it would be well for us to talk about at your earliest convenience, which are of great importance to you and should be investigated at once.

I have been threatened with discharge for having given you information pertaining to the inside workings of this business. They know nothing from me of my conversation with you more than was told them, viz — “That I was closeted with you for several hours” [MTP].

Sam responded:

But you quite mistake my attitude. I am not conspiring with you to injure Mr. Hall. I did want to afford you an opportunity — since you seemed very much to desire it — to give me private information of a contraband nature about the business — but I did not consider myself to be conspiring.

Note: Wright did not use the term “conspire” in his letter which offered to show Sam “actual figures’ to support his claims that books were not kept “in a proper manner nor as they are kept in any well managed house.” Sam’s reaction seems to discount Wrights claims, or, like his disdain for his brother’s accusations about Bliss years earlier, they simply reflect Sam’s view of Wright’s tactics. Wright’s letter bears this date; Sam wrote his short remarks at the bottom of Wright’s letter and his note has been assigned this date. This may be a case where his letter was sent a day or so later. †

Frederick J. Hall wrote Sam two letters, described as “a complex and desperate treatise which corrected some oversights in Wright’s statement and predicted a solid future for the company if Clemens approved a new and radical organization of its procedures and personnel.” Hall also answered Sam’s wish to withdraw a portion of his investment in the firm: “Properly managed $30,000 ought to be ample capital to run the business on, unless it should grow to great proportions” [MTNJ 3: 429n72].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam about plans to use a “corps of lady canvassers” for selling the cookbook [MTLTP 252n1].

Daniel Whitford wrote to Sam (enclosed in Webster & Co. Nov. 8) asking for his signature in the purchase of the last photographs taken of Gen. Grant [MTP]. See Nov. 8