August 30 Saturday – In Onteora Park near Tannersville, N.Y., Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He referenced what was probably the subject of his one-day trip to Philadelphia on Aug. 28.

I failed with the monumental humbug of the century; so you’ll have to fall back on other possibilities, Watson Gilder and the Methodist Book Concern, &c. I shall be down again perhaps in a week or sooner, and then we can consider Whitmore.

Franklin G. Whitmore had made an offer to invest $10-12,000 in Webster & Co. for part ownership, and Sam had recommended he work with Hall for a year first. Hall had reservations (see Apr.19 to Hall; also MTLTP 261n2top). Sam also approved Hall’s idea of selling stock in the Library of American Literature series.