March 3 Tuesday – In Boston William Dean Howells typed a letter on a Hammond machine to Sam:

I talked your letter into a fonograf in my usual tone, at my usual gait of speech. Then the fonograf man talked his answer in at his wonted swing and swell. Then we took the cylinder to a type-writer in the next room, and she put the hooks into her ears, and wrote the whole out. I send you the result. There is a mistake of one word. I think that if you have the cheek to dictate the story into the fonograf, all the rest is perfectly easy [MTHL 2: 638-9].

New England Phonograph Co. per August N. Sampson responded to Sam’s questions about renting a Phonograph — it would be leased at $40 per year, payable first quarter $15, second and third $10 and the last $5. Sam wrote underneath the typed letter, “400 cylinders required for 175000 words / Cylinders wroth $2.00 a dozen — say about $75 for the 400” [MTP].

Bissell & Co. sent notice of a credit to Sam’s account $1,792.07 from Chatto & Windus [MTP].