May 2 Saturday – In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam to Henry S. Alden, responding to his May 1 letter. Sam desired Whitmore to say that Frederick J. Hall handled such matters, and Alden’s letter was forwarded to him [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: May 2. Finished the book which I began to write on Feb. 20. 71 days [3: 621]. Note: The American Claimant. (Editorial emphasis.)

Sam also sent two telegrams (both collect) to Frederick J. Hall, one to Far Rockaway, N.Y., and the other to the offices of Webster & Co.,

Bok wants to see you to-night. We must be free to sell any English periodicals, Illustrated London News included. English rights must be left wholly unembarrassed. That market is worth as much as this one [MTP]. See May 4 entry.

Note: Edward W. Bok offered $4,000 for serialization of The American Claimant, a price Sam thought too low [MTNJ 3: 619n167].

Frederick J. Hall wrote Sam about Bok’s offer, which included a promise “to have the story illustrated by Kemble or Frost and to sell us electrotypes at one-third the regular cost. So we save at least a thousand or twelve hundred dollars in this way on the illustrating and at the same time get good illustrations” [MTNJ 3: 625n192]. Note: the savings would accrue when Webster & Co. published the book, using the illustrations provided by the Ladies Home Journal. A.B. Frost artist.

† Estimated date of overnight visit for William Milligan Sloane and wife. Sloane was professor of history at Princeton. Sloane wrote on May 5 to thank Sam for the hospitality. During the visit, Sloane told a story that was summarized in Sam’s notebook and which became the basis for Sam’s “A Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” written in 1901 and published in 1902 in Harper’s magazine:

Sloane’s story of the man defeated in a duel who became reconciled to his antagonists married his daughter, took her a few miles away; stripped her to the waist, cowhided her nearly to death & deserted her on a country road at night. She crawled home to her father’s house & finally recovered. The husband was not heard of again, but a son was born to him, grew up, hunted his father over the world (giving him notice that he was on his track to kill him) & in the fourth year of the chase caught him in the desert of Sahara & killed him [MTNJ 3: 626&n195].