June 16 Friday – Sam reported on June 20 to Susan Crane that Livy “felt so miserable last Friday morning” and wished she was at Quarry Farm.

Sam’s notebook:

Left the Villa Viviani at 6 p.m. Friday. June 17 [Friday was June 16]. Dined & stayed at Dr. Wilberforce Baldwin’s, 1 Via Palestro [NB 33 TS 18].

Frederick J. Hall responded to Sam’s June 2, wanting out of business, with a five-page typed letter.

I hardly know how exactly how to write you. Your plan of retiring from business is feasible but it would be impossible to put into execution now nor could you get the amount from it that you figure on. You have overstated the balance due you.

Hall calculated that the firm owed Sam and Livy $142,321.15, including royalties and past investments. Sam had estimated a value of about $250,000 above indebtedness. Hall wrote that if Sam left the company, so would he. Further, he explained that the panic of 1893 would make it impossible to:

…sell your interest for anything like the amount of money you have invested in it nor could you find a purchaser at that price or any other price just at present [MTLTP 344-5n2; MTP].

Hall wrote that “the one great mistake we have made” was trying to “swing” the LAL [349n1]. As to the possibilities of the Traction Syndicate buying out the Connecticut Co., Hall wrote:

…the Traction Company’s stock had fallen nearly 40% and while there were millions behind them, at present they [the Connecticut Co.] could not close any deal with them [MTLTP 347n2].