August 16 Wednesday – In Krankenheil-Tölz, Germany, Sam finished his Aug. 14 to Frederick J. Hall:

Aug. 16. I have thought, and thought, but I don’t seem to arrive at any very definite place. Of course you will not have an instant’s safety until the bank debts are paid….I am coming over, just as soon as I can get the family moved and settled. SLC.

The Puddn’head and Esquimaux Romance belong to Mrs. Clemens, in part [to] pay her for her $14,000 which I took out of Halsey’s hands and lent to the firm. Please sell them, and take notes (if desired) extending over several months, (drawn in her name), so-much payable monthly, and send the notes to Mr. Langdon.

I am grateful to him for trying to save us, but heaven knows I am sorry we had to ask him [MTLTP 360-1].

Sam also wrote a detailed summary of financial figures and questions to Webster & Co.

…the debt seems to have increased itself considerably….If going without sleep would clear my head, I might be able to understand the situation — but it has not had that effect. When I left New York the middle of May, we owed only $144,000, for I had reduced the manufacturers’ debt by paying off $6,000 of it with some of my pen-earned money. There had been no increase of the debt, of course, or it would have been brought up & discussed in our talks. The country was quivering under a growing panicky feeling, which Mr. Arnot said might quiet itself by July 1 but not earlier. By July 1 it was no longer a quiver, it was a storm. Yet in that same six weeks we got $23,000 worth of manufacturing done [MTP].

Sam’s notebook:

Aug. 16. Tore up the fragment of history — sounded too much like a romance. Will start fresh next month, & with P.’s [Phelps’] help will do it right.

Aug. 16. Wrote Chatto draw the order in Mrs. C.’s favor. I start in a week for America. / Wrote Charley [Davis] and Hall I am coming [NB 33, TS 26]. Note: letter to Davis not extant.