January 15 Monday – In New York a telegram arrived from Chicago (probably from Paige’s attorney Walker); Paige had agreed to terms.
Sam’s notebook: This is a great date in my history — a date which I said on the 5th would see Paige strike his colors. A telegram from Stone says he has done it. Yesterday we were paupers, with but 3 months’ rations of cash left & $160,000 in debt, my wife and I, but this telegram makes us wealthy [MTHHR; NB 33 TS 47-8 (renumbered pages 49-50].
More on the good news from Chicago — there were yet details to be worked out:
“After weeks of conference, word finally came from Chicago that Paige would agree to new terms, if he could get ‘$2,000 down, from Conn. Co., $5,000 down from Webster Mf. Co., $600 a month till a certain dividend is reached,’ and if the new company — the Paige Compositor Manufacturing Company — would assume debts of $8,000 and $70,000 owed, respectively, to the Pratt & Whitney Company and to Newton Case of Hartford (Notebooks 27, TS 43). Paige was willing to exchange his 1,271 royalties and his $210,000 in stock of the old company for 20 per cent of the $5,000,000-aggregate stock in the new, consolidated company. This, Clemens calculated, would make his own 470 royalties worth about $330,000 of the new stock (ibid., p.37). However, he planned ‘to stand out for $500,000 stock, or retention of royalties in the same proportion’ (ibid., p.42)” [MTHHR 15]. Note: until such details were finalized and signatures put to paper, Sam felt he could not return to his family in Paris.
In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Livy, apologizing for the delay in the typesetter cablegram he’d promised. The snag was caused by Paige’s lawyer, Walker, who was holding out on a point or two, while H.H. Rogers was adamant, and had sent a telegram on this day that he disagreed with Walker; that if the points were not conceded entirely, Rogers would “no longer be connected with the enterprise.” So Sam was forced to wait, and to explain the delay. While writing the letter, Joe Twichell arrived.
Joe has just arrived (11.30). We can’t go to Brooklyn, for Julia is in bed with asthma so I have sent a messenger to fetch [Laurence] Hutton here to luncheon. Joe sends greetings & love to you & the children; & brings a message from Harmony — that she means all she said to me concerning Susy: that she will gladly make her house Susy’s home for as many months as she will stay, & will do her very best to make her happy. (Private. But the food — alas!).
There — good-bye old sweetheart, & good-bye all the darlings — I will chat with Joe, now. / Saml [MTP].
Sam’s 2nd letter Jan. 12 to Livy told of his 7:30 p.m. dinner engagement for this evening with the architect Stanford White, Henry C. Abbey and other artists, in the Tower of Madison Square Garden. Note: Fatout has this as Jan. 19, probably because he did not have access to the Jan. 12 (2nd) to Livy. Sam enclosed an invitation for this Jan. 15 with Henry C. Abbey in his Jan. 27 to 30 to Livy.
Sam also sent Frederick J. Hall a 11 & ½ by 6 ¾ inch sepia photograph of himself, inscribed twice: To F.J. Hall, from his friend, Mark Twain. Jan.14, 1894. It is also inscribed with Jan. 15 and the same verbiage, scarcely discernable against the dark background of Sam’s coat.
After the White dinner, Sam played billiards until 1:15 a.m. then retired to his room [Jan. 16 to Livy].