October 28 Sunday – At the Hotel d’Angleterre in Rouen, France, Sam wrote to Orion Clemens. The letter is lost but is mentioned in a Nov. 12 from Orion to Samuel Moffett. Orion relayed the news that Susy was all right again and they would leave the next day for Paris [MTP].

Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers, upbeat about the typesetter’s progress at the Chicago Herald tests:

It seems to me that things couldn’t well be going better at Chicago than they are. There’s no other machine that can set type 8 hours with only 17 minutes’ stoppage through cussedness. The others do rather more stopping than working. By and by our machines will be perfect; then they won’t stop at all.

Sam also was glad that Rogers missed him, for it was mutual, and he expressed that the planning and furnishing of Rogers’ new house in Fairhaven would provide him relief from the grief of missing his late wife. He too had been through a difficult month:

This has been a hard month on our household here, and I shall be very glad of a change. Neither Susy nor her mother are strong yet, but they are strong enough for the 2-hour trip to Paris, and we go to-morrow. [Note: Sam was delayed by doctors orders for two more days, leaving on Oct. 31].

Sam sent regards, expressed that Rogers was a “special partner” and expressed relief that Bainbridge Colby might be able to pay something to his creditors. He closed with mention of an article sent to William Mackay Laffan of the N.Y. Sun:

To-day I mailed some chaff to Laffan — about 6 columns of the Sun, I should think — chaffing Bourget [MTHHR 88-9].

Edward Booth Loughran inscribed his book, ‘Neath Austral Skies. Poems to Sam: presented to Clemens by the author, Melbourne, 28 October 1894 [Gribben 424].