September 15 Thursday – Sam, who was staying at the Hotel Wolcott in New York, accompanied by Ralph W. Ashcroft, went to see John Hays Hammond at his hotel, but discovered he was in Gloucester, Mass. Sam then sent the following telegram to Hammond:
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 1904.
JOHN HAYS HAMMOND:
suggests Truslow should act as your attorney and proxy in Plasmon matter. We cannot accept Davis, or any one else as permanent manager, but will guarantee to protect your 22% interest on terms stipulated by you. Papers covering Truslow’s appointment mailed you special delivery to-night. Please return them to me at Hotel Walcott [sic Wolcott]. Please wire Wheeler instructing him to vacate Plasmon offices forthwith; withdraw his policemen, recognize new board and release bank account. Also wire Truslow to relinquish deed of trust and other documents on payment of your loan by us. Telegraph reply Hotel Walcott.
S.L. CLEMENS [Report of Cases Vol. 187 (1910): Ashcroft v. Hammond 493].
Note: Their purpose was to resolve Hammond’s challenge to the new board elected Sept. 1 for the Plasmon Co. of America, but also to reassure Hammond that his interests would be protected. See Sept. 1 entry on the company.
Hammond responded the same day by telegram to Sam at the Hotel Wolcott:
I shall strongly oppose turning over Company to Ashcroft’s board of directors. He has been identified with the rotten administration of Cook and Wright, and is incompetent or worse.
Unless Davis accepts management and my stipulation that Ashcroft should not be employed by the company, I shall retain Wheeler for the present. You have been imposed upon by Ashcroft and others regarding Wheeler. Am going to St. Louis to-morrow to be absent for ten days. On my return I will discuss matters further with you and others interested. Meanwhile will extend date payment my notes [493].
Notes: the crux of Ashcroft’s subsequent lawsuit against Hammond was that this telegram was libelous. The trial court ruled it privileged communication and dismissed Ashcroft’s complaint; the Appellate Division reversed that decision and ordered a new trial, from which Hammond appealed. The case was argued in the state Supreme Court on Jan. 27, 1910 and decided on Feb. 15, 1910. The Supreme Court agreed that the communication was privileged and that the order of the Appellate Division should be reversed; Ashcroft’s case was then dismissed [488-98].
Sam also wrote to Elias Cornelius Benedict (1834-1920), New York banker and yachtsman.
Your letter, just received, [not extant] is very pleasing, & confirms what I wrote my daughter after I saw you last. I told her then, to take her rest-cure in comfort & give herself no uneasiness about the house; that Mr. Renwick was not only keeping his promises but exceeding them, & that he had plenty of men in the house & was driving the work diligently. I think of going away tomorrow with Mr. Rogers in the “Kanawha,” but shall be back at the hotel Wolcott on Monday [MTP]. Note: due to a delay, then a postponement of the Fairhaven church dedication, Sam did not return to New York until Thursday, Sept. 22.
Dr. Edward Skiddy Quintard (1867-1936) wrote from Norfolk, Conn. to Sam.
Your letter was received last night on my return from New York. The messages were given… incidentally, it did the doctor as much good as the patient. The cat has been procured, and as its manner is by no means unsensitive, I should judge that whatever political tendencies it held, inclined toward [illegible word]…We are doing very well here, but the more I see of Miss Clemens just the more conviction grows that it will be a goodly number of months before she regains her health and this applies particularly to her nervous system. She will however eventually be all right! My warmest regards… [MTP]. Note: Quintard was a noted medical practitioner, educator and the personal physician to several celebrities. For many years he was a professor of medicine at the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. He became Sam’s doctor and was with him when he died on April 21, 1910. Quintard was related through his mother to President Zachary Taylor.
The New York Times , Sept. 10, p.24, announced Mark Twain’s new book A Dog’s Tale would be published on Sept. 15 by Harper & Brothers, with illustrations in color by W.T. Smedley (1858-1920), “and the binding will be such as to fit the volume for use as a holiday gift book.”