May 18 Wednesday – Charles Webster reported to Sam:
“The bubble has burst. Sneider has confessed…that the whole thing was a swindle from the beginning….Sneider says he’s going to commit suicide” [MTNJ 2: 393n120]. Note: Sam’s loss on Kaolatype would eventually be some $50,000 [Powers, MT A Life 452].
May 16 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.
“Yes, if we snatch Sneider up before the court he will weaken & be glad to sign the documents & get out.
May 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam was still hot on the heels of Dan Slote and Sneider.
May 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam. “At last Slote is thoroughly convinced that Sneider has been swindling you.” He detailed how Sneider had done the deed, and said “Dan is furious,” that he “could not uphold any one in cheating Sam & he had hard work to restrain himself &c.” Webster also touched on several other business matters [MTP].
May 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, thanking him for some service performed (unidentified):
“Old man, you performed gorgeously. You would make a good highwayman. Yes, sir, for the sake of your character (& mine) I will be very mum to those people.”
May 11 Wednesday – James R. Osgood wrote from Boston to Clemens. “I sold the story to Scribner for $400 with the understanding that if it should exceed 13 1/3 pages you should be paid for such excess at the rate of $30 per page [MTP]. Note: written on the env., “Osgood sells M.T. story to Scribners / A Curious Incident?”
Charles Webster wrote from NYC on Kaolatype Engraving Co. Letterhead to Clemens.
May 10 Tuesday – Arnold, Constable & Co., NYC billed Sam $4.50 for “3 caps”, paid May 13 [MTP].
May 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. After going on about how he liked the way they kept their finances, Sam admitted, “I am not as business-like, myself, as I ought to be—consequently I peculiarly detest the like thing in others.” Sam told of plans to go to the “Sound-side near New Haven about June 1st” and his hope that Paris would not be as “wintry & hideous as it was at this time in ‘79” [MTP].
May 7 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. His opinion of Slote had, by this time, gone completely dark.
Dear Charley— / The fact that we are into Dan near $900, reconciles me to the other things. He must never have a cent of that while he lives.
Come up here Monday—we can get through our talk before 6 P.M.—I leave then, for South Manchester [Conn.] to be gone till midnight.—or, come Tuesday, if you prefer.
May 6 Friday – Sam had initially hired Charles Webster to take charge of the Kaolatype investment, but he soon became a general business manager. Samuel Webster writes: “Mark Twain started at once to unload instructions, plans, and bright ideas onto his new helper.