August 5 Sunday – A few minutes after returning from Long Island, Sam wrote to Livy about going after his JA MS on Friday afternoon and leaving with Harry Harper for a two-day visit. No letter from her awaited him. Sam explained that he needed to be accessible to H.H. Rogers, for Urban H.
August 4 Saturday – Sam stayed with the Harry Harper family on the Long Island shore.
Harry Harper is open & honest & frank; & was not afraid to tell me (after I said I couldn’t quite afford to let the book [JA] go at the terms offered,) that he was charmed with the book & that Alden would be deeply disappointed if it was allowed to slip out of his hands.
August 3 Friday – The North American Review published the essay, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” in July–Sept.
In New York at the Players Club Sam answered a letter (not extant) from daughter Clara.
You dear old Black Spider! how glad I was to get your letter an hour or two ago. I was able to read it, too — which is a marvel.
August 2 Thursday – Sam was in Hartford visiting old friends and staying with the Whitmores. He mentioned seeing Susy Warner on this day in his Aug. 3 to daughter Clara. Susy Warner “praised Mrs. Wilson’s character & her abilities as teacher & composer.” Clara was staying with Mrs. Wilson in Canton of Uri, Switzerland, and planned to teach there with her after the family returned to America.
August 1 Wednesday – Sam was in Hartford visiting old friends and staying with the Whitmores (See Aug. 3 to Livy.)
August – Part two of Sam’s “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” ran in the North American Review.
Sometime during the month Sam wrote Frank Bliss about a lost letter. He asked Bliss to let Peter (probably an assistant) go to the New York office & get a copy of it for him.
I had it in my hand with my steamer ticket when I came aboard the ship — I am nearly dead-sure of it; but I have hunted everywhere & cannot find it.
In a week the machine will be in the [Chicago] Herald office! Hope it will anyway.
July 31 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote to Livy that he was going to Hartford for a day or two; that the trip to Chicago being delayed, that Urban H. Broughton proposed to come east after Aug. 12 and that H.H. Rogers was “about half worn out with work & the heat & the trouble of his great loss.” It was a delay that could not be helped, he wrote. Plus, Rogers’ secretary, Katharine I.
July 30 Monday – To avoid the New York City summer heat, Sam spent part of the evening “in a bath tub full of lovely water” [July 31 to Livy].
The New York Times, July 31, 1894 p.12 “Business Troubles” included this paragraph:
July 29 Sunday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Livy, telling about the Fairhaven trip, sailing with Harry Rogers, H.H.’s teen-age son, and of hiding $25 in change then forgetting where he put it. He’d “ransacked this room thoroughly,” but found “no trace of it.” Sam expected to be delayed in N.Y. by Webster & Co. business but the lawyers estimated they’d be done with him in about ten days.
July 28 Saturday – In the evening Sam returned from Fairhaven, Mass. to New York.