October 25 Wednesday – Before leaving for Hartford, Sam enclosed Charles Langdon’s Oct. 24 letter (asking for payment of $1,705.93 for the James Rathbone note and interest payments) to Frederick J. Hall. See Aug. 8 for Langdon borrowing $8,000 from his friend Rathbone to help Webster & Co.
October 24 Tuesday – In New York Sam sent a note to Frederick J. Hall directing him to send $175 to the steamer office for passage and funds for daughter Clara and her teacher’s daughter, Miss Katherine Willard.
I go to Hartford at noon to-morrow, (Wednesday) with my daughter. Please re-mail such letters as may arrive for us up to Saturday noon….Open all telegrams & re-wire them to me. SLC [MTP].
October 21 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing a letter to him from Clara written Oct. 18 at Quarry Farm. Sam wrote after Clara’s signature:
October 20 Friday – At 4:50 p.m. in New York, on Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. He mentioned a change in plans about his skeleton novelette idea, and would evaluate his “old translation of Struwelpeter & see if it is worth publishing.” He felt a new color printing invention by Cosmopolitan would be “just the thing” with the story.
October 19 Thursday – The sale of LAL to William Evarts Benjamin, H.H. Roger’s son-in-law, was finalized for $50,000 [Oct. 18 to Livy; MTB 971].
October 18 Wednesday – In New York on Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote a long letter to Livy. The last two days had been so busy he hadn’t had the time to write. The sale of LAL was finalized and the transfer would be made the following day. Sam called it a “give-away,” yet it removed a great burden from Sam and Webster & Co. [MTP] Paine writes,
October 17 Tuesday – In New York, Sam began a story/letter to Livy that he laid aside forgotten until he moved into new quarters at The Players on Dec. 16, 1893. Sam titled the tale, based on a young girl he’d seen at Dora Keith’s, “TALE OF THE DIME-NOVEL MAIDEN”. Sam finished the tale on Dec. 16 and then put it in a letter to Livy on Dec. 17.
October 16 Monday – In New York, Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to daughter Clara. This is an obvious response to Clara’s letter (not extant), which evidently had sought an answer to why gondolas carried a blade on the bow. Sam searched “two cyclopedias & the Century Dictionary, then examined the Astor Library — but all to no purpose.” Sam supplied an answer from Gilder and Johnson of the Century that the blade was a gauge for clearance, but also had become ornamental.
October 14 Saturday – In New York, Sam wrote on the back of his Villa Viviani calling card, a note for Franklin G. Whitmore:
P.S. Moreover, that Buffalo firm have not paid me in full for “Adam’s Diary” & I am going to sue for the rest SLC [MTP].
October 13 Friday – Grace King wrote to Livy about how delightful her visit with her sister last year was, and how the Clemenses were on her mind so much. Much of the letter is illegible [MTP].