August 17 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about the book business. Sam confirmed, “I have written the General” (Philip Sheridan, whose Personal Memoirs Webster & Co. Would publish in 1888) with marketing strengths of Webster & Co. He also asked if Mrs.
August 16 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to James W. Paige about settling the “vexed question of how many ems per hour is good average work.” Sam suggested a contest at the Hartford Courant, prized paid by him for composing a paragraph of 500 ems. Sam estimated the best man might do the work in 30 minutes, with the rest of the compositors around 40 minutes [MTP]. Sam needed to know how much money a newspaper would save by buying the Paige typesetter.
August 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 48 to 25 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229]. Poor Crane lost on each day.
August 13 Friday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 48 to 14 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam about the delivery of the Beech Creek stock certificates [MTP].
August 12 Thursday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 42 to 16 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
August 11 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a longish letter to Edward H. House, who had informed him (not extant) that someone named Rooker had raved about the Tribune’s typesetter (Mergenthaler), that was now used daily in production of that paper. Sam was saving Tribune editorials “day by day” to see how long the type matrices lasted. After restating the case for the Paige machine, he wrote:
August 10 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 38 to 16 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
His notebook also contains an observation with this date about the New York Tribune’s Mergenthaler Linotype machine:
August 9 Monday – In Philadelphia, the court denied an injunction against John Wanamaker & Co.
AN INJUNCTION REFUSED.
August 7 Saturday – In Elmira Sam responded to his mother’s recent letter. He was glad that Orion and Mollie and Pamela were no longer sick. He remembered the weather there on their visit.
August 6 Friday – Back in Elmira Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens, responding to her Aug. 2 letter which detailed Orion, Pamela, Ma and herself being poisoned by bad milk while on an excursion:
Dear Molly —
What a terrific adventure! We are all glad it was no words, though goodness knows it was plenty bad enough….