October 28, 1881 Friday 

October 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. Of course he hadn’t thought Webster was out to “bleed him” and likened his motivation to Livy’s. He simply didn’t want Hamersley’s business added to his. Hamersley, the Hartford City Attorney, was instrumental in bringing the Paige typesetter investment to Sam, and wanted him to take some New York expert to see the machine, but Sam wasn’t going to get embroiled. Yet.

October 27, 1881 Thursday

October 27 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Charles Webster, asking if he had the “old cut” of a form-card for printing which answered that Sam had “quitted the platform permanently”; Sam wanted 300 printed on white cards like the one he enclosed, monogram not needed [MTP].

October 26, 1881 Wednesday 

October 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Evidently, Webster had voiced objections about the Paige typesetter and tried to direct Sam to help in some way about the machine. Sam’s pushed back, claiming the investment was Hamersley’s not his, save for $5,000:

October 25, 1881 Tuesday

October 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.

Hammersley said the foreman of the Herald composing rooms was here last Saturday to examine the machine [Paige typesetter]; was satisfied with it, & said he should advise the Herald to order $150,000 worth (30 machines.) (More than necessary, I should think, for 30 of them would do the work of 150 men.)

October 24, 1881 Monday

October 24 Monday – Sam contracted with the Tiffany & Co. “For the sum of Five Thousand dollars” to cover the ceilings and walls of their library with metal leaf [MTNJ 2: 399-400n149].

Sam wrote to Edward House thanking him profusely for a suggested solution for the baronet error in P&P [MTP].

Sam also wrote two letters to James R. Osgood:

October 22, 1881 Saturday

October 22 Saturday – Sam was the guest of the William D. Whitney family in New Haven, Conn., where he spoke on “mental telegraphy”  at a meeting of that city’s Saturday Morning Club, a young ladies’ social and cultural group similar to Hartford’s chapter. Sam’s notebook has an entry for Marian P. Whitney, William’s 20-year-old daughter, at 246 Church St., Oct. 22, 12 to 1 PM [MTNJ 2: 359 & n12]. (See also Oct.

October 21, 1881 Friday 

October 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House about P&P and the delay of his planned visit due to the “unholy decorators” and House’s attack of gout.

“I am mighty glad your first judgment of the book still holds good. The approval of competent minds is the main thing; I strongly want the book to achieve that; that it should sell well is a very much less important matter” [MTP].

October 18, 1881 Tuesday

October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. All of Sam’s prior investment losses in inventions would pale next to the Paige typesetter debacle, which he wrote about:

Mr. Wm. Hammersley, [Hamersley] our City Attorney, will call on you at your Engraving office, at 10 o’clock Thursday morning.

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