July 2 Sunday – Back in Munich Sam wrote a short paragraph with one of his famous aphorisms to an unidentified person:
Munich, July 2/93.
Behold, the would-be wise man hath said, “Put not all thine eggs in the one basket” — the which is a manner of saying “Scatter your money & your attention;” but the truly wise man saith “Put all thine eggs in the one basket and — watch the basket” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s source: Andrew Carnegie. See also NB 33 TS 8.
July 2 Monday – At the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, France, Sam wrote a short note of request to Chatto & Windus. He announced he would sail the next Saturday July 7 from Southampton on the Paris. As there was no bank there and no way to use a letter of credit, he asked them to send their royalty cheque directly to Livy. If not possible would they please telegraph the hotel, and Sam would stop in Paris “long enough to fix things at the bank” [MTP].
July 20 Thursday – In Krankenheil-Tölz, Germany Sam wrote to Henry C. Robinson in Hartford.
Apparently we can score another for The Club! Once more there’s been people fishing for Bishops there & failed to land the game. Why don’t they let us alone? It is enough to make us all uneasy; there is no telling which of us they will go for next. The family try to soothe me down & make me think there is no danger, but that is easily said — being certain about it is a very different thing.
July 20 Friday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy, relating the events of the previous day, July 19 (see entry). Plans to go to Fairhaven with the Rogers family had to wait till H.H. Rogers returned from Washington. The weather was reasonably comfortable. He succeeded in reading daughter Clara’s “Sanskrit letter.”
July 21 Tuesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder. Though describing his arm as “still badly crippled with rheumatism” he had to write to introduce,
…this bright & charming young Finnish baroness, & suggest that you drop her a line in case you would like some Finland life sympathetically done, in the magazine. She visited the Warners in Hartford two or three years ago & left a most pleasant impression with us all [MTP]
July 21 Friday – In Krankenheil-Tölz, Germany, Sam wrote again to Professor Lawrence B. Evans, asking if he knew of a chaperone he might secure for Susy to go to Franzeusbar (Franzenbad) for three weeks [MTP].
July 21 Saturday – In the evening Sam went to the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach to be with the Rogers family, sans Henry, who was still in Washington on business [Jan. 23 to Robinson].
July 22 Wednesday – Edward Dexter wrote from San Diego, Calif. eager to produce a cheap edition of CY [MTP].
July 22 Friday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, having just received his letter of July 5 (not extant) — the very day Sam sailed. Hall had added a time limit on the option with Augustin Daly for the dramatization rights for The American Claimant. Sam approved. He also advised to give Burbank ten per cent of the profits until $2,500 was reached, as payment for his rights to the play.
July 22 Saturday – Sam added a PS to his July 18 to Hall after receiving a check for $250. He advised that Langdon would send him Livy’s interest money, “the only rainy-day money we have left, in case of sudden disaster.”
July 22 Sunday – Sam was again at the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach, New York, staying with the Rogers family. On July 23 he wrote Henry C. Robinson that he’d spent the “8 or 9 days that I’ve been in America” at the Oriental in the evenings, and the Players in the daytime.
July 23 Monday – In New York, Sam wrote Livy two letters — one in the wee hours past midnight from the Oriental Hotel in Manhattan Beach, and the other during the afternoon, ending at 1:15 p.m. at the Players Club.
July 24 Friday – U.S. Census per Robert P. Porter sent Sam a printed Census questionnaire [MTP].
July 24 Sunday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany at the Kaiserhof Hotel, Sam began a letter to Frederick J. Hall that he finished on July 27.
I have not sent that “Ship” article yet — been revising it; but I will mail it within the next six days — and will register it. Please look out for it about August 12th to 15th.
July 24 Monday – Frederick J. Hall replied to Sam’s “I feel panicky” letter of July 8:
I have cut the help down in all departments to one-quarter what it was, and the financial troubles that we have been having kept me so occupied that I have not had time nor in fact have I thought of all the reports at all as there were so many other things infinitely more important to attend to [MTLTP 357n1].
July 24 Tuesday – Bainbridge Colby invited Sam to dine at his club in the evening. Present was the senior member of Colby’s law firm, Simon H. Stern (1847-1906), of Stern & Rushmore, as well as two or three other attorneys. Charles E. Rushmore (1857-1931), the other partner, had the distinction of having Mt. Rushmore named after him based on work he did as a young lawyer for mining interests in the Black Hills of South Dakota [NY Times, Oct. 31, 1931 p.17 “C.E. Rushmore Dies”].
July 25 Saturday – In Aix-les-Bains, France Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, thanking him for his list of novels but Sam knew not to read novels when preparing to write fiction. He asked for a list of Chatto’s didactic books. Sam also thanked him for the letter of credit which had arrived, and for the trouble Chatto took to secure it. The McClure Syndicate, purchasers of the serial rights for The American Claimant, had received an offer from a German company for a translated edition there.
July 25 Monday – Moses S. Beach died in Peekskill, N.Y. N.Y. Times obituary, July 27, p.4 reported:
July 25 Wednesday – In the morning Sam talked with Dr. Clarence C. Rice’s brother, and came to the conclusion he wasn’t the man for the job of selling Sam’s stock in the new Paige Compositor Co. Later in the day Sam added in a letter to Livy that “Mr. Rogers doesn’t think much of Rice’s brother” either. Sam opened the letter with:
July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ eleventh birthday.
In the last letter extant from Aix-les-Bains, France, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall requesting duplicates of statements sent to him as well as to Whitmore. Things were looking up a bit, as Sam remarked on the last statement he received:
July 26 Tuesday – Jean Clemens’ twelfth birthday.
Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam of publishing matters [MTP].
W.H. Langhorne wrote to Sam, the letter going first to America and then returning to Bad Nauheim. Langhorne inquired of any connection based upon his surname in order to trace his Virginia ancestor [MTP]. Note: Sam replied the name was from a friend of the family.
July 26 Wednesday – Jean Clemens’ thirteenth birthday. In a letter from Krankenheil-Tölz, Germany to Orion and Mollie Clemens, Sam confided, “Jean has been crying at breakfast. It is her birthday & she is deadly homesick.” Sam also discussed Livy’s diagnosis by “the highest authority in Europe,” which contradicted “two American and three European doctors that she had incurable heart disease.” He confided the family’s plans and Susy’s challenge.
July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ fourteenth birthday.
In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote to Livy.
I could kick myself for my heedlessness in trying to tell you yesterday when to look for me; for my letter hadn’t been gone half an hour when I remembered that Mr. Rogers & I will almost certainly have to go to Chicago.
July 27 Monday † – On this day or the day after, the family left for Bayreuth, Germany and the Wagner festival, which got underway on July 19. Rodney calls this “a long, three-day journey to Bayreuth in eastern Germany” [135]. Paine writes:
July 27 Wednesday – Sam finished his July 24 to Hall by adding a PS for this date: He would mail the “Ship” article within three days. He asked Hall to send Livy the “name & numbers of the investments” that Mr. Halsey had lately added, and closed by announcing another letter about Bad Nauheim (possibly “Down the Rhone”) was finished with about six or seven thousand words; he noted it was the same length as the six Europe syndicate letters he’d done last winter [MTLTP 313].