Eight Atlantic Ocean Crossings: DBD

July 15 Sunday – The N.Y. Times, July 16, 1894 p.8 in a column dated July 15, which included several misc. articles announced that Sam was Henry H. Rogers’ guest at the Oriental Hotel today. No enlightenment was given with the announcement.

July 16 Monday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club stationery to Mary Mason Fairbanks in Newton, Mass. He was sorry for her “great loss” of her husband, Abel Fairbanks (1817-1894), who died in Boston on July 4 [MTLMF 274]. After a few comforting words, Sam wrote :

July 17 Tuesday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club stationery to Livy. He’d deposited money, he thought $100, with Drexel Harjes in Paris to cover money that daughter Clara mislaid. The balance of the letter related the Rogers family’s grief over the loss of Abbie Gifford Rogers (Mrs. H.H.

July – The North American Review published the essay, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” in July–Sept. 

Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam, setting forth a proposed contract for serialization of JA, and the book rights [MTP].

July 19 Thursday – H.H. Rogers telegraphed Sam from Washington to ask him to go down to Manhattan Beach with the Rogers family. Sam went down in the afternoon, sleepy and “played out” from the heat that he had to “sit silent” while Cara Rogers Duff and friends talked. After dinner they all went out to watch fireworks.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Friday – In his July 29 to Livy, Sam related that he’d gone to Fairhaven with members of the Rogers family on this day, returning the next, July 28.

July 28 Saturday – In the evening Sam returned from Fairhaven, Mass. to New York.

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 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 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.

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July 4 Wednesday – At the Grand Hotel in La Bourboule, France

July 5 Thursday – Sam left the family at La Bourboule and traveled to Paris [July 4 to Clara]. He described his trip as “sweltering” in a July 6 to Livy, but he arrived “totally unfatigued.”

July 6 Friday – At 11 a.m. in the Paris office of Morse, the US Consul-General, Sam wrote to Livy:

Well, I’ve been flying around, Livy darling, & now I am through & ready to leave for Southampton. I had myself called at 7.30 & my coffee ordered for 8.15. Meantime I took a grand bain & went back to bed (in our old room, No. 27.) Rose had made the bath horribly hot, as usual. …

July 7 Saturday – At noon in Southampton, England, Sam sailed for New York aboard the S.S. Paris [LLMT 302].

July 8 Sunday – En route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris, Sam would write on July 13 to Livy that he had worked daily but “accomplished nothing; what I have written is not satisfactory & must be thrown away.” Some of his time was not for naught, however:

Part of my work was not lost, for I have revised Joan of Arc & made some good corrections & reductions. Also I have discovered that the introduction is incomplete. I will complete it on shore [LLMT 302].

July 9 Monday – Sam was en route from Southampton to New York on the S.S. Paris and spent time “most pleasantly” writing, including revisions to the Joan of Arc MS.

June 1 Friday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.

Mrs. Clemens & I have read your letter & are sincerely sorry for your hard situation. I wish I could make it better; I certainly would if I could. But the whole business being now in the hands of the creditors, I have no authority & can do nothing.

If the assignment was a put-up job I knew nothing of it, & never in the least suspected it.