Hartford, May 9/81.
Dear Mr & Mrs Gerhardt—
All right—try 75 or 100ƒs worth of models—the idea is good, & the employment of the off-time wise. The madam & I will be very glad indeed to see the photographs of the images that which will result.
No letters from us?
[four lines (about 20 words) cut away by SLC]
However, that is not strange. We did not know your address till along in the first week in April, & your present letter is dated Apl. 23d—so meantime you have heard from us. I kept one letter back some time, on account of some delayed photographs.
I am glad to see you keep your accounts in such a business-like way. Continue to do that. I am not as business-like, myself, as I ought to be—consequently I peculiarly detest the like thing in others. The Pioneer Lodge, K of H is a case in point. By Mr. Emmons’s instructions, I sent the treasurer $6 on the 30th March; I knew my check was collected 14 days later, yet no receipt was sent me. So I wrote Mr. Emmons. Three or four weeks having passed without any answer from him, I wrote the enclosed advertisement this morning, purposing to put it in to-morrow’s “Courant;” but my mail came in at 11 o’clock & brought me the enclosed tolerably lame letter from the treasurer. Perhaps I am not justified in calling it lame—yet I can’t conceive of a drop-letter addressed to me in Hartford miscarrying. However, the whole thing is unbusiness-like in one way, at any rate—viz, neither the Reporter, nor the treasurer, nor the Lodge itself, has any address but just the General Postoffice. I leave the enclosed call for 75 cents unpaid, because I don’t want anything more to do with those people—like myself, they are mere business-lubbers, & they have no right to be trying to handle trust-moneys, I guess.
Mrs. Chas. D. Warner sails for Europe next Thursday the 12th. We go to the Sound-side near New Haven about June 1st—but our letters will be addressed to Hartford, as before.
Our summer has come, thank goodness, & the foliage is booming. I hope Paris is not as wintry & hideous as it was at this time in ’79.
With love to you both,
S. L. Clemens
[remainder of letter is an enclosure, canceled with crisscrossing lines:]
Lodge No. 315 K. of H. A receipt for Mr. Karl Gerhardt’s as paid assessments is desired. An explanation from the officers—in addition— would not be in ill taste.
◊◊◊ d t f.
[written on the right side of the page with a horizontal rule above and a vertical rule on the left: Advertisement]
Charge to
S. L. Clemens
Mr. Karl Gerhardt | 2 rue des Beaux Arts | Paris | France. [return address:] return to s. l. clemens, hartford, conn., if not delivered within 10 days. [postmarked:] [hartford conn. may 11 1pm] [and] [paris étranger 1e 24 mai 81]
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroPUL, reel 2.
Provenance:
Purchased in April 1939 with funds bequeathed by Boston lawyer Josiah H. Benton (1843–1917).
Emendations and textual notes:
hartford conn. may 11 1pm • [hartford conn. may] 11 1pm [badly inked]
paris étranger 1e 24 mai 81 • [paris] ét[◊◊◊◊◊◊ 1e] 24 [mai] 81 [badly inked]
