20 June 1881 • Branford, Conn. (MS: NPV, UCCL 01975)
Very good—am glad to see the end of that muddle, & glad, also, to come out of it so much better than could have been expected.
Do you think you can assess the Co.? I had the impression that the Co can’t be assessed. I have also the impression that by the original contract, Goff’s stock is non-assessa ible.
I am ¾ of the Co myself—so I suppose it would require an assessment of $10,000 or $12,000 to accomplish what you propose. I have not lent the Co that much, I believe.
As to the other ⅔ English patent, I shall not value it unless your brass experiments give it a value. So we will do nothing about that until you shall have proved that you can make brass stamps which the trade will croy after. If you succeed in doing that, then we shall want those ⅔, if the English patent does not lapse in the meantime.
The day that Kaolatype arrives at a point where it pays its own expenses, you are to have $900 of its stock. Meantime, I wish to give you $100 of its stock, now, anyhow, & make you Vice President & Treasurer—also Manager.
We are all pretty well, & send love to you & a Annie.
in margins of last page:
Please call a meeting of the Co., in my name, to elect a Vice Pres’t. if that is the correct thing. Ask Goff to appoint a proxy if he can’t attend the meeting.
in top margin of first page:
I enclose the $791.49 to pay off the Slote bill.
References
- Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- Webster, Samuel Charles. Mark Twain, Business Man. Edited by Samuel Charles Webster. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1946
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MTBus, 160, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 2.
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.