DEAR MR. HALL,--Your letter to Mr. Clemens of June 16th has just reached
here; as he has gone to Berlin for Clara I am going to send you just a
line in answer to it.
Mr. Clemens did not realize what trouble you would be in when his letter
should reach you or he would not have sent it just then. I hope you will
not worry any more than you can help. Do not let our interests weigh
on you too heavily. We both know you will, as you always have, look in
every way to the best interests of all.
I think Mr. Clemens is right in feeling that he should get out of
business, that he is not fitted for it; it worries him too much.
But he need be in no haste about it, and of course, it would be the
very farthest from his desire to imperil, in the slightest degree, your
interests in order to save his own.
I am sure that I voice his wish as well as mine when I say that he would
simply like you to bear in mind the fact that he greatly desires to be
released from his present anxiety and worry, at a time when it shall not
endanger your interest or the safety of the business.
I am more sorry than I can express that this letter of Mr. Clemens'
should have reached you when you were struggling under such terrible
pressure. I hope now that the weight is not quite so heavy. He would
not have written you about the money if he had known that it was an
inconvenience for you to send it. He thought the book-keeper whose duty
it is to forward it had forgotten.
We can draw on Mr. Langdon for money for a few weeks until things are
a little easier with you. As Mr. Clemens wrote you we would say “do not
send us any more money at present” if we were not afraid to do so. I
will say, however, do not trouble yourself if for a few weeks you are
not able to send the usual amount.
Mr. Clemens and I have the greatest possible desire, not to increase in
any way your burdens, and sincerely wish we might aid you.
I trust my brother may be able, in his talk with you, to throw some
helpful light on the situation.
Hoping you will see a change for the better and begin to reap the fruit
of your long and hard labor.
Believe me
Very Cordially yours
OLIVIA L. CLEMENS.
Hall, naturally, did not wish to be left alone with the business. He
realized that his credit would suffer, both at the bank and with the
public, if his distinguished partner should retire. He wrote, therefore,
proposing as an alternate that they dispose of the big subscription set
that was swamping them. It was a good plan--if it would work--and we
find Clemens entering into it heartily.
*****
To Fred J. Hall, in New York:
MUNICH, July 3, '93.
DEAR MR. HALL,--You make a suggestion which has once or twice flitted
dimly through my mind heretofore to wit, sell L. A. L.
I like that better than the other scheme, for it is no doubt feasible,
whereas the other is perhaps not.
The firm is in debt, but L. A. L. is free--and not only free but has
large money owing to it. A proposition to sell that by itself to a big
house could be made without embarrassment we merely confess that we
cannot spare capital from the rest of the business to run it on the huge
scale necessary to make it an opulent success.
It will be selling a good thing--for somebody; and it will be getting
rid of a load which we are clearly not able to carry. Whoever buys
will have a noble good opening--a complete equipment, a well organized
business, a capable and experienced manager, and enterprise not
experimental but under full sail, and immediately able to pay 50 per
cent a year on every dollar the publisher shall actually invest in it--I
mean in making and selling the books.
I am miserably sorry to be adding bothers and torments to the
over-supply which you already have in these hideous times, but I feel so
troubled, myself, considering the dreary fact that we are getting deeper
and deeper in debt and the L. A. L. getting to be a heavier and heavier
burden all the time, that I must bestir myself and seek a way of relief.
It did not occur to me that in selling out I would injure you--for that
I am not going to do. But to sell L. A. L. will not injure you it will
put you in better shape.
Sincerely Yours
S. L. CLEMENS.
*****
To Fred J. Hall, in New York:
July 8, '92.
DEAR MR. HALL,--I am sincerely glad you are going to sell L. A. L. I am
glad you are shutting off the agents, and I hope the fatal book will
be out of our hands before it will be time to put them on again. With
nothing but our non-existent capital to work with the book has no value
for us, rich a prize as it will be to any competent house that gets it.
I hope you are making an effort to sell before you discharge too many
agents, for I suppose the agents are a valuable part of the property.
We have been stopping in Munich for awhile, but we shall make a break
for some country resort in a few days now.
Sincerely Yours
S. L. C.