The check, dated 27 November, is reproduced in facsimile below. It is signed by the publisher Samuel Sinclair (the largest stockholder in the Tribune) and countersigned by the secretary of the Tribune Association and the Tribune’s financial editor, S. T. Clarke. Young did not publish the three letters sent to him on 24 November. In all likelihood, therefore, the sixty-five dollars was payment for two letters the Tribune had already published, on 2 and 9 November (SLC 1867 and SLC 1867). If it were payment for only one letter, the rate would be rather high: sixty-five dollars per column, at least 50 percent more than either the Alta or the Herald paid. Conversely, if it were payment for not two but three letters, including the one published on 25 October (SLC 1867), the rate would be too low: twenty-five dollars per column, scarcely what Clemens would have described as “best” (7 June 67 to Bowenclick to open link). A reasonable inference, therefore, is that since the Tribune paid Clemens sixty-five dollars for two letters totaling one and three-fifths columns, his rate of pay was forty dollars per column. D. C. McEwen was private secretary to Young, who was himself known for paying “strict attention to the business details of the office. Every letter, every bill, every rejected communication is filed. He is able to furnish, at a moment’s notice, a filed voucher for every cent of expenditure during his administration” (Cummings 1868, 89; Cummings 1868, 106–8).

X

New York Tribune Association check, dated 27 November 1867 and signed by Samuel Sinclair. Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN).

Possibly the “Biography of Samson” Clemens mentioned in his notebook: see 22 Nov 67 to Young, n. 5click to open link.