We thank Mollie very much for her attempt on the Lampton spoons—Livy will write in answer to the various items in Mollie’s letter as soon as the pressure of company & the accompanying exhausting fatigues are over.

Private & Conℓ.

My contract for the “Little Prince” is made—& this time it is no fool of a contract, I assure you. I want nothing said about book or contract to anybody—keep it mum, for I have changed my publisher—a thing which I do not want the Am. Pub. Co. to suspect for some months yet.

Private. (not to be mentioned.)

I wrote you last March that I believed I had invented an idea that in that would increase the value of Kaolatype a hundred fold. It was to apply it to the moulding of bookbinders’ brass stamps, in place of engraving them. Ever since thenm I have been trying to find somebody who could invent a flux that would enable a body to mould hard brass with sharp-cut lines & perfect surfaces. But every brass-expert laughed at the idea & said the thing was absolutely impossible. But at last I struck a young German who believed he could do it. I have had him under wages for 3 months, now, night & day, & at last he has worked the miracle. In the rough, it is true; but all new things are in the rough. His flux, & his method of using it, are marvelously original & ingenious, & are patentable by themselves. He & Slote came up yesterday, bringing six specimens of moulded brass stamps, & I contracted to pay him $5,000 when he is able to put his patents into my hands & assign me a one-third ownership in them for America & Europe, & pay him $150 a month to go on & perfect his methods, & also the attendant expenses. I never saw people so wild over anything (Dan is to own one-third) as those two fellows are, over this invention—& they might well be if the thing were absolutely proven—I mean for fine work. Perhaps it is proven for wall-paper stamps, stamps for calico-printing, & stamps for embossed work on leather. IF these are proven——but we shall see, by & by. I promise nothing.

Our moulded stamps are sharp-edged & smooth-surfaced. That excited the wonder of the stamp-printers; but they said “Of course this is an alloy—we c it won’t stand our presses—we shall mash it like dough.” Young Sneider said, “Don’t mash your press—that’s all; I will be responsible for the stamp.” So mighty a pressure was applied that the letters are raised, on the back of the letter leather—but the stamp wasn’t affected. Love to you both.