17 August 1881 • Elmira, N.Y. (MS: NPV, UCCL 02008)
What I meant was the Slote note which fell due in June. We were going to wait till it was paid before beginning suit against the firm. What was done with that one? It was the second of the two endorsed by Lon, wasn’t it?
Yes, that is the sort of reports I want—all written out, that way. Only, I want the two sorts of expenses separated, (K of (K kept separate from my outside matters.) Wh Now that the business is growing & promising well, I feel an interest in it which I have not felt before.—I mean an interest in details. So when Marsh returns, he may make me one big comprehensive report which shall cover everything & get me started right; & afterward Ⓐemendation that he may send me a weekly abstract, containing pay-roll, work done, work & money received, &c, just as he would do for any other President of a Company.
You wish to know when I shall “close up?” When the business pays me $5,000 a year clear profit. Not before. The brass alone shall pay me more than that, before I am done with it.
As I understand it, it is only the advertising that brings work. You formerly had an idea that Marsh would drum up more or less. Does he succeed in that, or does he find it impracticable?
When I consider that Dan Slote knew everybody in New York & most other cities, & made a pitiful failure of this thing, it seems to me that you, a stranger & unknown, have built this business up in a quite surprising way.
Yes, it will cost some money to make it pay—but it shall pay. I shall retain the privilege of complaining over the money-drain; a privilege which I seldom exercise, whereas any other man would abuse it.
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MTBus, 165, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 2.
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.