On 28 June Charles E. Perkins, Clemens’s lawyer, had forwarded Franey’s statement of 1876 property taxes to Elmira. Assessed values were prepared in the fall of each year and announced the following March, with taxes on them payable by 15 July (see 16 Oct 1876 to Perkinsclick to open link, n. 1). Based on the fall of 1875 assessed value of $63,360, Clemens’s bill came to $1300.22; .as the form states, however, taxpayers were entitled to a 2 percent discount if the bill was paid in full “on or before July 15.” Perkins’s letter of 28 June states, “I enclose your tax bill with the 2 pc figured out—Send me a check payable to ‘John Franey’—for $127741—& I will get bill receipted & send to you.” Clemens may have intended the present note, written on the tax statement, for the First National Bank of Hartford, or for George P. Bissell and Company, Hartford bankers (22 Feb 1877 to Hesse, n. 1). The requested check was sent to Clemens who then, on 1 July, enclosed it in a letter to Perkins that is not known to survive. Perkins paid the tax bill two days later, and returned the form, now signed and dated by Franey, as proof of payment (Perkins to SLC, 17 June 1876, 28 June 1876, 3 July 1876, CU-MARK; Geer 1876, 34, 292).