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chine is sold or rented. But perhaps that was
just a part of the vision, too.
"Put all your eggs in one basket—and watch that
basket." Andrew Carnegie.
Mark Twain now went to Chicago, taking
young Hall along, as secretary. Paige was in Chi-
cago by this time, possibly negotiating the matter
of the "land" which had been offered. Sixteen
days following the "dream" just related, Mark
Twain wrote:
April 23, 1893. Great Northern Hotel, Chicago.
Paige called three days ago. He called again tonight. I
asked him if his conscience troubled him any about the
way he had treated me. He said he could almost forgive
me for that word. He said it broke his heart when I left
him and the machine to fight along the best way they
could, etc. etc. I tried to bring him to book, and finally
he said that he was considering a contract offered by his
Land Co. and had carried it back today modified in this
way. Instead of accepting one-half their capital stock of
fifteen millions, he had amended the contract asking for
one-half a million dollars cash and no stock. They will
accept or reject this proposition tomorrow. They may
accept and offer him less. Whatever they offer he will
take in cash and send me one-half. When his European
patent affairs are settled, he is going to put me in for a
handsome royalty on every European machine. We parted
immensely good friends. ... In the last contract he
even got me to assign my 9/20 interest in the foreign
patents, after I had all that they had cost up to that time.
He is a very extraordinary man—the smoothest talker I
ever saw. I tried to impress upon him that I would com-
promise and square matters for two or three hundred ad-
ditional royalties on the machine—and for less than that
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