December 6 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Minnie Dawson, daughter or daughter-in-law of his old Hannibal schoolmaster, J.D. Dawson:
“I thank you very much for the pictures of the cemetery and the Brittingham Building. If the water melon had landed on John Meredith’s head instead of my brother Henry’s, I doubt if Henry would have shed any tears on that account” [MTP]. Note: see Apr. 14, 1847 and Jan. 13, 1885 entries, vol. I.
Sam also wrote to Mrs. Goodwin (not otherwise identified).
As I am a little lame I will allow myself to answer you by the hand of an amanuensis. I shall be very glad to be your guest, and shall bring my pyjamas with me, but you must not tell any profane stories at dinner the way you done here. (I am not sure about that grammar, but it’s not important.) If you do not mind, I should prefer to have no music either before my reading or in the middle of it. I cannot tell how long I shall read, for that is determinable only by the disposition of the audience. In a private house one can go by that pulse, and stop when it gives notice. If you will name to me the length of time I can have I promise to stop within that limit. For instance, if you will give me an hour and a quarter I’ll agree to land a cargo within those limits [MTP].
Sam also wrote to David A. Munro, editor at the North American Review:
Mr. McCracken proposes to correct me in the Review and he would like me to put his article in my book which will be issued the first of March as I understand it. Suppose you drop him a note and tell him to hurry up and get his article into your February number so that if it turns out to be short enough it can go without impropriety into my book. I particularly want him in my book, because granting him this courtesy will put me in a position to ask Mrs. Eddy to add my articles to her Science and Health Bible [MTP]. Note: William D. McCrackan.
Sam also wrote to an unidentified man, declining an unspecified invitation due to Livy’s health [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted” [NB 45 TS 34].
Hugh F. Fox wrote to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
George L. Houghton wroten from Marseilles, Illinois to Sam, enclosing pamphlets on his “Patent Slated Globe.” He was seeking help introducing the invention in exchange for half interest in the patent [MTP].
Sarah A. Oren-Hayes wrote from Sault St. Marie, Mich. to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
Maud Walker wrote from NYC to Sam offering an “obituary” for his contest [MTP].
Sam’s piece, “The Belated Russian Passport,” which he wrote in York Harbor in the summer of 1902, ran in Harper’s Weekly. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person (1903) [Wilson 7].