March 4 Monday – In N.Y.C., Sam replied to Gilbert A. Tracy’s Feb. 27 letter.

“Although you, in charity and kindness for a busy man, have forborne to require an answer, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of saying, out of my heart, I thank you” [MTP]. Note: Tracy, of Putnam, Conn. later published Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln (1917); he claimed to have known Lincoln well.

Sam also wrote to Lewis Frank Walden (ca 1835-1924), a boyhood pal of Hannibal, Mo.

Dear Frank:— / I was glad to get your letter [not extant] and find that you are still with the living. I remember your wife very well, as a girl; and of course as one’s memory takes but little account of time, she has remained to me what she was 50 or 60 years ago. I find it difficult to realize that she has been married 47 years [Hannibal Evening Courier Post, Mar. 6, 1935, p.9C]. Note: The article states that Walden was pastor of the Edinburg Methodist Church in Hannibal at this time. See Mar. 2 and 3, 4, 1870 entry for more on Walden.

Laura C. Burgess of Scarsdale, N.Y. wrote to invite Sam to be the guest of Smith College Alumnae Luncheon at the Manhattan Hotel on April 6. She added they’d appreciated “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].

Franklin Pierce, N.Y. Attorney wrote a long letter complimenting Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP].

Colonel Munster wrote compliments of Twain’s “Sitting in Darkness” article, but only the envelope survives with Sam’s notation of Munster’s approval [MTP]. Note: not further identified.