May 2 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, who evidently had asked what road to take to get to Riverdale. Sam replied: “Land!—I don’t know any road except the railroad, & it doesn’t turn off at all. I think you stick to Broadway all the way, but I do not know” [MTP]. Note: Bigelow was likely coming to Sam’s dinner party this evening, and was a fan of the bicycle. “Dinner party at home” [NB 45 TS 11].

Livy’s diary: “Mr & Mrs Chapin for dinner & to spend the night” [MTP: DV161]. Note: Adele and Robert Chapin.

Joseph C. Bridges wrote to Sam from York Harbor, Maine about the Furness cottage in the “Pines,” which Sam had seen and was “favorably impressed with.” The estate was being settled; it would be a week to ten days yet, but the attorney saw no reason the house could not be put in good condition for a summer rental at the same fee as last year, $600 [MTP].

The St. Louis Star, p. 1 & 7, ran “Mark Twain Laughs in Grain Pits,” a longish article with an interview about Sam’s arrival in Missouri [MTCI 412-17].