November 16 Sunday – In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
(the way you look now)
Of course I should like to help pry that money out of Heriot [sic Harriott], but I think it will take more than fence-rails to do it. Poor Stoddard wrote me to the same effect as he wrote you, and wrung my heart so that I have not yet braced up to show that I had one. “This d—— human race!” You were well out of that dinner last night. Oh, but the clack was dull [MTHL 2: 750].
Notes: Howells put a picture of Twain at the top of the letter. N2 of the source states: “This is the first of a sequence of notes in which Mark Twain and Howells planned how best to induce Frederick C. Harriott (1840-1914; husband of actress Clara Morris) to pay Charles W. Stoddard some four hundred dollars which Harriott, acting as Stoddard’s literary agent, had received from Lothrop Publishing Co. of Boston as an advance on Stoddards’ book of essays Exits and Entrances (1903).” Harriott was from a wealthy family and for some 25 years was agent for his famous actress wife. The dinner was Nov. 15 for ambassador Jules M. Cambron; Sam did not attend.
The New York Times, p.14, noted the first recital of the season by Ossip Gabrilowitsch would be given on Dec. 4 at Daly’s Theatre.