October 20 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Richard H. Jesse, President of the University of Mo. “I go to Princeton if you have any message authorize me & I will deliver it. S.L. Clemens” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore. “You may sell that Jewell Pin Co. stock. It is in the Safety Deposit, I suppose. It isn’t here. Mrs. Clemens is getting along about as usual. It will be a long siege, the doctor says” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon Co. 110-22 Broad. American proprietors meeting Room 70-116, at 11 a.m. Cable Ad.[dress] PLASMONIA / Miss Garrety arrived in the evening, Sept. 28, & took charge of the patient next morning, 29th” [NB 45 TS 31].
In Kittery Point, Maine William Dean Howells wrote.
Tell me how Mrs. Clemens is, and how she bore the journey. I hope all has gone well with you.
I have got Huck Finn [“Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy”] safe, and will keep it till I come down, or will send it by express, as you say. It is a great layout; what I shall enjoy most will be the return of the old fellows to the scene, and their tall lying. There is a matchless chance there. I suppose you will put plenty of pegs in, in this prefatory part [MTHL 2: 747-8]. Note: Sam began this story in 1897 and abandoned it suddenly, though it was nearly finished. It was first published in Hannibal, Huck & Tom (1969) by the MTP, Walter Blair, editor.