July 31 Saturday – The Hartford Times ran a review under the heading “The New Pilgrims’ Progress / Mark Twain on His Travels,” p.1:

That the odd genius who described the “Jumping Frog,” should go to see and describe the art treasures of Europe and the ruins of Egypt and the Holy Land, has something in it very comical. Out in California they don’t care much for tradition, and they respect a thing for what it is, nor for what somebody has said it is. They pride themselves on being sharp and incapable of being humbugged. As the latest born children of time, they have the accumulated cuteness of ages. They are wanting in reverence and a good many other of the undoubted virtues. Mark Twain is a true Californian, with the original, quaint and not always refined humor of the Pacific; a very shrewd observer, not by any means unpoetical, but yet delighting to take the traditional poetry out of things [Budd, Reviews 35-6].

July, late – Jervis Langdon had business connections in Buffalo. His executive John Slee (John De La Fletcher “Fletch”; 1837-1901) negotiated for Sam a piece of the Buffalo Express. Sam had gone to Buffalo on July 15 to look the paper over and aid in negotiations [MTL 3: 290n1].