November 26 Saturday – Sam’s article, “My Watch—An Instructive Little Tale,” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 259]. The article also appeared in the December edition of the Galaxy.

Sam also wrote from Buffalo to Charles Henry Webb, who had published the Jumping Frog book. Sam had gone to court to get the copyright registered in his own name. Sam expressed regret at the trouble,

“But I hold that a man has got to make an ass of himself once a year anyhow, & I am sure I went along intelligently enough the balance of last year. I was very sorry, though, that I made trouble for a friend, because that is folly of such a particularly low grade” [MTL 4: 248].

Sam noted about Bret Harte:

“Indeed Harte does soar, & I am glad of it, notwithstanding he & I are ‘off’ these many months.”

Sam told how the friction occurred—that Harte had helped Sam pare Innocents Abroad down to size, and Sam was grateful. So when the book came out, Harte gave the book high praise. Sam wanted him to have an early review of it for the Overland. He ordered Bliss to get Harte a couple of books before anyone else, but Hubert H. Bancroft, the West Coast agent declined. Instead of asking Sam why he’d been turned down, Harte sent Sam “the most daintily contemptuous & insulting letter you ever read.”