February 7 Tuesday – In Washington, Sam went to Mathew Brady’s studio and was photographed with David Gray, also staying at the Ebbitt House; and George Alfred Townsend aka “Gath” (1841-1914), another Washington correspondent. (See one of the photos in Muller, p.151; another in Meltzer, p.126.) That evening, while at a dinner at Welcker’s Restaurant Ohio congressman S. S. (“Sunset”) Cox (Samuel Sullivan Cox, 1824-1889) handed Mark Twain a telegram from Susan Crane that Livy was desperately ill. Sam left on the next train [MTL 4: 328]. Livy had been diagnosed with typhoid fever, the same illness that claimed the life of her friend Emma Nye.

Donn Piatt cited this dinner at Welcker’s Restaurant in Washington, D.C. as his first meeting with Mark Twain. After describing Sam and his manner, Piatt noted Sam’s abrupt departure after receiving Susan Crane’s telegram of Livy’s severe illness. Piatt wrote that Sam left with David Gray [MTL 4: 328-9]. Note: Piatt’s account was printed in the Mar. 2, 1871 Watertown, New York Weekly Reformer, p.1 and included this additional information:

He looks more like a member of the Ohio Legislature (if you know what that is) than anything else. That is, a sort of a man who had narrowly escaped being made a county commissioner, and so was returned to the Legislature. His face is a sad one, and when all are in roars about him he continues in a state of dense solemnity. His voice is the most extraordinary voice I ever heard. It is a cross between Horace Greeley and Tim Lincoln. He draws his words out in the most preposterous manner, that gives a drollery to what he says utterly beyond description [eBay by Headlines in History, Oct. 23, 2009 Item 380170621364].