December 20 Saturday – Before his lecture, Sam wrote Livy:
“Livy darling, I am about to go to the hall, to deliver my last lecture in London. Presently I shall be free! All this time my health has been simply splendid….I shall see you by Feb. 1! Hurrah!” [MTL 5: 524].
Sam gave his last “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO]. Afterward, Sam dined at the Smalley’s with Frank Finlay, John Russell Young, formerly of the New York Tribune and others.
At the Langham, Stoddard wrote for Sam to Arthur Pelham:
Dear Sir
I thank you very much for showing me these specimens of schooling in England and I have taken the liberty of copying a few of them in all their original orthography and punctuation.
I return the books to you by post.
Very Truly Yours
Saml. L. Clemens [MTP drop-in letters].
Livy purchased $9.20 of misc. merchandise from Madame Sanborn [MTP].
Punch ran “Twain Can Do’t,” an article with plays on Sam’s name and regrets that his stay in London would be brief; readers were urged to go hear him lecture [Tenney 5]