February 16 Monday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Wilkie Collins Dinner, at the St. James Hotel in Boston. The Boston Evening Transcript: Feb. 17, 1874:

Mark Twain gave a brief description of his reception in England, saying that he was very successful in the object of his visit there, which was to teach people good morals, and to introduce some of the improvements of the present century [Schmidt].

Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss:

Friend Bliss:

Please mail or send in your own way, a cloth copy of Innocents Abroad to

Sidney Moffett 

New Market

Shenandoah Co, Va;

& charge to my ac/ Yrs / Mark.

Collins was about to return to England after an American lecture tour. In attendance was a cast of great literary lights: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), Thomas W. Higginson (1823-1911). Josiah Quincy (1829-1910), Edwin Percy Whipple (1819-1886), and John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916). Also Vice President Henry Wilson (1812-1875). William F. Gill (1844-1917), a Boston publisher, organized the dinner [MTL 6: 32n3]. Sam stayed in Boston overnight, in order to make these two public appearances.