January 1 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. after receiving some 70 pictures of Clemens in 45 envelopes:

Sir: / At 4 P.M. this day, the entire Constabulary force of Ponkapog—consisting of two men and a resolute boy—broke camp on the border of Wampumsoagg Pond, and took up its march in four columns to the scene of action—the Post Office. There they formed in a hollow square, and moved upon the Postmaster. The mail had already arrived, but the post agent refused to deliver it to the force. The truculent official was twice run through a mince-meat machine before he would disclose the place where he had secreted the mail-bag. The mail-bag was then unstitched with the aid of one of Wheeler & Wilson’s sewing-machines, and the contents examined. The bag, as was suspected, contained additional evidence of the dreadful persecution that is going on in our midst. There were found no fewer than 20 (twenty) of those seditious, iniquitous, diabolical and highly objectionable prints, engravings and photographs, which have lately been showered—perhaps hurled would be the better word—upon Mr. Thomas Bailey Aldrich, a respectable and inoffensive citizen of Ponkapog.

The perpetrator of the outrage is known to the police, and they are on his track—in your city. An engraving with a green background, on which was a sprawling yellow figure, leaves us no room to doubt. This figure was at once recognized by several in the crowd as an admirable likeness of one Mark Twain, alias “The Jumping Frog”, a well-known Californian desperado, and formerly the chief of Henry Plumer’s Band of Road Agents in Montana, who has recently been “doing” the public not only in the Northern states of America, but in the realm of Queen Victoria. That he will be speedily arrested and brought to Ponkapog to face his victim, is the hope of every one here. If you could slyly entice him to come into the neighborhood, you would be doing a favor to the community. Would n’t the inducement of regular meals, and fishing through the ice, fetch him? Do something. In the meanwhile the post office is closely watched.

Yours Respectfully

T. Bayleigh, Chief of Police / Ponkapog. / Mass.

Samuel Leghorn Clements, Esq. [MTP]

Robert Watt wrote from Copenhagen, Denmark to wish Clemens a happy new year and to assure him of his popularity in Denmark. He closed with:

If the play you spoke about came out in print—please dont forget me, and if you should—as I hope—give out any new book in the course of the year, you might do me a great favor by sending it.— I thank you very much for the “stereoscopes” you send me; they are standing right in front of me alongside your portrait [MTP]. Note: see May 14, 1874 and July 15-16, 1874.