November 2 Thursday – Sam wrote a correspondence card of alarm from Hartford to Moncure Conway:

“Belford Bros., Canadian thieves, are flooding America with a cheap pirated edition of Tom Sawyer. I have just telegraphed Chatto to assign Canadian copyright to me, but I suppose it is too late to do any good. We cannot issue for 6 weeks yet, & by that time Belford will have sold 100,000 over the frontier & killed my book dead.” Sam estimated it might cost him as much as $10,000 and that he would spend that much to “choke off those pirates.” Sam asked, did Chatto give Belford permission to publish? [MTLE 1: 141].

Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam: “I really thought election day would be next Wednesday—but find out it is Tuesday—so my wife & self must leave Hartford Tuesday by the 12-25 or 12-54 train. You would have been stuck for two nights if I did not want to vote for Hayes & Wheeler.” [MTP].