November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 44th birthday. He read a piece called “Plagiarism” to the Saturday Morning Club in Hartford [MTPO].

He also gave a reading at the home of Mrs. Samuel Colt for the Decorative Art Society [MTPO].

He wrote a short note to his sister, Pamela Moffett, who evidently had received thanks from a committee he’d donated books to. Livy was “doing tolerably—only. The children are hearty” [MTLE 4: 167].

Thomas B. Kirby, private secretary to the Postmaster General of the U.S. wrote to Sam.

Dear Sir: / Noticing your letter to The HARTFORD COURANT upon the recent order of the Postmaster General, I take the liberty of enclosing a few copies of a tract which the Department has prepared in order to meet such hardened cases as yours. After reading the tract and the enclosed clipping (from the Cincinnati Enquirer), which latter I wish you would return to me as it is the only copy I have, you will see that the “unnecessary labor” of which you complain was really as unnecessary as the complaint, the only utility of which was to add to the already surplus stock of misinformation in the world, and to enable some needy compositors to increase their strings by several thousand, which latter end might have been just as well attained by the use of bogus.

      I send you by this mail a copy of the Postal Laws and Regulations to explain the allusions in the tract, and hope you will take the trouble to look into the matter thoroughly. The Department is a unit in regarding the order as the greatest step towards perfecting the postal service that has been taken for years, and its officers are confident that when the public understand it they will sustain it. / Yours Truly, /Thos. B. Kirby [MTPO]. Note: file says, “Printed in New York Times 14 December 1879 & Hartford Courant, 9 Dec. 1879”