April 5 Monday – Sam held the Monday Evening Club in his home and gave a reading “On the Decay of the Art of Lying” [MTLE 5: 62]. This was Sam’s fifth presentation to the club since being elected as a member in 1873 [Monday Evening Club]. There are several references to Francis Parkman’s works, including:

“The principle of truth may itself be carried into an absurdity, [and] The saying is old that truth should not be spoken at all times; and those whom a sick conscience worries into habitual violation of the maxim are imbeciles and nuisances” [Gribben 527]. Sam met Parkman in Dec. 1879 at the breakfast honoring Holmes [MTNJ 2: 359n11].

Edgar L. Wakeman wrote to Sam having rec’d his “favor of the 3rd” and apologized for some item appearing about Twain [MTP]. Note: this is not Edgar M. Wakeman; this Edgar L. was the Chicago correspondent for the Louisville Courier-Journal, and the financial secretary for the Press Club of Chicago. Sam wrote on the env., “Edgar L. Wakeman / 1880 / apology &c”; Wakeman may have answered Twain’s Apr. 3 to Melville Stone.