May 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, helping him with his “autobiography.” Sam added “…the elder Bliss has heart disease badly, & henceforth his life hangs upon a thread” [MTLE 5: 97].

Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells he finished May 7. Sam was planning to go to Washington for a few days to speak to Congressmen about a new copyright law. His trip meant he would miss Howells’ trip to Hartford. Sam wanted to “astonish” Howells with a recent chapter of Orion’s book. He wrote a litany of recent ills:

Brisk times here. Saturday, [May 1] these things happened: Our neighbor Chas. Smith was stricken with heart disease, & came near joining the majority; my publisher, Bliss, ditto ditto; a neighbor’s child died; neighbor Whitmore’s sixth child added to his five other cases of measles; neighbor Niles sent for, & responded; Susie Warner down, abed; Mrs. George Warner threatened with death during several hours; her son Frank, whilst imitating the marvels in Barnum’s circus bills, thrown from his aged horse & brought home insensible; Warner’s friend Max Yortzburgh, shot in the back by a locomotive & broken into 32 distinct pieces & his life threatened; & Mrs. Clemens, after writing all these cheerful things to Clara Spaulding, taken at midnight, & if the doctor had not been pretty prompt the contemplated Clemens would have called before his apartments were ready. / However, everybody is all right, now, except Yortzburg, & he is mending—that is, he is being mended [MTLE 5: 90]. Sam also related a story of letting Abner the cat out of the conservatory. Livy suggested perhaps he needed Howells there to help him avoid such blunders. Or, so Sam claimed.

Jesse Madison Leathers wrote to Sam (Leathers to Whitney Apr. 26 enclosed) . “Your card canceling engagement is just received. I am indeed pained to learn of your wife’s prolonged illness…” he then begged for $300 for medical treatment for his 3 daughters [MTP].