December 2 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote from Keokuk to Sam.

We are much obliged for your confidence. We will observe strict secrecy. We are taking special care of your letters. / I am glad you have finished the “Little Prince,” and have made a good contract. I predict for it real popularity. It will bear a wealth of illustrations.” [Orion then congratulates on the Kaolatype, and asks if it had been perfected. He then goes off on a tangent about animals’ brains and abilities to learn words.] “This morning I was in a wholesale grocery store. There I saw the ‘Mulberry’ brand of tobacco, ornamented with a full length likeness of Raymond holding aloft a bottle (or plug?) with the legend, ‘There’s Millions in it,’ while on another side was pasted the similitude of a $5 bill. / In the city clerk’s office this morning they were talking of Tramp and the difficulty of learning German, and of your funeral oration over the Democracy” [MTP].