October 2 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster, mentioning his hope of interesting William W. Ellsworth of Scribner’s in the Kaolatype engraving process. Ellsworth was “the nephew of the business manager & chief owner of Scribner’s” and would become head manager of the Century magazine in 1882 [MTNJ 2: 358n5; MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood, who wrote on Sept. 29 of a plan to gain legal control over Canadian publication of P&P, so as to avoid the kind of piracy that he’d experienced with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam asked if all he needed was a bill of sale to transfer the rights to Chatto. He might “run up to Boston Thursday of this or early next week” [MTLTP 142].

Joe Twichell wrote Sam from Keene Valley, NY, enclosing a “discourse of George Eliot’s, which I would like you to read at your leisure…” [MTP].

October 2? Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to W.H. Lentz of the Volcano House in Hawaii, answering that he was not the writer of a piece called “Dream,” although it had been supposed so there for many years. (See Nov. 22, 1881 entry.) Sam’s letter concluded:

“Therefore observe you this, and keep it in mind; none genuine without the signature on the bottle. Yours truly, Mark Twain” [MTP]. Note: Phila. patent medicine king, Thomas W. Dyott likely the first to use this slogan, later used by Jim Beam bourbon.