June 10 Saturday – The official issue date of The Stolen White Elephant.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, asking for copies of the London periodical Tom Hood’s Comic Annual for 1873, 1874, and 1875. Sam’s article, “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel” ran in the 1873 volume; and the 1874 issue ran a version of his sketch “Jim Wolf and the Cats” [MTNJ 2: 485n179].

Sam also typed a letter to John L. RoBards, his old Marion Ranger friend:

“DEAR JOHN:—DON’T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING THE NEWSPAPERS SAY LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR THAT. AS LONG AS THE NEWS-PAPERS REFRAIN FROM TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ME, I HAVE NO FAULT TO FIND WITH THEIR STATEMENTS” [MTP].

The Chicago Tribune was among the first to review A Stolen White Elephant and other Detective Stories:

Mark Twain’s prolific pen has finished another volume, and before the buttons have been resewed after reading his last work he boldly steps out and bids you laugh again. …there are many things worth reading in this volume…[Budd, Reviews 219].

Lt. Andrew Goodrich Hammond wrote from Mayer’s Spring, Tex. to Sam: “Please accept my heartiest thanks for your photograph which has just been forwarded me from Lt. Clark …We have been in camp now for six weeks looking for Indians, but I think the Mexican troops have spared us the trouble & killed them all…” [MTP].