October 23 Monday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Hattie and Karl Gerhardt.

“I STARTED A LETTER OF CREDIT FOR A HUNDRED POUNDS TO PARIS ABOUT THREE DAYS AGO, AND INTENDED TO WRITE YOU AT THE SAME TIME; BUT HAVE BEEN DELAYED IN VARIOUS WAYS. IN FACT MY PRINCIPAL DELAY COMES OF THE UNFINISHED AND APPARENTLY UNFINISHABLE CONDITION OF MY BOOK” [MTP].

George W. Cable attended a Monday Evening Club with Sam [MTHL 1: 420n4].

In a letter of Nov. 4 to Howells, Sam wrote of the reaction to Cable:

Cable has been here, creating worshippers on all hands. He is a marvelous talker on a deep subject. I do not see how even Spencer, could unwind a thought more smoothly or orderly, and do it in cleaner, clearer crisper English. He astounded Twichell with his faculty. You know that when it comes down to moral honesty, limpid innocence, and utterly blemishless piety, the apostles were mere policemen to Cable; so with this in mind you must imagine him at a mid-night dinner in Boston the other night, where we gathered around the board of the Summerset Club; Osgood, full, [John] Boyle Oreily, full, Fairchild responsively loaded, and Aldrich and myself possessing the floor, and properly fortified [MTHL 1: 419-20]. Notes: John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-1890) part owner of the Boston Pilot. The exact date of the Boston “orgy” is not known, and newspaper accounts are lacking; see October, late entry. Howells was in England at the time.

Samuel H. Church wrote from Columbus, Ohio, “very sorry you could not find time to write a preface for my books.” He expected “to be slaughtered for publishing it” [MTP]. Note: see Oct. 5.

Adah Langstan (1862-1902) wrote from Elberton, Ga. to sell Livingston Poems and to ask for his photo [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “This is characteristically Southern”; not in Gribben. She later married Charles Franklin Marshall (1857-1936).