May 6 Tuesday – Howells had received and read Sam’s dramatization of P&P and wrote on May 4 that it was “altogether too thin and slight.” He felt Sam needed to fill in more from the book and that overall it was too short, and “the parlance is not sufficiently ‘early English’.” Sam replied:

“Well, then, some day I’ll try to remedy the play, but I’d rather take a dose of medicine. I am greatly obliged to you for reading it & telling me” [MTHL 2: 486].

Sam also wrote from Hartford to Parish B. Johnson, probably from his Nevada days.

My Dear Warrior— / I remember when you went away soldiering—as Captain, I think—& I also remember the mountain-mahogany beef & the cobblestone biscuits, & a number of the boarders. But a charitable Deity, overlooking services shirked, & other sins, has permitted me to forget the rest of the belongings of that boarding house & our sojourn in it…The life out there had its pleasant side, but it was the side that was outside Mrs. Doyle’s hashery [MTP]. Note: There is a record of Parish B. Johnson resigning as a 2nd lieutenant from the army on Dec. 20, 1863, as well as a member by that name in the Washington State 1st Biennial Legislature at Walla Walla (Ed: the town so well liked it was named twice) in 1867.

Sam also wrote a short note to Roswell Smith, editor and owner of Century: “I hunted up the house, along with my wife and we liked it immensely…I’ll retire to my den & my repose again” [MTP]. Note: the house in question was for George W. Cable to rent in Simsbury, Conn.