December 22 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Laurence Hutton, congratulating Miss Eleanor Varnum Mitchell, soon to be Mrs. Laurence Hutton.
“And now I am relieved of a burden which has long been secretly oppressing my heart. Months ago, fully aware of the relations existing between you & my daughter, I was shocked & grieved to discover that she had transferred her affections to a horse kitten” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to James B. Pond. Evidently, newspaper reviews aside, Sam was growing tired of Cable, and had concluded he’d do better without him.
You were right, when you said in the Brunswick hotel last summer that I would draw better all by myself. It is true. I thought Cable would be a novelty, but alas he has been everywhere, & is a novelty nowhere. I wish I could pay him $200 a week to withdraw, & pay the little Russian musician a reasonable sum to take his place. I would do it in a minute. Personally I like Cable immensely; & in his right place he ought to be a good card—but he is not in his right place now.
Sam felt that Cable drew only a “sixteenth part of the house, & he invariably does two-thirds of the reading. I cannot stand that any longer. He may have 35 or 38 minutes on the platform, & no more.” Sam wanted Cable to cut his selections because overall he felt the show was too long. He also felt Cleveland and Detroit were “well worked & advertised” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charles Webster with a list of things for him to do; directing him to “Call at the Everett House 10 o’clock next Sunday morning” (Dec. 28); Osgood had not sent a statement in a year and needed “stirring up”; a reminder that Huck Finn would not issue until 40,000 had been sold; another reminder about the American Exchange in Europe—was it still a sound investment or should he sell out? Should he sell Western Union stock? A reminder of his demand to American Publishing Co. to:
“…enjoin those pirates…[The Coker Co.]—Watch the files of the advertising agencies, & see if the ad disappears” [MTP].
Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: Estes & Lauriat matter. “Alexander & Green say they are clearly actionable. What shall I do in the matter? / It seems to me if we let it go, any one can advertise our book, at any price they please in the middle of a canvass & hurt our business” [MTP].