January 11 Sunday – Since Sam had decided back in 1866 or 1867 to put his Sandwich Islands Letters into a book, he understood the value of pre-selling books by running excerpts in popular newspapers or magazines. On this date the Chicago Times and the New York Tribune ran portions of Huck Finn [The Twainian, Mar. 1944 p4].

Sam wrote two letters from St. Louis to Livy. The expressed,

“How measureless & lonesome the time since I have seen you, my dearest! This is Sunday, & I am abed all day. Instead of writing you, I thought I would translate the German prose verse of the Pied Piper of Hamelin for you.”

And did do a large portion of it. The second letter followed one he wrote to Mrs. Whiteside, a young “(married, but a mere child)” woman who’d sent him a story to evaluate. Sam gave the woman some wise words about writing fiction, and then copied the letter to Livy in his second note to her:

“Literature is an art, not an inspiration. It is a trade, so to speak, & must be learned—one cannot ‘pick it up.’ Niether can one learn it in a year, nor in five years. And its capital is experience—& you are too young, yet, to have much of that in your bank to draw from” [MTP].

Sometime during the brief stay in St. Louis, Sam’s cousin James Lampton, the model for Colonel Sellers in The Gilded Age, visited Sam’s hotel room. Sam left the door ajar to Cable’s adjoining room and let his relative talk away. After Lampton left, Cable stuck his head through the door and said, “That was Colonel Sellers” [Cardwell 38].