January 13 Tuesday – Sam telegraphed from Quincy, Illinois to Charles Webster about the chapter to be given to Thorndike Rice of the North American Review. Sam had given orders to Rice that if Webster had not been heard from within a day then Bromfield could leave him a chapter of Huck Finn. Bromfield decided to leave the excerpt without waiting for Webster, which Sam wrote was a “pretty cool treatment of my orders….” Webster had written but Sam thought he should have telegraphed [MTP]. Sam often disagreed with how Webster communicated. Sam and company went to Hannibal.

Sam inscribed in Minnie Dawson’s autograph book: Truly Yours / S L Clemens / Mark Twain / Hannibal, Jan 13/85 [MTP]. (See Apr. 14, 1847 entry for more on the Hannibal Dawsons.)

Sam and Cable gave a reading in Opera House (?) Hannibal, Missouri. Meanwhile, the London Pall Mall Gazette was reporting favorably on the “great combination entertainment” of “Mark Twain and Mr. Cable” [p 3].