November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, enclosing letters he had received from and for Mary Timberman, asking him to use his influence in gaining her a position with the Boston Museum Theatre or any other theatre, as she wanted to early a “livelihood” in the “dramatic profession.”

I want to ask you or Mollie to take this matter off my hands…I knew her father & mother 30 years ago…a man of whose critical ability I haven’t the slightest evidence, says she has dramatic talent…Another man says he has heard people say she has dramatic talent. Dam it, I should simply get myself laughed at—& so I decline [MTP].

Sam also wrote a note to William H. Knight, thanking him for:

“the pleasant things…said & the countenance which you & Mrs. Knight give to that sketch.”

He enclosed a picture of Livy and the girls taken by H.L. Bundy of Hartford. Sam wrote that the picture:

“…does justice to Susy & the cat, & Jean & Clara…but slanders Mrs. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: This may have been the William H. Knight who rose to national recognition through the publication of such works as Hand-Book Almanac for the Pacific States (1862) and Bancroft’s Maps of the Pacific States (1864). In 1879, he moved his family to Cincinnati where he joined the Fisher Carriage Building Company and he continued with his scientific and literary work.

Rollin M. Daggett wrote he’d rec’d Sams of the 19th and had just written to the Hawaiian King; he didn’t doubt he’d be able to get the King’s name on the title page of the proposed legends book [MTP].