December 31 Friday – Frank Fuller wrote from New York touting three stocks, which he clipped and pasted newspaper quotes — Oregon R & N, Oregon S.L.. And Union Pacific [MTP].

Arthur C. Thornton wrote a fan letter to Sam from Richmond, Va. Thornton told of a trip to Washington during last summer and of relating each of Sam’s books to places and events there. Obliquely, Thornton asked for a book. Sam wrote on the envelope, “O, Sorrowful!” [MTP].

Mike M. Brannan for Eufaula (Alabama) Times & News wrote to Sam on his letterhead announcing himself as “Correspondent N.Y. Times, &c., and Founder of the Fund to Erect a Monument over the Grave of Father Ryan, at Mobile”. Brannan glued a sliver from the Atlanta Constitution of this day:

MARK TWAIN is now said to be worth something like $1,500,000

On the envelope Sam wrote, ‘O, hell!” [MTP].

Paul E. Wirt (that fountain pen magnate) wrote from Bloomsburg, Penn. thanking Sam for his “kind response” to his last letter, which he received Dec. 30. Wirt sent a fee pen, even though he thought that Sam may have all he needed, and if so, he could “give it to one of his boys” [MTP].