November 19 Saturday ­– In New York City, Sam responded to an invite from Bram Stoker (1847-1912) to attend a 2 o’clock performance of Faust at the Star Theater. Stoker, Henry Irving, and Charles E. Howson organized the production, which opened Nov. 7. Having to catch a 4.30 train for Hartford, Sam wondered now near to the hour would a curtain or “some change” occur “that will let us get out without disturbing anybody” [MTP; NY Times, Nov. 1, p.3 “Theatrical Gossip”; Nov. 19, p.7 “Amusements”]. Note: It is not known if Sam and Olivia attended the play. Stoker was later business adviser to Henry Irving, and is best known for Dracula (1897).

Probably still in New York, Sam wrote a short note to Franklin G. Whitmore, asking him to get the “autograph signature” of the late Nathaniel J. Burton “to be engraved under the steel portrait” of the planned book of Burton’s lectures [MTP]. (See Oct. 13, 27 entries).

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), New York poet, died. She is best known for these words, from the 1883 sonnet, “The New Collossus”:

 “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”