December 31 Monday – Sam printed a notice for Livy:

To Mrs. S.L. Clemens.

Happy New Year! The machine is finished, & this is the first work done on it [MTP]. Note: False hopes are the most intoxicating kind. See also Dec. 29 about this first “copy.”

In Fredonia, N.Y., Charles Webster, after long negotiations, settled on Dec. 22 for $12,000 for his interest in Webster & Co. Webster’s letter this date to Daniel Whitford reflects Webster’s philosophical if someone bitter view:

…Mr. Clemens now complains of a clause (placing all business in my hands) which has appeared in every contract he ever made with me, and reiterated in six contracts; a clause that was his original proposition…. But talk is idle, the matter is now settled, and a bad disagreeable muss is avoided. I will have a chance to get well at least and that’s all I care about at present. I only hope that Fred [Hall] is engaged in some great, or even fairly profitable, enterprise, I don hope Mr. Clemens won’t want him to drop it or neglect it to revive that “patent baby clamp” business, to prevent lively infants from kicking off the bed clothes and catching cold.

Now Dan you may treat this as a strictly private letter for in spite of my knowledge of affairs I wish Fred nothing but success. I hope he will succeed. I have sold out my interest for far less than I believe it to be worth but it is done and that is the end of it. You will hear nothing more from me on the subject. I shall try and regain my health and when that is done I shall go into something else [MTBus 391-2].

The first Founders’ Night of the Players club in New York was held on this date, and evidently Sam elected not to go. At the meeting, Edwin Booth transferred ownership to the Club of a charming old brownstone at 16 Gramercy Park, after he’d hired Stanford White to remodel the house for the club’s use. Booth filled the place with books and pictures and rarities, and took on the entire cost, then transferred the place to the Players Club. Booth would die in the house [MTB 867].

George H. Warner wrote to Sam on Am. Emigrant Co. Letterhead offering a plan to offer a percentage as a way for printers and newspapers to pay for machines [MTP].