January 18 Friday – London’s Pall Mall Gazette reported:

…the genial humorist who is famous throughout the civilized world as “Mark Twain” is a mechanician of no ordinary kind. For several years he has been engaged in perfecting a type-setting machine of his own invention, and at last his patient toil has been, as he declares, crowned with success [MTNJ 3: 440n112].

If things went as planned, Sam returned to New York and dined with William Dean Howells and his literary circle at Moretti’s Restaurant (see Jan. 4). He may have then returned home or spent one night in the City, returning the next day, Jan. 19. Often there were no trains on Sundays.

George Standring wrote from London to Sam (clipping enclosed of the above Pall Mall article). “Your letter announcing the success of yr. machine arrived yesterday morning, & threw me into an excited state.” Sandring wrote an article based on Sam’s letter and enclosed it [MTP].