October 9 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote his sister, Pamela Moffett, who had sent a postcard from New York he received this morning.

I declined the invitation to banquet with the visiting South American Congress, in a polite note explaining that I had to go to New York to-day. I conveyed the note privately to Patrick; he got the envelop soiled, & asked Livy to put on a clean one. That is how she came to find out what was in it; which is why I am going to the banquet; also why I have disinvited the boys I thought I was going to punch billiards with, upstairs tonight. Patrick is one of the injudiciousest people I ever struck. And I am the other.

Sam directed Pamela to give their love to “the Keokuk household”[MTP]. Note: The Pan American Congress arrived in Hartford from South Manchester, Conn.. A contingent of South American delegates, correspondents and New England businessmen toured various factories, including Pratt & Whitney where the Paige machine sat (though no mention of it in the news articles), followed by a banquet and reception at the Capitol, both of which Sam likely attended. (See Hartford Courant, Oct. 9, 1889 “Pan American Congress”p.8; also “America in Connecticut, Oct. 10, 1899 p.1) Friday was Sam’s regular billiard night. The banquet took place at 7 p.m. at the Allyn House. This from the Courant article of Oct. 10:

It was already long after time for the reception at the Capitol, but the visitors had learned that Mark Twain was present and there was a call for him which had to be recognized. Governor Bulkeley introduced Mr. Clemens as a gentleman who belonged not to Hartford alone, nor to the United States, but to the whole world.

Mark Twain responded in his happiest vein, in a speech which to undertake to report would be to spoil. Every sentence was sandwiched between laughter and cheers.

Sam also answered Richard R. Bowkers’ invitation to read at the authors’ benefit for copyright at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Dec. 16. He was tired of such events and felt they weren’t produced rationally, so he declined. (His notebook, 3: 523 holds plans to read “Tar Baby” at the tail end, but he must have changed his mind after some thought.)

I have worked for Copyright in all the different ways that its friends have suggested, ever since 1872 — seventeen or eighteen years; & I am cordially willing to continue to work for it all the rest of my life in all those ways but one — but I want to draw the line there: the platform. …

No; an Author’s Reading, conducted in the customary way, turns what ought to be the pleasantest of all entertainments into an experience to be forever remembered with bitterness by the audience. Remember Washington! There are now living but four persons who paid to get into that house; it is also a fact, howsoever privately it has been kept, that 22 died on the premises, & 87 on their way home. I am miserable whenever I think of my share in that wanton, that unprovoked massacre. / Tell me any other way I can help the cause, & I will do my very level best [MTP].

Elsie Leslie Lyde wrote Sam thanking him for the slipper and long letter, which arrived this afternoon.

I think they are splendid and shall have them framed and keep them among my very most prechus things….Give my love to Mrs. Clemens Susy Clara Gene [Jean] I-know and you-know and Vix and all of my Hartford friends tell Gene I wish I was with her and we would have a nice jump in the hay loft. When you come to New York you must call and see me then we will see about those big words…. To my loyal friend Mark Twain from his little friend ELSIE LESLIE LYDE. (Not Little Lord Fauntleroy now but Tom Canty of Offal Court and Little Prince Edward of Wales.) [Salsbury 268].

Best & Co. , Mfgr. Boys, Girls and Infant’s Clothing, N.Y., sent Sam a statement dated Oct. 1:

Sept 17 1 Cap 2.50; Sept 19 1 coat 22.70; 1 coat 19.00; 1 coat 14.00; 1 coat 9.75; 1 Dress 15.00; 1 Dress 13.50; Alt[erations] 2.00 Totaling 98.45; marked paid this date [MTP].

Frank Fuller wrote to Sam asking for money to build a place for his business, which he claimed he’d “built up from nothing to quite large proportions.” Fuller wrote, “I have got to get out of this hole,” that is the surroundings he was stuck in. The envelope’s return address was to the Health Food Company, 74 Fourth Ave, Cor. 10th St., N.Y. [MTP].

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that while in Chicago he’d heard a rumor that Stanley’s book would be published by Samson Low & Co. Sam might find out through Sir Francis de Winton if it were so [MTP].

Norden & Co. telegraphed Sam: “Yes it was understood that Sage had such authority” [MTP]. Note: reference here is obscure.