October 11 Friday – Frank Dalzell Finlay and his daughter Miss Mary Finlay had traveled from Belfast, Ireland to America and spent some days with the Clemens family in Hartford. In 1937 Mary Finlay wrote about the visit and this specific day:

…a lovely house. His 3 daughters — the eldest then 16, were there. They gave a big dinner in Father’s honor & I was covered with confusion, being very shy and self-conscious, when Mark Twain took me in first to dinner.

“Harris” of the “Tramp Abroad” was there (real name the Rev. Twichell) & I think, but am not sure, Charles Dudley Warner and a lady whom I remember as Mrs. Beecher Stowe. After dinner, M.T. took me up to see his study & presented me with “Huckleberry Finn” & wrote in it “To Miss Mary Finlay, with the best wishes of Mark Twain — Hartford, October 11th, 1889.” I still have it of course [The Twainian Oct. 1944, p.5].

Sam’s notebook: Frank Finlay % H.R. Finlay, Box 2082. Member & Hon Sec. Of the Reform Club, London — Member of Arts Club; & is a journalist [3: 484].

The length of Finlay’s visit is not clear. Budd writes,

“Two months before A Connecticut Yankee came out he was happy to put up Finlay as a houseguest and introduce him around as honorary secretary of the Reform Club, the Liberals’ social center in London” [Social 121]. Note: Budd adds the work “honorary” and does not specify the scope of “around,” but from his daughter’s recollections above, it seems clear that the introductions were at least among Sam’s Nook Farm neighbors and regular friends. Perhaps Finlay was included in Sam’s regular Friday Evening smoke and billiards gathering.

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, acknowledging receipt from sister Pamela of “conveyance of an interest in the royalties.” He was sorry Livy’s eyes were so bad; perhaps she wore glasses too much. Orion expressed worry about the final outlook of the typesetter, and contracts made with Paige, going into some legal details: “I am aware that I run the risk of invoking your wrath by writing to you a lot of chestnuts, already weighed and fully considered…but you will excuse me any how, when you consider the vastness of the interests at stake…”[MTP].

Frank Fuller wrote from N.Y. to Sam about his going to a masquerade ball in Madison, N.J. the following Wednesday — this a prelude to his not having heard from Sam about “becoming a heavy real estate owner in this growing town,” so if Sam would not be busy “next Tuesday evening, or even one hour of it,” he would come and talk to him while Sam would “punch your billiard balls” [MTP]. Note: Fuller wanted Sam to build him a building for his growing health food business.