November 20 Wednesday – Webster & Co. sent Sam the first copies of Connecticut Yankee, albeit unbound set of stitched sheets [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.28, Oxford ed. 1996].

Noting the Nov. 15 revolt by Brazilians and their Declaration of Independence and a republic, which coincidentally resembled the dissolution of King Arthur’s monarchy in CY, Sam wrote to Sylvester Baxter of the Boston Herald who had received early sheets of the book.

This is merely one of those odd coincidences which are always turning up. Come, protect the Yank from the cheapest & easiest of all charges — plagiarism.

Sam exulted in the fall of the Brazil monarchy:

Another throne has gone down, & I swim in oceans of satisfaction. I wish I might live fifty years longer; I believe I should see the thrones of Europe selling at auction for old iron. I believe I should really see the end of what is surely the grotesquest of all the swindles ever invented by man — monarchy [MTP].

Joseph T. Goodman wrote from Fresno to Sam: “I reached here nearly a week ago but have been so tortured by neuralgia ever since that I have not been able to write or do anything else…the pain in my jaws has left me this morning.” Joe related his talks with Senator Jones, and said Sam would have to go over the same ground with him [MTP]. (Letter referred to in Nov. 28 to Moffett.)