April 23 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Sergei M. Stepnyak (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski), who had recently visited the Clemens home and sent a copy of his book, Underground Russia (1883). He divulged Livy and Susy’s timetable as well as their family “secret”:

The words you wrote in the front of the book delight me as praises delight a boy! The boy doesn’t stop to think whether they are deserved or not, & neither do I — & why should I? Praises are not a debt paid, they are a gift made…. I have read Underground Russia through with profound & painful interest. What sublime men & women! …Mrs. Clemens & Susy have been gone from here several years now — no, I mean 8 days; they are down yonder in Pennsylvania at Bryn Mawr College, & will return three days hence. It is the greatest pity in the world that we cannot shout to you Come now! & bring Mrs. Stepniak & the lad whom I would so like to see. But to our most sincere regret we are full of guests for the next fortnight, & then (this is private — a secret) we begin to dismantle the house & make farewell visits to relatives preparatory to a sea-flight the first week in June, & hermit life in a French village for one or two years [MTP].

Sam also wrote a letter of condolence to Sara Thomson Kinney (Mrs. John C. Kinney) on the death of her husband:

My Dear Mrs. Kinney:–I beg the privilege of offering my deepest sympathy in this time of your bereavement. We all loved him, and you have with you for fellow-mourners all the great host who knew him. There are those crying this morning who are unused to tears. Sincerely yours, S.L. Clemens [Hartford Courant Apr. 27, 1891 p.1 “Major Kinney’s Funeral”].

J.K. Hayward wrote to Sam after receiving no reply to a former request for information he might use for their literary society. Was Sam was born in Tennessee or Florida, Mo.? Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer, please explain that I am overburdened & send him the printed slip” [MTP]. See Feb. 14 entry.