December 21 Thursday – In New York, Sam finished the letter to Livy at 2 a.m.

That is the speech. I wrote it 3 days ago, & tried to memorize it, but was not able to do it, brief as it is — only 275 words — two minutes & a half. Charley Warner presided, & asked me to take the last place in the list of speakers, — the place of honor — saying that the others would be diffident about speaking after me. I agreed — for the sake of the compliment — but with many misgivings, for I was intending of course to make an impromptu speech.

The speech was a great success, with Howells, Bram Stoker, and Richard Watson Gilder coming up right afterward and heaping praise upon Sam.

And Matthews said “They all say they will never hear my name again without associating it with profanity.”

Now isn’t it odd! It is the unexpected that happens. That I should make the only speech that roused prodigious enthusiasm was the farthest from my expectations — I never dreamed it. But it shows what training can do. My platform training came to the front & was invaluable. That is whatever you say, say it with conviction, not in a cowardly way. I can’t tell you how gratified I was with this result. It is 2.20 a.m. & I go to bed. But I love you, dearheart. Saml [MTP].

At 2 p.m. Sam left with Henry H. Rogers on the Pennsylvania Railroad’s vice president’s private car. The trip took 25 hours.

It was mighty nice & comfortable. In its parlor it had two sofas, which could become beds at night. It had four comfortable-cushioned can arm-chairs. It had a very nice bedroom with a wide bed in it; which I said I would take because I believed I was a little wider than Mr. Rogers — which turned out to be true; so I took it. It had a darling back porch — railed, roofed & roomy; & there we sat, most of the time & viewed the scenery & talked, for the weather was May weather, & the soft dream-pictures of hill & river & mountain & sky were clear & away beyond anything I have ever seen for exquisiteness & daintiness.

….We sat up chatting till midnight, going & coming; seldom read a line, day or night, though we were well fixed with magazines, etc; then I finished off with a hot Scotch & went to bed & slept till 9.30 a.m. [Dec. 25 to Livy].