August 23 Sunday –– Sam’s fifth and last LETTER FROM MARK TWAIN, dated Aug.17 from New York City ran in the Chicago Republican and included: “ONE OR TWO CALIFORNIA ITEMS,” “A Railroad Mint – What the Legend Says,” “A GENUINE OLD SALT,” “PERSONAL,” and:

Hartford

I have been about ten days in Hartford, and shall return there before very long. I think it must be the handsomest city in the Union, in summer. It is the moneyed center of the State; and one of its capitals, also, for Connecticut is so law-abiding, and so addicted to law, that there is not room enough in one city to manufacture all of the articles they need. Hartford is the place where the insurance companies all live. They use some of the houses for dwellings. The others are for insurance offices. So it is easy to see that there is quite a spirit of speculative enterprise there. Many of the inhabitants have retired from business, but the others labor along in the old customary way, as presidents of insurance companies. It is said that a citizen went west from there once, to be gone a week. He was gone three. A friend said:

“What kept you so long? You must have enjoyed yourself.”

“Yes, I did enjoy myself, and that delayed me some but that was not the worst of it. The people heard there was a Hartford man aboard the train, and so they stopped me at every station trying to get me to be president of an insurance company!”

But I suppose it was a lie [Schmidt].