December 22 Friday – Sam and Rogers continued on to Chicago, eating breakfast in their parlor car after 9:30 a.m.

The colored waiter knew his business, & the colored cook was a finished artist. Breakfasts: coffee with real cream; beefsteaks, sausage, bacon, chops, eggs in various ways, potatoes in various — yes, & quite wonderful baked potatoes, & hot as fire. Dinners — all manner of things, including canvas-back duck, apollinaris, claret champagne, etc.

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

December 20 Wednesday – In New York Sam arrived home (Players Club) at 3 a.m. from unspecified engagements. Some powders were waiting for him for his cold, sent by Henry H. Rogers. He stayed awake for an hour and took them, got a few hours sleep and wrote Rogers his thanks at 9 a.m.

I got the shoes on my way home from your office, & when you see them you will be paralyzed with admiration [MTP].

December 19 Tuesday – In New York, Sam went to the Standard Oil office at noon to arrange the Chicago trip they’d planned. While waiting he met Wayne MacVeagh, now Minister to Italy, and father to Margaretta, friend of Susy’s. When told they hadn’t heard from Susy, Sam filled him in.

December 18 Monday – In New York Sam dined with the Laurence Hutton family and wrote of it on Dec. 19 to Livy:

I dined with the Huttons yesterday [Dec. 18] evening — family dinner, no dress — & we had a delightful time till 11 o’clock. Mr. Hutton thinks Pudd’nhead opens up in great & fine style. The fact is I get a great many compliments on that story & the promise it holds out to the reader [MTP].

December 17 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” and describing his new digs, and the difficulty of waiting:

December 16 Saturday – In New York Sam moved to a better room at the Players Club. He completed the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” which he began in a letter to Livy on Oct 17. In his Dec. 17 to Livy he wrote of moving into his new quarters on this evening and running across the tale which he’d misplaced.

December 15 Friday – The N.Y. Times, p.1 reported Sam failed to meet his Dec. 14 speaking engagement at St. George’s Church because “his medical adviser forbade it.”

December 14 Thursday – In New York and still laid up, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel:

I am still in bed, & waiting for Dr. Rice to come & withdraw his prohibition.

I have been obliged to eat — couldn’t wait any longer, because I had a long fit of coughing which had to be stopped somehow or other. So don’t keep a place for me at table.

December 13 Wednesday – In New York on Dr. Clarence Rice’s letterhead, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel, asking if he might get “that Thursday talk put off?” due to his bad cough and cold. He was scheduled to give a lecture to the St. George’s Church Men’s Club on “Reminiscences of a Mississippi Pilot” on Dec. 14.

Sam also wrote on Players Club letterhead to Henry H. Rogers:

Dear Doctor Rogers: