December 30 Saturday – Sam lectured in Paris, Illinois – Topic was probably “Artemus Ward.”

Sam wrote from Paris to Livy, a lost letter that probably included a description of “Sociable Jimmy,” published in 1874. Sam described a six or seven-year-old Negro boy who brought him dinner in the Paris House Hotel. The interaction between the “most artless, sociable, and exhaustless talker I ever came across,” and wise old Sam the narrator, anticipated Huck Finn [Fishkin 14; Powers, MT A Life 314].

Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN A RAILROAD CAR” ran in the Jackson, California Amador Dispatch.

"I got into the cars and took a seat in juxtaposition to a female. The female’s face was a perfect insurance company for her—it insured her against ever getting married to anybody except a blind man” [Fatout, MT Speaks 65]. Note: This piece also ran in Comic Almanac, 1874 and in the Jan. 1873 issue of Theriaki, “a short-lived monthly published at Laporte, Indiana.