September 28 Saturday – Sam spoke at the Sheriff’s Dinner, at the Freemasons’ Tavern, Guildhall, London in response to a toast “Success to Literature” [Schmidt]. The dinner was given by the new sheriffs of London to the city guilds and liverymen. When one of the sheriffs proposed the health of Mark Twain, he was applauded, then Sam responded to the toast. The London Times, Sept. 30, 1872, called it “an amusing speech” [LLMT 178-79].

Afterward, Sam wrote about the dinner and speech to Livy and also to Elisha Bliss [MTL 5: 182-3].

William Gorman Wills opened his play, Charles I, with Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905) in the lead role at the London Lyceum. Sam wrote unfavorably of the play, calling it “a curious literary absurdity” in an unpublished piece written later in the year [Gribben 775].

John Camden Hotten defended himself in “Mark Twain and His English Editor,” Spectator. Hotten argued that attributing Carl Byng’s work to Sam merely followed the commonly accepted view; that he was not a pirate since the material he took held no copyright in England; and that he’d written three letters to Sam, including one offer of payment, with no reply [Tenney 5].