December 15 Sunday – In a Springfield (Mass.) Union article of Dec. 20, an account and description of Sam attending Twichell’s church was published. Sam was a regular member in his early Hartford days.

Directly behind [Warner] appears a man, dressed in furs, with a rather awkward, hesitating manner as if he wasn’t sure where his pew was located; his locks were rather curly over a somewhat low forehead, but, after all, he was one concerning whom a stranger would say, as I did, “Who is that?” and the answer would be “Why, don’t you know? Mark Twain?…He resides on the hill, in a cottage leased of Mrs Isabella Hooker, the famous woman suffragist [Messent 383 from the Union 20 Dec. 1872].

In Morristown, New Jersey, Thomas Nast wrote to Sam about Charley Fairbanks’ idolization and desire to meet him. Nast replied he was not usually in New York except on Fridays; that he lived some 30 miles from the city, where the air was clean and wouldn’t Sam come for a visit? Nast complained of catarrh, which he’d had for three years. He added:

“I long for a holiday, and would take one right away if I could afford it, but the work of my profession is, that when I don’t work, I don’t get any money, which don’t answer for a family of four children. I hope to see a book from you, before long, of your English travels. How much I should like to go with you and illustrate it” [MTP, drop-in letters].