February 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid, asking him to put a short notice in the Tribune that Sam wouldn’t be lecturing any more that season. Sam claimed it was the Tribune’s fault that he had twenty invitations to lecture in New York City alone [MTL 5: 299-300].
Augustin Daly “borrowed” some of Sam’s ideas and a play called “Roughing It” opened at the Grand Opera House in New York. Very little was taken from the book [MTL 6: 206-7n1]. This may be why Sam didn’t raise hell. And, since the play closed after a run of only four weeks (last performance was Mar. 15, 1873), he may simply have wanted to disassociate from it [Walker, Phillip 185; The Twainian July-Aug 1946 p1-2]. Sam remained on cordial terms with Daly. In 1877 Daly would stage Sam and Bret Harte’s Ah Sin play.