November 29 Sunday – Sam’s sketch, “Sociable Jimmy,” written from his letter home in 1872 was printed in the New York Times [MTL 5: 20n6; Fatout, MT Speaks 88]. An excerpt:

We ain’t got no cats heah, ‘bout dis hotel. Bill he don’t like ‘em. He can’t stan’ a cat no way. Ef he was to ketch one he’d slam it outen de winder in a minute. Yes he would. Bill’s down on cats. So is de gals—waiter gals. When dey ketches a cat bummin’ aroun’ heah, dey jis’ scoops him—’deed dey do. Dey snake him into de cistern—dey’s been cats drownded in dat water dat’s in yo’ pitcher. I seed a cat in dere yistiddy—all swelled up like a pudd’n. I bet you dem gals done dat. Ma says if dey was to drownd a cat for her, de fust one of ‘em she ketched she’d jam her into de cistern ‘long wid de cat. Ma wouldn’t do dat, I don’t reckon, but ‘deed an’ double, she said she would. I can’t kill a chicken—well, I kin wring its neck off, cuz dat don’t make ‘em no sufferin’ scacely; but I can’t take and chop dey heads off, like some people kin. It makes me feel so—so—well, I kin see dat chicken nights so’s I can’t sleep [Railton].

On or about this day – In Hartford, Livy and Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon, Livy’s brother. Livy thanked him for the gift he sent for her 29th birthday on Nov. 27. Sam wrote of giving Theodore Crane “the rudiments” of billiards. The Cranes had been visiting just over two weeks [MTL 6: 297-8].

Sam also wrote to James Redpath. Sam’s idea of a Mississippi River trip for the purpose of gathering and reminding for materials for a book had been in his head since at least Mar. 1866. He suggested a few lectures in New York, Cleveland, Louisville, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans while making such a trip. Sam hoped he might be able to finish drafting Tom Sawyer by May 1. (He did not complete the draft until July 1875, and did not make the river trip until the spring of 1882, and without lecturing.) Redpath’s reply has been lost [MTL 6: 298-9].