December 15 Tuesday – Sam traveled to Boston to attend the dinner at the Parker House, hosted by the Atlantic Monthly for its contributors. About 30 contributors were present. Howells was toastmaster. Guests included: Henry Oscar Houghton, Melancthon M. Hurd, Horace E. Scudder, and George Harrison Mifflin (all business associates of Houghton). Contributors included: Aldrich, Oliver Wendell Holmes, George Cary Eggleston, and Henry James (1843-1916) [For a further list see MTL 6: 318]. Sam spoke twice. The text is not available, but the next day The Boston Evening Transcript, called Sam’s speech one of the brightest of the evening, and summarized his remarks:

…once when sailing on the blue Mediterranean … he tried to give the impression that he was a poet. He said no one believed him, and after repeated protestations he rashly laid a wager of ten to one that he could get a poem printed in the Atlantic. The poem was forwarded from Gibraltar, the bet was ten dollars to a hundred, which accounts, Mark said, for the fact that he had only three dollars in his pocket when he reached here. A subsequent anecdote related by him and Mr. Osgood jointly, proved that Mark was more at home in a game called “euchre” than in poetry, and Mr. Osgood assured the company that it was not a safe practice to play cards with Mark Twain [Schmidt: See Arthur Gilman, “Atlantic Dinners and Diners,” Atlantic Monthly 100, no. 5 (November 1907) 646-67; MTL 6: 317].

Howells, Aldrich and Sam stayed up talking until 2 AM.