July 16 Monday – From New York, Sam sent separate letters to his daughters, Clara and Susy Clemens. Only the envelope survives to Clara’s letter. To Susy he wrote:

“I saw a cat yesterday, with 4 legs—& yet it was only a yellow cat, & rather small, too, for its size. They were not all fore legs—several of them were hind legs; indeed almost a majority of them were. Write me. Papa” [MTLE 2: 97].

Sam also wrote per Livy to Richard Edwards, giving permission to use three pages from his Mississippi Sketches in a reader [MTLE 2: 98].

Sam went to Hartford. In the evening he had a “pleasant short visit” with at the home of Charles Perkins and a “rattling time” at Twichell’s [MTLE 2: 100]. Twichell’s journal includes an entry for the evening about Sam reading Act I of the Simon Wheeler play:

“…he being the best reader I know…I couldn’t judge the merits of the comedy for stage presentation, but as a reading by the author for an audience of one it was an [?illegible] success” [Yale 4, copy at MTP].

Charles E. Perkins wrote that he’d rec’d Sam’s $100 check for H.W. Bergen. “George has been frightened at what he thinks was an attempt at burglary at your house—am not inclined to take much stock in it” [MTP]. Note: George Griffin, the family butler.