December 25 Saturday – Christmas – Sam purchased two tickets for La Morte Civile (The Civil Death) starring the Italian actor Tommaso Salvini (1829-1915), which played one night, Thursday, Dec. 30 [Hartford Courant, Dec. 27 p2. “This Week’s Entertainments”]. Note: from 1873 to 1889 Salvini made five trips to the U.S.

Sam inscribed a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer for: “Clara Clemens from Papa. Christmas, 1880”[MTLE 5: 237].

Sam also wrote from Hartford to Olivia Lewis Langdon, sending a gold box for her spectacles [238].

Sam also wrote to Susan Warner, enclosing a drawing he’d done of the Sphinx and some camels.

“Would you mind explaining to friends that the Sphinx is neither a gorilla nor a Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, but only just a simple Sphinx? Merry Christmas!” [239].

In Sam’s notebook a list of Christmas wages or bonuses for the staff: Patrick [McAleer] $30, George [Griffin] 25, Lizzie 10, Delia the cook 20, Katy Leary 16, and Rosa [Hays] 15 [MTNJ 2: 389n108].

Charles Dudley Warner inscribed a copy of his book In the Wilderness (1881) to Livy [Gribben 745].