December 23 Saturday – The New York Times reported on p.1 the banquet and Sam’s speech of the previous night:

[Mark Twain delivered] an address which kept the tables in a roar for a quarter of an hour. The speaker brought his words out in an indescribable drawl, and puffed a cloud of smoke from his cigar between every two sentences [MTNJ 2: 505n240].

This day or shortly after, Sam returned home to Hartford.