October 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mervyn Drake, identity not known. Sam wrote six and a half lines in German and then recalled a Professor Ihne, who, with his wife and daughter, called on Sam and Livy on May 26, 1878 in Germany (See MTNJ 2: 89n85). Ihne was the author of several works on Roman history. Note: corrected name & date by Hirst email, May 17, 2007.

“I am trying to persuade my wife to say we shall pack up our household tribe & spend next summer at the Schloss Hotel and then I will furnish you some picturesque samples of German if you are there” [MTP].

Twain also signed a letter with 20 other leading men of Hartford to invite Lt. Mason L. Shufetde, U.S. Navy, in view of his “secret visit to Madagascar,” to lecture in Hartford. M.G. Bulkeley, Hartford mayor, headed the list, which included J. Hammond Trumbull, Joe Twichell, and Edwin P. Parker [ABE Books, Stodolski, Inc. Autographs 9/27/2010].

The Hartford Courant ran a front-page notice on Karl Gerhardt’s bust of Sam:

The bust of Mr. S. L. Clemens, which Mr. Karl Gerhardt modeled at Elmira last summer and which has just been put in breeze in Philadelphia, can now be seen at the gallery of Mr. Vorce. Mr. Gerhardt, who belongs in Hartford, has been for four years a student of sculpture in Paris…

Patent Engraving Co, New York sent Sam card & diagram “Game apparatus; filed this day [patent #] 324,535 ; with a quote of 1.75 to make game board [MTP, 1884 financial file].