April 29 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading on this second day at Madison Square Theater, Author’s Reading given for the Longfellow Memorial, an entertainment managed by George Parsons Lathrop (1851-1898). Charles Eliot Norton introduced the readers [MTB 817]. Note: Paine mistakenly identifies this event as “early May.”

At this matinee performance Sam appeared in formal evening dress, a display which surprised everyone. As reported by the New York World next day, Sam explained: “I knew it would be night before they reached me, and so I came in evening dress.”

From Madison Square Theater he went to a Cornell alumni dinner at Morelli’s Restaurant in New York [656]. Major Pond invited Sam on Apr. 11. Sam responded to the toast “The Politician” [MTNJ 3: 137n35].

Susy Clemens, accompanied by her father and Major Pond, went to a dog show at Madison Square Garden. The show was an annual event of the Westminster Kennel Club, patronized by many well-to-do New York families. Susy wrote of the show in her unfinished biography of her father [MTNJ 3: 130n11]. From Susy’s Biography:

…when we got through seeing the dogs papa thought he would go and see General Grant and I went with him—this was April 29, 1885. Papa went up into General Grant’s room and he took me with him. I felt greatly honored and delighted when papa took me into General Grant’s room and let me see the General and Col. Grant, for General Grant is a man I shall be glad all my life that I have seen [MTA 2: 143].