May 17 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to George W. Cable, who wrote and telegraphed the day before, upset at things he was reading in the papers. Sam assured him that they were the “slanders of a professional newspaper liar,” and that “this thing did not distress” him “for one single half of a half of a hundreth part of a second” [MTP]. The source of Cable’s upset? From Turner’s biography of Cable:

“Yet within a few weeks after the reading team had disbanded, the newspapers printed comments on the tour, critical particularly of Cable, some of which could have originated ultimately with no one but Mark Twain. These slanderous charges were written and published, however, after the way had been prepared by the stand Cable had taken on the race question and the newspapers had heaped abuse on him for that reason” [193].

Sam also telegraphed Charles Langdon at the Gilsey House in New York, asking if he could come see him there the next evening [MTP].

Sam also wrote a short note to James B. Pond, asking for “two or three of those broadsheets of notices” of his readings. Sam intended to give a double performance the first week in June at Unity Hall in Hartford [MTP]. (See June 1 entry to the Art Society of Hartford.)