May 30 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam and Livy wrote to Hattie Gerhardt. Hattie had been ill, so coordinating a visit was the object of this letter, the body by Livy with PS added by Sam. Livy wrote that they were leaving for Elmira on June 17; their last guests at Hartford would be arriving on June 10, making the only time available for Hattie to visit with her baby, June 6 to 9. If that didn’t work, Livy suggested they could “catch a glimpse” of her as “we got through New York on the 17th.” Sam cautioned her to beware—“That is too deadly & treacherous disease to take any chances with, at all” [MTP].

Note: Sam to Howells, June 5, revealed that the “last visitors” were “Miss Murfree & her sister.” Mary N. Murfree wrote Southern mountain stories under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. After Howells had printed one of her stories, he discovered she was a “young crippled woman of great charm” [MTHL 2: 532n3].

Sam also wrote to Buvva Morgan Smith  [Referenced by her letter of June 1, MTP].