April 21 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Moncure D. Conway’s letter of Apr. 15. Conway had invited Sam to the Author’s Club in New York City for Apr. 22; Sam hoped to be there but Livy couldn’t leave home so he was non-committal:

I shall get to the Author’s Club if I can, that evening, but by previous appointment I begin the evening at another dissipated place. I wonder where the whiskey will give out first [MTP].

Sam also responded to an inquiry to publish from handicapped Bruce W. Munro, who, five years before, as a 21-year-old in Toronto, had written Sam for advice on writing (see Oct. 21, 1881 entry). Sam answered that Webster & Co. Was “utterly overwhelmed with work,” and forwarded Munro’s questions to Webster, asking him or his clerk to provide answers for the “worthy young fellow & a cripple”:

…answer his questions for him — about the cost of plates, &c. The cripples we have with us always — give them a show [MTP].

Thomas Fitch wrote on Tacoma Land Co. stationery to Sam. Fitch was “ever so much obliged for the trouble” Sam went to in referring his wife’s play and hoped “that Mr. Gillette will find something in it for him in which event it’s production is pretty sure. You give no opinion of your own (in charity I suppose)” [MTP]. Note: William H. Gillette was involved in a possible production of Anna Fitch’s play.