May 5 Wednesday – Answering a promise to return in May, Sam and Twichell once again went to West Point Military Academy by way of New York City, where Sam ate a “corn-beef-&-cabbage dinner” at the Murray Hill Hotel.

…it gave me an indigestion & is trying to lodge a cold with me. Joe lost his overcoat in New York…[MTP: May 6 to Livy].

Sam also probably met with James B. Pond as intended, though he didn’t mention it. He must also have conferred with Charles Webster, because he wrote good news to Livy about “her costly sofa”:

You can order 1000 such sofas now, if you want to — the future bank account will foot the bill & never miss it. The Pope’s book is ours, & we’ll sell a fleet load of copies…Can’t write any more till to-morrow, at West Point — whither we are bound now [LLMT 247].

Note: Sam had great hopes for the biography of Pope Leo XIII. MTP shows this letter as Unknown location; Sam headed it “On the cars,” so it was posted at West Point or somewhere along the way. Sam’s encouragement about the sofa resulted in being told in N.Y. that a contract for the Pope’s book was signed.

The pair arrived at West Point that evening and had a “lovely visit with the General [Merritt] and his wife.” This trip was a somewhat less formal visit. Leon observes:

“No evidence has been found in archival sources to indicate which stories he might have told, if any. There is evidence from Merritt that he encouraged Mark Twain to visit informally with the cadets, assuring him in a letter of 30 March 1886 that he would ‘let you do as you please as to hours of “coming in” and returning. Our quarters are always open.’ Apparently the cadets wanted to demonstrate their skills in various infantry, artillery, and cavalry drills in Mark Twain’s honor” [71].

In Boston, William Dean Howells wrote again to Sam about the third act of Sellers as Scientist. He’d reviewed the whole play and concluded:

…I must say I think it will fail. It is a lunatic whom we’ve pictured and while a lunatic in one act might amuse, I’m afraid that in three he would simply bore. I suspect that the play hasn’t success in it, on that account, which is the point that Raymond made against it; he wouldn’t have given it up if that were not fatal. The real motive — the claimant business — isn’t developed; and there is nothing in the play but the idea of Sellers’ character, and a lot of comic situations. That is the way I feel about it now, after having firmly, furiously believed in it. Neither of us needs the money it might make, very badly, though we should like it, and it won’t make us any reputation, even if it succeeds [MTHL 2: 556]. Note: Clearly Sam disagreed, for he made the trip to Boston anyway.