July 25 Sunday – Charles Dudley Warner wrote that Sam’s note, “made me blush with pleasure, which is saying a great deal for such an old stoger. Nothing that has happened in connection with the serial has been so welcome to me as your opinion.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “A value letter from Chas Dudley Warner” [MTP]. The serial may have been Warner’s novel, Their Pilgrimage (1886).

Mrs. Zadel B. Gustafson responded from Middleton, Conn. to Sam’s suggestion that he bring her to Elmira for the interview she needed for the London Pall Mall Gazette (see June 5 entry). Gustafson suggested that she might,

…make a brief flitting to Hartford….as that is your real home it must be to you, as its shell is to the tortoise….and you could show me over the house & rummage among your treasures & souvenirs & tell me all about them & all that you willingly could about yourself….and we can go out & get a quiet cup of tea when the visit is done [MTNJ 3: 229n6].