November 20 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Henry B. Barnes. Sam’s letter is another of the obvious responses to one not extant. Barnes had invited Sam to speak at the Stationers and Publishers Dinner on Feb. 7, 1887. Sam offered these terms:

Yes, I would like very well indeed to be present — with the speech-requirement left out. Being a publisher myself, I should like to meet & get acquainted with my fellow-craftsmen; & would also like to get up & talk, in case the spirit moved…but I could not respond to a toast….I am too old & lazy to make even the triflingest preparation for a speech…I do try to be sorry that this is so, but at bottom I ain’t, because I hate work [MTP]. (See Dec. 6 entry.)

Harrie Wilbye Taylor wrote from Melbourne, Australia to Sam asking for an autograph and perhaps a “characteristic quotation which would add a sort of gild-edged halo to it.” Sam did not write on the envelope, and it’s not known if he complied [MTP].