December 24 Friday – Edward H. House wrote to Sam:

As regards the “Prince and the Pauper,” I should be well pleased to undertake the dramatization of it….I shall be glad if you send me a copy of the book….According to my remembrance of the book, the most taking arrangement would be to give both characters to the same performer, using a silent double in positions where they must for a moment appear together. If there is anywhere about a girl like what Lotta was twenty years ago, or Bijou Heron fifteen years ago, she might fill the duplicate part; but for such selection and other business details you know I am now incompetent. Doubtless there are…trustworthy men to take that matter in hand; so I shall be able, if you will send me…the book…. In a day or two I shall finish…a libretto for a comic opera…and I shall be ready for fresh fields and pastures new [NY Times, Jan. 27, 1890; see also Fatout, “MT Litigant” 34].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam:

Everything is working well. McClellan is selling well, Mrs. Hancock has accepted our offer, Genl. Sheridan is at work, and the Pope’s book looks as good if not better than ever. As soon as the agents slack up on McClellan I shall put them on that and Crawford [General Samuel W. Crawford’s Generals of the Civil War] then Mrs. Hancock then Sheridan or perhaps Logan if he accepts as I think he will [MTLTP 212]. Note: The decks were definitely crowded, and Webster & Co. Seemed to have cornered the market on war books.

Orion Clemens finished the letter begun on Dec. 21-see entry [MTP].