November 28 Monday – Sam and daughter Clara left Hartford on the 12:30 p.m. train for New York. If he acted on his plan written to Fairbanks on Nov. 25, he then went to his office, did a bit of work and went to his reading (perhaps with Mary Mason Fairbanks). He took Clara to be at the dentist, Dr. John Nutting Farrar, for teeth straightening “about or before 2” for the “whole afternoon.” After the dentist appointment, Clara was given the task of walking a short way to Tiffany’s to “get a dozen of those dinner-cards” for the Nov. 29 Hawley dinner party [MTNJ 3: 353].
Sam read a piece, “The Fatal Anecdote”” at Chickering Hall, Author’s Readings, in New York City. Sam’s reading came first after James Russell Lowell’s introductory speech [MTNJ 3: 342n129]. The New York Times ran a long article, “AUTHORS HAVE A MATINEE” on page 5, which listed Sam among 20 or 30 other literary luminaries.
(This was a two day affair: the first day: Edward Eggleston, R.H. Stoddard, Henry Cuyler Bunner, George W. Cable and James Whitcomb Riley; the second day, James Russell Lowell Richard Malcom Johnston]., Charles Dudley Warner, Thomas Nelson Page, William Dean Howells, George William Curtis, and James Whitcomb Riley). Lowell acted as chairman and a plea for international copyright was given. For a complete program of each day, see Robert Underwood Johnson’s Remembered Yesterdays, p. 262. Johnson writes, “the hit of the readings was James Whitcomb Riley.”
Sam and daughter did not attend the second day.
Boyle & Criswell, publishers of “The Derrick” wrote asking Sam to name candidates for President and Vice President fo the nomination of 1888 with observations. Sam wrote “No” on the envelope [MTP].
E.D. Foulkes wrote from Burkeville, Va. to Sam — a begging letter [MTP].
Sam and Clara returned to Hartford likely this evening for Sam’s next morning business in Hartford.