April 13 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to Lorettus S. Metcalf, editor of Forum Magazine.

When I left you I found that Mrs. Clemens’s attack was diptheria — & that she was perilously ill. That stopped the Arnold-article on the spot, of course…. This afternoon one of the children has gone to bed ailing. These are not good times in which to write magazine articles [MTP].

Note: Sam likely saw Metcalf in New York on Apr. 7, since his office was at 253 Fifth Ave. Sam added that there was only one detail he especially wanted to answer in Matthew Arnold’s article,

& I mean to answer that one in so friendly a way that it may even be called affectionate — loving — sloppy [MTP].

Note: Metcalf would resign from Forum in 1891 after fifteen years; he had built the circulation to about 20,000.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote to Sam about this day that he “should have written a great while ago to the author of ‘Huckleberry Finn’ — a book which I have read four times, and am quite ready to begin again tomorrow.” After two anecdotes, Stevenson confided he was “leaving my Patmos, and shall be from Thursday next for about a week in the St Stephens Hotel, East 11th Street, N.Y. (pray keep the address secret — I cannot see many people)” [MTP].