December 27 Thursday – Sam had received Baroness Gripenberg’s letter of Nov. 8 from Finland, where she’d had the one-legged goose story published in a Swedish newspaper. A correspondent to the paper had argued that the story was taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, and accused Mark Twain of plagiarism, which upset the Baroness. Sam’s reply is noteworthy in that it explores his views on originality and plagiarism. Sam wrote that he’d first heard the story from [Francis] Hopkinson Smith, who had not claimed to be the cook and that Sam had not claimed to be the cook. Sam added:

People are always losing sight of this pregnant fact: there is no merit in ninety-nine stories out of a hundred except the merit put into them by the teller’s art; as a rule, nothing about a story is “original,” and entitled to be regarded as private property and valuable, except the art with the teller puts into the telling of it. Is any human being able to tell Boccacio’s story in Boccacio’s words and make anybody believe it was worth telling? Examine it yourself; you will not be able to smile at it. But Hopkinson Smith will transmute that dross into his own golden words, and by the art of his delivery he will make you shout. He puts a new quality into it, a quality of his own, a quality of “originality.” Wherein lies a poet’s claim to “originality?” That he invents his incidents? No. That he was present when the episodes had their birth? No. That he was the first to report them? No. None of these things have any value; he confers upon them the only “originality” that has any value, and that is his way of telling them [Moyne 376].

Sam asked the Baroness if his letter would “do for print?” See Jan 16, 1889 listing for the answer.

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam: “The papers were safely received from Mr. Rosenquest. Mr. Webster has sent us all the papers that he held on hand relating to the firm in any way….The first payment of $1500 was made yesterday,” by drawing against the company and Hall writing a personal check. Also, they’d received notes from the Beechers for the full amount, $5,000 — “They are drawn payable to the firm and endorsed by William C. Beecher and by his brother Col. Beecher. William C. we find is worth about $10,000 and Col. Beecher is very wealthy. We also managed to squeeze interest out of them…” [MTP].