December 3 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Sylvester Baxter of the Boston Herald, who evidently had asked for a piece from Sam for publication:
No, I am under too heavy a weight of burdens; & must not contemplate another, large or small, near or remote, for a long time yet. I mean to hold still a good many months, yet, & let my tank fill up, before I do any more writing. But I vastly want to know Bellamy, & you must bring him down, one of these Saturdays. I am to be away from home every Saturday until Dec. 28th.
Sam confided that Livy and he had a “little project in view” for that day and told Baxter to keep the date open. If possible Sam hoped to reproduce the same sort of fun evening they’d enjoyed on Nov. 28, Thanksgiving (see entry) and promised that Baxter and Bellamy would not be bored [MTP]. Note: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898) author of Looking Backward 2000-1887 (1888). Sam began reading the book on the train, Nov. 5. He would entertain the two men on Jan. 3, 1890 [Gribben 58].
Sam also wrote a three-page letter and a note to his old Hannibal friend, Will Bowen, who evidently had written a letter now lost. Sam’s letter:
Yes sir! I should like to go again. For I had a noble good time in Australia once — by proxy. I have hunted all about for the letter which told me about it, but it is unfindable. However, in brief, these are the facts. Years ago when I was younger & not afraid of travel, I used to get ready about once per annum to go out & lecture in Australia & of course I always told a lot of friends & strangers about my project — which was a natural thing to do. Now as to that letter. It came to my wife eight or ten years ago from an English friend of ours who was yachting in those distant waters. It broke to Mrs. Clemens as gently as possible the news of my death in Melbourne or somewhere out there . . . The writer of the letter had arrived just in time to march with the funeral & so was able to say to my widow, the present & only Mrs Clemens, that an old friend saw me interred & that of the tears that were shed for me, not all were the tears of strangers. There — think of that. I seem to see that dead fraud enjoying those tears yet & trying to smile his satisfaction in this final & unlooked for cap-stone to his gaudy Australian career of social success & financial crime. Very likely he was a pretty poor sort of humorist when alive but certainly he played his hand first-rate as a corpse . . .
[www.liveauctioneers.com/item/948610; May 12, 2005].
Sam’s follow-up note:
Will that do to send to him? I must cut short, now, & rush down & read to the madam, who has sent to hurry me; her eyes are in bad condition these past ten months…[MTP]. Note: Bowen answered on Dec. 10. ‡ The gentleman in question was W.D. Meares of Christchurch N.Z. Sam’s Dec. 3 reply to Bowen was published in the Brisbane Courier Feb. 27, 1890 p.5
Saloman & DeLeeuw, Tobacconists, Hartford, receipted $2 for 4lbs of Bl’k Durham @ .50 [MTP].
Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing a copy of letter sent to Sampson Low & Co., London. The letter acknowledged receipt of Low’s last cable and advised they would send a representative of Webster & Co. to London the latter part of the winter for direct negotiations. (Webster to Sampson, Low & Co. Dec. 3 encl.) [MTP].