January 13 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading for the benefit of the Berlin American Church at the YMCA Hall, Berlin, Germany [Fatout 660; NY Times Jan.3, 1892, p.3 “Court Calls in Berlin”]. Note: It’s not known what Sam read.

Paine writes, “As it was, they found Berlin very cold and the lecture-room crowded and hot. When the lecture was over they stopped at General Maximillian Von Versen’s for a ball, arriving home about two in the morning” (Jan. 14) [MTB 935]. (Editorial emphasis.) Sam wrote in his notebook that he went to bed and stayed there “three weeks with congestion of lungs & influenza” [NB 31 TS 21].

William Leaman wrote from Lancaster, Penn. commenting on Sam’s Dec. 1891 Harper’s article, with Sam’s account of a narrow escape from having seen a vision while wide awake. Leaman offered his own experience related in George Henry Lewes’ Physiology of Common Life, and closed by sympathizing with Sam’s attempts to be taken seriously: “Fame as a humorist has its price” [MTP].

The Clover Club of Philadelphia sent Sam a reminder card and invitation for their tenth annual dinner on Jan. 21, 1892 [MTP].

Robert Thorne for Trinity College Alumni wrote a note to Sam and enclosed an invitation to the New York Association of the Alumni of Trinity College dinner at Delmonico’s on Feb. 2 [MTP].