September 18 Monday – Russell Hinman sent a copy of his book, Eclectic Physical Geography (1888) to Sam for daughter Jean Clemens, with this note:
My dear Sir: —
Mrs. Hannahs tells me you entertain a belief that your daughter would be interested in my little book on Physical Geography. I should not have supposed that a young lady who has doubtless roamed with her father to the very limits of space and to the very steps of the Throne of Grace would be attracted by a mere Synopsis# of a Yarn so strictly mundane.
Still I shall be most happy if you will accept for her use the accompanying copy as a slight token of my appreciation of the many pleasant jaunts I have taken under your guidance and especially of yesterdays delightful personally ## conducted trip to the New Jerusalem! / Very Sincerely Yours, Russell Hinman.
S.L. Clemens Esq
Explanation: #:I gave the company a “synopsis” of a marvelous story of Bob Ingersoll’s.
##. Told them about Rev. Sam. Jone’s entry into Heaven. [MTP]. Note: Sam enclosed Hinman’s note in his Sept. 19 to Livy, with these asterisks and notes.
At Dr. Clarence Rice’s in New York, Sam wrote a note of thanks to Russell Hinman for Jean’s book:
My Dear Mr. Hinman: / I thank you heartily, for myself & for my daughter, & to these acknowledgments I beg you to let me add a book of mine — a book that is full of useful statistics which you will find pretty when you come to embellish & adorn your next edition [MTP].
The New York Times, p.3 “Literary Notes”:
Mark Twain has written for the Century an novel with the title “Pudd’n’head Wilson,” which is a story of a Mississippi steamboat town, and for St. Nicholas a serial entitled “Tom Sawyer Abroad.”
Charles J. Langdon wrote that he’d received Sam’s letter of Saturday (Sept. 16) and had read it to John D. Slee, who would be “very glad to render to you any service in his power.” Slee would be in N.Y. on Sept. 26, open to seeing him Sept. 27 or after Sept. 28. Langdon and wife Ida would leave for N.Y. the next day (Sept. 19) and stay at the Waldorf; they’d be delighted to see him; they’d be there at least a week “Clara is very well I think and enjoying a visit from Susie Twichell” [MTP].