January 4 Thursday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam’s wakeup call came at 8:30 a.m. He was “rested & vigorous,” and “spent the day walking the sidewalk out in front taking the brisk air & keeping watch for messengers.” He wrote all this and much more in another long letter to Livy. He opened with a paragraph referencing, “The Tale of the Dime-Store Maiden” he’d sent on Dec. 17, 1893, obviously asking Livy’s questions as to why he named the girl Benny (he liked the name; incidentally it was a nickname used for daughter Clara, though he didn’t say so). He also wrote a paragraph about the prizefight he’d seen with H.H. Rogers, Dr. Rice and John Dustin Archbold the previous Saturday (Dec. 30). Livy obviously confided in one of her letters (not extant) that she’d tried treatment with electricity. Sam was glad of it though he wanted her to find an operator who was “thoroughly competent.” He’d heard of miraculous cures using electricity. He was also glad that Jean was having dental work and he’d do the same if he had the time. He was way behind in his correspondence, “which consists mainly of declining all conceivable kinds of entertainments.” As the “Belle of New York,” Sam’s celebrity was growing:

Dr. Rice said last night that my welcome to New York has been phenomenal, & that the manifest affection of the people for me was the sort of fame that was worth having; & Mr. Rogers said the other day to Rice or to Archbold that other people’s successes in this world were made over broken hearts or at the cost of other people’s feelings or food, but that my fame had cost no one a pang or a penny. And this morning down stairs some one read a remark in an English magazine that there was a curious fact that had been observed — to-wit, that the most fleetest & evanescent of fames was that of the second-rate humorist, while the most substantial & permanent was that of the first-rate humorist; & said he believed I was a first-rate. All this is pleasant. I can stand considerable petting. Born so, Jean.

Sam went on to say that this day was another waiting day; he was up at 9 and was to wait till sent for. It was a quarter to 2 as he wrote, no news yet from the “final conference,” the “last of the games in the long tournament” for resolution of the new typesetter contract. He closed with a word about not accepting any more dinners where a dinner call was necessary, and was going downstairs to “hunt up a game of billiards.” He was also glad to get a cable from Livy that Susy was improving [LLMT 286-9]