February 17 Saturday – In New York Sam responded to a note of invitation from Helena de Kay Gilder (Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder). He’d not answered sooner because he anticipated seeing her the previous night, and was “at work nearly all night the night before [Feb. 15] on a gigantic letter to Mrs. Clemens.” Evidently, the event he was invited to was past, as he ended wishing he might have “better luck next time” [MTP].

Sam agreed to the urgings of William Carey, editor of Century Magazine, to read with James Whitcomb Riley on Feb. 26 and 27 for $250 per night. This was announced in the NY Times the next day (Feb. 18) and Sam wrote of finally yielding to Carey in his Feb. 20 to Livy, on condition that Riley leave all of the humorous material to him “& restrict himself to the serious.”

Fatout lists Sam giving a dinner speech at the Charles Hoyt Dinner, New York. Charles Hale Hoyt “was a playwright and manager had been dramatic critic, sports editor, and columnist on Boston Post (1878-83), then became lessee of the Garrick and Madison Square Theatres. He wrote a number of popular farces, of which the most successful was A Trip to Chinatown (1891)” [MT Speaking 662].