December 25 Sunday – Christmas – The New York Times, ran “Hearst’s Borrowed Shirt,” a story about Sam Clemens loaning George Hearst a “biled shirt” back in Virginia City days. Hearst, unable to find a shirt to wear to a wedding, borrowed one of Sam’s, something greatly frowned on in those days, but was exposed after a fight. Just why the Times ran this story on Christmas is anyone’s guess. Roughing It, p. 416 (Chapter LVII): “For those people hated aristocrats. They had a particular and malignant animosity toward what they called a ‘biled shirt.’” There is one problem with this story—George Hearst made his fortune in Virginia City and left in June, 1860, before Sam arrived [Mack 35]. Possibly the shirt-borrower was another man, or the shirt-lender was not Samuel Clemens. Or, maybe, like many anecdotes, it’s simply a tall tale. Unfortunately there are far too many such tales to include in these volumes. ,

December 25 Sunday ca. – Sam inscribed his photograph after the portrait of Mark Twain by Ignace Spiridon to Frau von Dutschka: “To Frau von Dutschka with kindest Christmas greetings of Mark Twain”

[MTP: TS: James Cummins Bookseller catalogs, 1989, No. 25, Item 248].