December 23 Monday – Elmer Z. Burns wrote to Sam, enclosing a photograph of Twain’s cabin at Aurora. “Some of your admirers have placed decorations on this cabin in your honor, but I am sure, if all who would like to do so, could, the cabin would be buried beneath the load” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote for Sam on the letter, “The hillside & the sagebrush look just as they did before, but I think the house looks better than it did formerly”

December 22 Sunday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Pleiades Club, Hotel Brevoort, which was literally next door to his house at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Fatout introduces the event:  

At the Pleiades Club dinner for Mark Twain, menus were decorated with illustrated quotations from his books. Carter S. Cole, chairman, introduced the guest of honor by paying tribute to his eminence in American literature, praising so lavishly that Mark Twain began his speech with a mild protest [MT Speaking 600].

December 21 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.  

December 20 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.

I suppose you are about to leave for home, dear Francesca, so I am hasting to wish you a happy holiday-time before you get away down there out of my reach. Indeed you are much too far out of my reach even when you are in Catonsville. I wish you were going home by way of New York, so that I could have glimpse of you, you dear little rascal.

December 19 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I am hearing the very first words of the King’s Biography. AB is sitting here and reading them to me. The background of the book. The days that passed four months before the King was born. (He says 5 months before the King was born.) [MTP TS 121].

December 18 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to George L. Beam of the Denver & Rio Grande R.R. Co, Denver, Colo. “Mr. Clemens asks me to write for him & thank you for sending him the photograph & pamphlet. And to use his own words, he said, ‘Tell him I think it is a good strong clean-cut face & I hope it looks like me as that is the way I should like to look’”[MTP]. Note: Beam’s photo and pamphlet are not extant.

December 17 Tuesday – Charles R. Morris wrote from Washington DC to ask Sam if he would include his July 4 oration deliverd at Aurora, Nev. When he was a miner there [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “He has quoted the only sentence of the speech that I remember, & I don’t’ know anything about the rest of it.” See Dec. 18 for Sam’s reply.

George Grantham Bain wrote to Miss Lyon to ask which photos Sam wanted copies of and enclosing a ms. for her to return [MTP].

December 16 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “And this day?” [MTP TS 120].

Hélène Elisabeth Picard wrote a long letter in a tiny hand.

My dear Chief Servant, / A hearty wish for a blessed Christmas to you and your family, and for many happy returns of the day is leaving my desk to start westward in the direction of your home. May those terrific tempests and angry winds allow my wishes to find your door in time, that you might know your French Member has also thought of you.

December 15 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Prof. Sloane and his daughter Margaret (debutante) came in today for tea. The talk ran onto Washington and the political rottenness of the place. “No man can be himself there.” Mr. S. said. “Mr. Cleveland alone shook his fist in the faces of the corrupt politicians and made himself hated.

December 14 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Dec. 12 telegram from Frank Cavendish Lascelles, by sending one of his own to: Pageant office, Savoy, London: “Best wishes for the greast London pageant it will be the event of the year” [MTP].

Eustace D. Conway finished his Dec. 7 letter to Sam [MTP].