January 9 Wednesday – The New York Times, rarely complimentary to Mark Twain, ran an editorial, p.4. with no title:

January 8 Tuesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers about being frustrated by Franklin Whitmore not sending monthly itemized accounts as requested, and not saying a word “until his exchequer has run dry.” He’d just received Whitmore’s letter through Bainbridge Colby, with an accounting covering nine months of Hartford expenses. Sam noted he’d just written Whitmore and advised him that the current royalty check from the American Publishing Co.

January 7 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing a Dec. 26 letter from Frank Hall Scott (1848-1912), president of The Century Co. The letter inquired about a Mr. F. Fauveau translating The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New Stories to French. Sam responded:

All authorities of this sort in your hands, thank goodness!

January 5 Saturday – French officer Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Sam would take an active interest in the Dreyfus Affair in Vienna in 1897-8.

January 3 Thursday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus. Sam thanked Andrew Chatto for books received the day before. He singled out Walter Besant’s London.

January 2 Wednesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Yours of Dec. 21 [not extant] has arrived, containing the circular to stockholders and I guess the Co will really quit — there doesn’t seem to be any other wise course.

January – Borderland (London) ran “Character Reading by Palmistry and Otherwise: The Story of the Tell-Tale Hands of Mark Twain,” p.60-4. The article, previewed in the Oct. 1894 issue of the magazine, contained poorly reproduced photographs of the front and rear of Sam’s left hand, and Sam’s letter to the editor commenting on the accuracy of the palm readings done in the Oct. issue [Tenney 23].

December 30 Sunday – The New York Times, p.2 in a display ad for the North American Review, listed January’s issue, headed by Mark Twain’s, “What Paul Bourget Thinks of Us.” 

This is a witty and trenchant rejoinder, in the famous humorist’s best style, to the Frenchman’s criticisms of Americans and American institutions now appearing in “Outre Mer.”

December 31 Monday

December 27 Thursday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. Evidently another letter had arrived from Rogers (not extant) for Sam answered:

December 26 Wednesday – Frank M. Scott, president of The Century Co. wrote to Sam, having received a letter from a Mr. F. Fauveau of Paris, asking permission to translate and publish The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New Stories in French. Scott asked Sam to communicate with Fauveau on the matter. See Jan. 7, 1895 letter to Chatto, forwarding the letter and chore to them, since such permission was under their authority [MTP].