March 26 Wednesday – In Boston William Dean Howells wrote to Sam enclosing a Mar. 25 letter from Alfred P. Burbank. Burbank wanted a “consideration” to release the play rights for The American Claimant, considering that Sam’s recommendation of Burbank to play Hank Morgan was not enough to guarantee it. Howells felt inadequate to negotiate terms with Burbank and didn’t want to do all the restructuring of the play for less than half profits.

March 25 Tuesday – Samuel Coit wrote from Wash. D.C. to Sam thanking him for his response of Mar. 19 — “I shall follow your suggestion & hold on until the exhibition [of the typesetter] has demonstrated its [illegible word]. I should be pleased to know when that occurs as I shall want to see it.” Sam wrote on the letter, “Brer, please tell him whatever Paige says. / SLC” [MTP].

March 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mr. S. Howell who also owned a cat named “Satan.”

Our Satan is not as popular as formerly, because he brought derision upon his name by having a Kitten…. The Kitten’s name is Sin — another blunder, for sin is of no sex, whereas the kitten is [MTP from Am. Art Assoc. sale May 10, 1934 Item 127].

March 22 Saturday – † In Hartford on or just after this date Sam wrote on Whitford’s Mar. 21 envelope to Franklin G. Whitmore:

Brer, tell him all right for a very little while — then I shall probably want to sue Frohman [MTP].

March 21 Friday – Robert L. Niles wrote to Sam asking the possibility of reviving The Gilded Age play. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer, I will answer or dictate / SLC / This must go to Howells I guess” [MTP].

Mary Russell Perkins wrote to solicit Sam’s annual subscription of charity to the Hartford Orphan Asylum. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer, Send $10. SLC” [MTP].

Daniel Whitford wrote to Sam (TS of Frohman to Whitford Feb. 12 enclosed):

March 20 Thursday † – In Hartford on or just after this date Sam, through Franklin G. Whitmore, answered G.G. Green’s Mar. 19 request “that he could not spare a moment for the work you propose” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood asking him the custom for reserving “a couple of the choicest (communicating) rooms” in Paris, France or New York for the “first fortnight in June” — could it be done without making advance payment?

March 19 Wednesday – Susy Clemens’ eighteenth birthday.

Sam wrote a postcard to Franklin G. Whitmore:
Yes, send me all letters that refer to the article, whether they cuss or applaud [MTP].

Rudyard Kipling’s famous interview with Mark Twain from August, 1889 ran again in the Allahabad, India The Pioneer Mail [Tenney 18; Baetzhold, John Bull 358n18].

Sam’s notebook: “Mch. 19, ’90 Chas. Hopkins Clark … one — (as trustee for Hartford Free Library) [Paige royalty sent]” [3: 569].

March 18 Tuesday – Using Franklin G. Whitmore, Sam responded to Theodore S. Parvin’s Mar. 14 request. Sam had no manuscripts to contribute for the Iowa museum [MTP]. Note: Whitmore’s note is stamped received in Iowa Mar. 20. Mail worked well in those days.

Albert Johannsen’s letter and question about HF arrived, and was probably answered this day or soon after. Sam wrote on the letter for Whitmore: “Brer, please tell him it is too long a story to tell — would require a chapter” [MTP].

March 17 Monday – In Hartford on or just after this day Sam responded to J.S. Butchelder’s Mar. 16’s query about the paper change made in Mark Twain’s Scrap-Book [MTP].

Sam also wrote to thank Andrew Carnegie for books sent, including Carnegie’s Triumphant Democracy: or Fifty Years’ March of the Republic, which Sam claimed “help to fire me up for my last book” (CY).

I am reading it again, now, & firing up for a lecture which I want to deliver on the other side one of these years. I get a little impatient sometimes, waiting for the auction of thrones… [MTP;Gribben 131].