April 27 Sunday – Fatout lists this date for the Max O’Rell Dinner at the Everett House in Boston, Mass. where Sam gave a speech, “continuing his feud with foreign critics in general and with the ghost of Matthew Arnold in particular,” with “On Foreign Critics” [MT Speaking 257-60].

April 26 Saturday – On or just after this day Sam declined (through Franklin G. Whitmore) Amos Townsend’s Apr. 25 invitation [MTP]. See Apr. 25.

April 25 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Moncure Conway who had sent news about the English version of the P&P play.

April 24 Thursday – In Hartford this was the day of the big test of the Paige typesetter for Senator John P. Jones and contingent. They arrived from New York about noon. Sam met the group at the train depot, took them home and fed them a big dinner. Kaplan writes this reception was “calculated to make them grateful and happy,” and that they were “plied with Roman punch, champagne, brandy and his best stories, and then loaded into the family carriage.” The machine failed. The contingent “marched out in disgust” leaving Sam in a deep depression [304].

April 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a short note of response to Andrew Carnegie’s Apr. 22 note. He regretted missing Carnegie at home on his last trip to New York, but expected to “be down in a day or two” and would call again [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam but only the envelope survives [MTP].

Emily Cheney wrote from South Manchester, Mass:

April 22 Tuesday – Henry Green wrote from Hartford to Sam about his new invention:

…a new system of mechanical instrument to supplant, or to be as great a novelty as the organette was. I do not expect the earth from it but I should like to find someone to help me take out the patent & put the thing where it will do some good. It is needless to tell you I am a poor man…[Sam wrote on the env., “Inventor of a musical organ. Will go & call on him”] [MTP].

April 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about a possible book to publish and the way he’d like to respond to suggested books:

Now here’s a simple system, & certain-sure of a result: When you propose to me, & detail your argument for or against, enclose a blank note, & I can fill out & sign & return that note without saying a word.

Sam also said he thought well of “the MacAlister [sic] etiquette book” [MTP] Society as I Have Found It, by (Samuel) Ward McAllister (1890) was published by Cassell Publishing Co. [Gribben 434].

April 20 Sunday – In Hartford Livy wrote to her mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon referring to Apr. 18 (see that entry).

James B. Pond wrote to Sam: “The arrangements are completed & all here accepted & will be present next Sunday morning to give Max O’Rell a send off.” Pond named eleven men who would be there, including Augustin Daly, George Kennan, Edmund C. Stedman and Richard Watson Gilder; he hoped Sam would not miss it; O’Rell was “worthy of it” [MTP].

April 19 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam’s business manager for Hartford affairs, Franklin G. Whitmore, had offered to invest $10,000 or $12,000” at a “usurious rate of interest — 8 or 10 per cent” and even preferred to buy an interest in Webster & Co. He had worked as a general agent for the company in 1888 for the Library of Humor. Sam advised Hall to take Whitmore on for a year and then see if an interest might be sold him. At first Sam spoke approvingly of the idea:

April 18 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Joe Goodman having received his telegraph of the day before and his earlier letter. A. Hoffman puts Joe in Washington at this time, attempting to hook Senator Jones into backing the Paige machine [359], but from his Apr. 17 telegram and letter of this day it’s clear he was in Fresno. Sam wanted Joe to go inspect the new Mergenthaler Linotype machine, because he and Paige weren’t allowed to sit and watch it run now.