December 31 Monday – Sam printed a notice for Livy:
To Mrs. S.L. Clemens.
Happy New Year! The machine is finished, & this is the first work done on it [MTP]. Note: False hopes are the most intoxicating kind. See also Dec. 29 about this first “copy.”
December 30 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
We are hermits, now, & must doubtless remain so the rest of the winter. Theodore Crane has been here a month or two in a precarious state, because of a stroke of paralysis. Sometimes he picks up a little, & then for a day or two it is a cheerful house; after that, he drops back again, & the gloom & the apprehension return.
December 29 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Will Bowen answering a recent letter (unlisted).
I am exceedingly glad to know that your little people have come through safely & that the shadow has passed. … The children will be glad to get Mrs. Bowen’s Texan flowers & will be on the lookout for them with the interest of their sex in the nearest image which Nature affords of their sex. …. It is possible that my machine will be finished in a few days, now — but we never prophecy any more [MTP].
December 28 Friday – Charles D. Poston wrote from Washington, D.C. to Sam on Dept. of Interior, US Geogical Survey letterhead to wish Sam a happy new year “with reminiscences of Salisbury and Ventnor” [MTP]. Note: Ventnor a seaside resort on the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of England; Salisbury large gardens there. On Dec. 28, 1873 Sam made a quick stop there to hunt up a woman. See entry, Vol. I.
December 27 Thursday – Sam had received Baroness Gripenberg’s letter of Nov. 8 from Finland, where she’d had the one-legged goose story published in a Swedish newspaper. A correspondent to the paper had argued that the story was taken from Boccaccio’s Decameron, and accused Mark Twain of plagiarism, which upset the Baroness. Sam’s reply is noteworthy in that it explores his views on originality and plagiarism.
December 26 Wednesday – In New York City on East 17th Street, William Dean Howells wrote a short paragraph to Sam.
The Moretti club dines the first Friday after New Year’s: Jan. 4, 1889. Will you come? I can give you a bed, and a hearty welcome. We shall dine at 6:30; so get here early enough to warm your feet before that [MTHL 2: 602]. Note: Moretti’s restaurant on 14th Street was a hangout for theatrical and literary sorts. See note1 of source.
December 25 Tuesday – Christmas – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to George L. Bill:
To / Mr. George L. Bill / with the compliments of / The Author. / ~ / Dec. 25/88 [MTP].
Livy inscribed a copy of Charles Holder’s Marvels of Animal Life (1885) to her daughter Clara Clemens [Gribben 316].
December 24 Monday – Frederick J. Hall for Webster & Co. wrote to Sam.
December 22 Saturday – In an agreement signed this day, Frederick J. Hall bought out Charles Webster’s interest in Webster & Co., for $12,000. The agreement would be effective as of Apr. 1, 1889 [MTHL 2: 610n1].
December 21 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his old friend Frank Fuller. Sam’s letter is obviously a response to Fuller’s (not extant). Fuller had been influential in getting Sam to invest in several schemes and securities, and it seems from his reply below that Fuller was up to more promoting.