March – About this month, Sam wrote a one-sentence letter to Stilson Hutchins (1838-1912), best known as the founder of the Washington Post, introducing:
Paige and Davis, who desire to see the type-setter at work, per my conversation with you [MTP] Note: possibly the typesetter then in evaluation at the Post.
Kinsmen Club sent Sam their printed rules adopted by the English section and Am. section [MTP].
February 27 Monday – Sam gave a reading at the Hartford Public High School, probably for the Rev. Leopold Simonson’s class. The content of Sam’s reading or remarks is not known [MTNJ 3: 377].
February 26 Sunday – Henry Edwards wrote from “The Lambs” in N.Y. to thank Sam for his note and for its frankness. Edwards understood “thoroughly”; that Sam had good reason for what he did. [MTP].
February 25 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam that he’d finished the research for Wm. II (for the memory game). He’d sent cousin Eleanor Lampton five dollars. Ma was “so restless” that he “concluded to take her to every kind of show that comes….Ma frequently sees the apparitions of the friends of her youth, and she longs to behold again the house of Aunt Ann, and to reside once more in Columbia” [MTP].
February 24 Friday – John Brusnahan of the N.Y. Herald wrote to Sam that he’d received his letter of Feb. 23 and “read with great satisfaction. It is a pleasure to feel that the end is near at hand at last.” He also reported he had not been allowed to examine the Tribune machines (Mergenthalers), so concluded they would “not stand much scrutiny” [MTP].
February 23 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Henry Edwards (Harry), actor. Sam’s note was a response to some invitation (lost) by Edwards to join a “movement.” Sam expressed the difficulty of declining.
This is a singularly difficult letter to write, brief as it is. It — no, it is impossible to word it just right — that is, have in it no ungracious suggestion, but make it wholly odorless in that regard [MTP].
February 22 Wednesday – Mrs. B.F. Colburn wrote from Norwood, Mass. Asking Sam for a sketch of his life to use for the Ladies of the Universalist Church. “No,” Sam wrote on the envelope [MTP].
February 21 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook carries a notice of a Kinsmen Club meeting at the New York home of Laurence Hutton, 229 W. 34th, on this day at 4 p.m. [MTNJ 3: 375]. Note: It is not known if Sam attended. Right above this entry is a note to write Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), who was to publish a book with the Century Co. Sam likely wanted to make a pitch for Webster & Co.
February 20 Monday – In Hartford Sam referred the Feb. 10 letter from Willard B. Roberts to Franklin G. Whitmore, asking him to inform Roberts that he would have to put off any investment for “many months yet” [MTP].
February 18 Saturday – A.B. James wrote from Pilot Rock, Ore. Asking for Sam’s autograph [MTP].
Frederick J. Hall for Webster & Co. wrote to Sam enclosing a letter from Gen. Sheridan and also Hall’s letter acknowledging Sheridan’s letter. Hall suggested the matter might be settled by allowing Scribner to publish “one or two artcles from the General’s book in the magazine.” [MTP]. Note: the “matter” to be settled was who was to publish what of Sheridan’s forthcoming book.