December 25 Thursday – Christmas – Sam inscribed a copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Livy: “To / Livy L. Clemens / with the matured & perfect love of / The Author. / Xmas, 1884” [MTP].
Sam also inscribed a copy of Parts of Speech to Clara Clemens: “Merry Christmas / to / Clara Clemens / 1884. / From Papa” [MTP].
December 24 Wednesday – Edward Zane Carroll Judson (Ned Buntline) wrote to Clemens:
My Dear—Two Fathoms—/ A Merry Christmas / to you—merrier than when / we met in Cal. & Nevada / years—long years ago, / in 67—& 68. / Will you / Kindly tell me the names / of the Subscription / Book Publishers / in your town. I have / a job for some one / of ‘em. / Resp. & Truly / E Z C Judson / “Ned” [MTP].
December 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam enclosed an advertisement by Estes & Lauriat of Boston for “Just ready” copies of HF, reduced from $2.75 to $2.25; Sam was infuriated.
Charley, if this is a lie, let Alexander & Green sue them for damages instantly. And if we have no chance at them in law, tell me at once & I will publish them as thieves & swindlers.
December 22 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Laurence Hutton, congratulating Miss Eleanor Varnum Mitchell, soon to be Mrs. Laurence Hutton.
“And now I am relieved of a burden which has long been secretly oppressing my heart. Months ago, fully aware of the relations existing between you & my daughter, I was shocked & grieved to discover that she had transferred her affections to a horse kitten” [MTP].
December 20 Saturday – The Dec. 20, 1884 article by H.B. Stephens, “Mark Twain’s ‘Dorg’,” which ran in Every Other Saturday, is available in The Twainian (July-Aug. 1953) p.3-4, and contains a letter from Sam to Stephens, as well as a reference to a prior incoming letter from Stephens, both letters undated and unlisted by MTP. The article (which seems to have had much input from Mark Twain) plus Sam’s letter with poem, “My Dog Burns” are given here in full:
MARK TWAIN’S “DORG”
December 19 Friday – Sam, after meeting with Charles Webster, probably headed straight home for Hartford, although no documentation for this date has been found. Upon reaching home, Sam was in store for a surprise.
December 18 Thursday – Sam and Cable took a Christmas break, this day being a travel day. Sam headed for New York where he spent the night at the Everett House, where he’d asked Webster to call on the morning of Dec. 19 [Dec. 15 to Webster, MTP]. Cable headed to his home in Simsbury, Conn., but stopped in New York where he appeared alone on Dec.
December 17 Wednesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Case Hall, Cleveland, Ohio [MTPO]. Clemens included: readings from HF, “A Ghost Story,” “Personal Anecdote” [MTPO].
A review of Sam and Cable’s readings ran in the Detroit Post and included the following “interview”:
A “POST” REPORTER DISTURBS TWAIN AND INTERVIEWS CABLE.
December 16 Tuesday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Whitney’s Grand Opera House, Detroit, Michigan. The Detroit Post featured the Toledo visit, observing that Sam’s gait:
…resembled the motion of a tall boy on short stilts, [with] one of the oddest looking faces ever worn by man…his neck swan-like and white, but much thicker than a swan’s [Cardwell 29].
December 15 Monday – Sam wrote two letters from Toledo, Ohio to Livy. After remarking on the “prettiest furniture” of the hotel the night before in Jackson, Mich., Sam told of his day:
“We got up at 5 & took the train. All the way, in the cars, was a mother with her first child—the proudest & silliest fool I have struck this year. She beat the new brides that one sees on the trains” [MTP].