January 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, page 1, ran an article headlined “SAGEBRUSH SKETCHES, How Mark Twain’s Brightest Effort Was Kept from Print.” The paper gave credit without a prior date to the San Francisco Call. It seems Joe Goodman once called upon Sam to write up a fancy new saloon in Virginia City. Sam gathered a box of liquors from the saloon and “arranged them in a long row,” then tasting and describing each in print.

January 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote that he had Patterson at work on the brass. He enclosed (not in file) a report of the Am. Pub. Co. from Bradstreets and would get another from Dunn & Wyman and “we can see how they agree. I think there are some lies in that statement, especially about the par value of stock” [MTP].

January 12 Thursday – Edmund C. Stedman wrote; not found at MTP though catalogued as UCLC 41429.

Ency J. Coleman wrote from Kalamazoo, Mich. to ask for a letter on “Clubs” for his club [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No Answer”

January 11 Wednesday – Thomas B. Aldrich for Atlantic Monthly wrote to thank for P&P: “a charming conception and charmingly worked out. The only thing I have against the idea is that I did not think of it first” [MTP].

John Russell. Young wrote from NYC. “Any day or anytime will suit,—either here or in H.” [MTP].

January 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David “Wattie” Bowser, who evidently had sent Sam a frog when Sam was in Canada.

“…they put him in the greenhouse & he lost himself immediately. The gardener hunted for him every day or two, & three days ago he found him. I have seen him, & he is all right & manifestly enjoying himself.”

January 9 Monday – At 11 A.M. Sam and Edward H. House called at the hotel where John Russell Young had been staying but he’d left on the 10:30 train. Later, Sam wrote from Hartford to Young:

“The prospective pleasure of writing that book [LM] grows with the moments; & already I foresee that in the building of it I am going to find a delight comparable to going to heaven.”

January 8 Sunday – Sam was visited by John Russell Young, who evidently discussed events relating to Sam’s newly planned Mississippi trip and book [Jan. 9 letter to Young, MTP].

The Lotos Club, New York, receipted Sam $6.25 for dues [MTP].

January 7 Saturday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James R. Osgood about some “Toronto pirates’ lawyers,” a reference which is obscure at this point. Late in the year Belford and Clarke were defendants in a lawsuit. Sam also referred to his “little assault of a rather venomous nature upon Whitelaw Reid,” and suggested Osgood “drop in and consult the judacity of it” if he were to “pass through” Hartford [MTLTP 151].

January 6 Friday – Tiffany & Co., per Louis C. Tiffany wrote to acknowledge Sam’s $2,000 [MTP].

December 31 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing a photograph of baby Jean that Sam wanted 100 copies of, or at least he wanted a quote for that many. Sam also included another business idea, to “keep on hand a variety of cuts [type-cuts] for mercantile advertisements in country newspapers” [MTP].