February 9 Thursday – S.B. Wheeler, “looking glass and picture frames” New York, billed Sam $32 for “1 picture frame 19×24½ $25; relining picture, box & packing” [MTP].

February 7 Tuesday – Estes & Lauriat, bookseller wrote to Sam; letter not extant [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote: “We are to have 500 of the new books this afternoon.” He included various ad rates. Part of the letter is torn and missing [MTP].

Worden & Co. wrote advice selling 100 shares Western Union @ 81 &3/4 [MTP].

February 6 Monday – Sam cabled Karl Gerhardt that the idea of him taking private lessons from “The Master” was an excellent idea [MTP, see Mar. 21 letter to Gerhardt].

Lillie Edmunds wrote from NYC, a begging letter for help with her design schooling [MTP].

February 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway.

February 4 Saturday – Wm. H. Jackson,  mfr. grates, New York, billed $17 for “1 large Brass wire Fireguard, special mesh, boxing” paid Mar. 2 [MTP].

Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to thank Sam for the prior evening at his home [MTP].

February 3 Friday – Sam’s 6 PM Friday Evening Club (drinking, smoking, billiards for men) included: Charles Hopkins Clark, asst. editor of the Hartford Courant; Joe Twichell; Edwin Pond Parker, Congregationalist clergyman; Samuel C. Dunham and Henry C. Robinson attorneys; and William T.

February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”

February 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote: “Your remembrance of dear Alex Holley, and your liking for him will give the enclosed eulogy and notice of the works he wrought some interest to you….Hope Jean and House are better this morning…” [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley died on Jan. 29; he was the foremost steel engineer of his time.

February – Sam’s notebook: “Get Kellogg’s Andersonville experiences through a short-hand reporter,” referring to Robert H. Kellogg’s Life and Death in Rebel Prisons (1865). Kellogg was an agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Hartford at this time [Gribben 366].

January 31 Tuesday – The Canadian poet laureate, Louis Honoré Fréchette of Quebec, was a big fan of Sam’s and met him during the Montreal dinner. Fréchette was also William Dean Howells’ brother-in-law, husband of Anne Howells. Fréchette soon came to the U.S.; Sam spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Windsor, in Holyoke, Mass. His subject: “On After-Dinner Speaking”: