October 15 Saturday – Sam’s July 24 letter to the Australian public, ran in the Adelaide Observer (see July 24 entry).
Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, that “his entire day” had:
…gone to the devil with answering letters…send us another sack of those big hickory nuts, like those that came a year or so ago [MTP]
October 14 Friday – Sam and Joe Twichell walked out to Talcott’s Tower, a wooden structure about five miles outside of Hartford. Sam related their talk in a letter to Howells the next day:
October 13 Thursday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote a follow up of his Oct. 12. He hoped Sam wouldn’t think he was “meddling,” but marked some passages of P&P that he didn’t “think are fit to go into a book for boys,” that the picture Sam created “doesn’t gain strength” from them [MTHL 1: 376]
October 12 Wednesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, sending some pages of P&P with his questions inserted while reading the work for review.
October 11 Tuesday – Thomas Fitch wrote from Tombstone, Ariz. to Sam: “The republication of the enclosed by a Bodic [?] paper has so flattered my vanity as to make me think it possible it might survive the ocean of arbitrary eloquence with which the land has been deluged, & find presentation in the columns of some eastern paper.” He asked Sam to send a clipping should he see same [MTP]. Note in file: “See SLC to John C. Kenney, 25 Oct. 1881.
October 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, again about getting “Dean” and about designs for P&P [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Oct. 9 of Stephen C. Massett, with an apology for his last note (see Oct. 7 letter).
October 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt (see also Sept. 22-23 entry).
October 8 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, seeking another visit from him and his daughter Koto, as long as he could get rid of the plumbers, carpenters and decorators by the first of November [MTP].
Sam’s Oct. 2? letter to W.H. Lentz was paraphrased and quoted in the Honolulu Saturday Press [MTP].
October 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. He acknowledged payment of £874.16.9 from Moncure Conway, for which he sent thanks. This amount was for A Tramp Abroad royalties [MTNJ 2: 401n157]. Sam added:
October 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisabeth Fairchild, wife of Charles Fairchild, neighbors of the Howellses in Belmont, Mass. A dog of Sam’s had been killed, perhaps chasing a carriage or a horse. The dog was named Rab, after Dr. John Brown’s famous book. Another “pup of Rab’s exact breed” was wanted.