October 20 Thursday – Sam and William J. Hamersley traveled to New York and met with Charles Webster at his engraving office [MTBus 171].

October 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood about illustrations for P&P, which had been delayed. Sam thought the canvassing book was “mighty handsome” [MTP].

October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. All of Sam’s prior investment losses in inventions would pale next to the Paige typesetter debacle, which he wrote about:

Mr. Wm. Hammersley, [Hamersley] our City Attorney, will call on you at your Engraving office, at 10 o’clock Thursday morning.

October 17 Monday – Hartford Probate Court sent Sam a printed announcement postcard on the estate of John S. Ives [MTP]

October 16 Sunday – Kate (Kitty) D. Barstow (Mrs. William H. Barstow) wrote from Washington to Sam, who had not heard from her since she “suddenly disappeared from our sky” back in 1870, owing $157.40 for unpaid copies of IA. At that time Sam recommended her to Bliss as an agent for the sale of his books; ultimately he had to reimburse Bliss.

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.