December 6 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Henry Clay Lukens of the New York Press Club, declining another invitation. Sam wrote he was “booked for that day” [MTLE 5: 219].
Woolley’s Livery Stable bill of Jan. 2? Shows use of a hack this day for two and a quarter hours, $2.75 [MTP].
December 4 Saturday – Bill paid to Connecticut Valley R.R. Co., Hartford $1.22 for transporting “2 cases liquor; 1 box” [MTP]. The December bill from Western Union shows a telegram sent to New York, recipient unspecified (see Dec. 31 entry).
December 3 Friday – The Jan. 1, 1881 bill from Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. shows a telegram sent to New York (party unknown, see that entry for others).
December 2 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote from Keokuk to Sam.
December 1 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, thanking them for checks amounting to $6,000 for sales of A Tramp Abroad. Sam wrote that he was surprised by the “largeness of sale in the United States,” which he said brought the total to $50,000 he would get out of the book for twelve-months sales, from Mar. 1, 1880 [MTLE 5: 218].
Bills/receipts/statements from Hartford merchants:
December – Sam wrote sometime during the month from Hartford to Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815-1884), well-known abolitionist, newspaper editor, lecturer, crusader, feminist, and Civil War nurse. Jane wrote Sam on Jan.
November 30 Tuesday – Sam’s 45th birthday. He wrote a humorous note from Hartford to the editors of Childhood’s Appeal.
November 29 Monday – George Stronach, Hartford, billed Sam $15.42 for windows, sash, keys, drawer casters, misc. work in house. Samuel Collins, Hartford dealer “in all kinds of Flagging stone” billed $23.40 for “234 ft. of curb & gutter” [MTP].
November 28 Sunday – Sam wrote a one-liner from Hartford to Fields, Osgood & Co., asking for “Uncle Remus’s Songs & Sayings” [MTLE 5: 212].
November 27 Saturday – Livy’s 35th birthday.