February – Sam wrote to Frank Fuller, responding to a proposal (not extant).

January 29 Thursday – Mary Keily in Lancaster, Penn. Insane asylum, finished a letter to Sam begun on Jan. 27, asking again for $5 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From lunatic”. Note: Mary’s several letters in the files are extremely long, rambling and non-sensical. For the most part they have not been quoted in this volume out of respect for the mentally disturbed.

January 27 Tuesday – Sam wrote a one-liner from Elmira to an unidentified female: “Well, my dear, I won’t forget you if you don’t forget me. That is fair” [MTLE 5: 15].

January 25 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his sister, Pamela Moffett. He told of their plans to return to Hartford, and of his mother-in-law’s stomach ache.

January 24 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Howells. Sam asked if he went to the Tile Club dinner in New York.

January 19 Monday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Moncure Conway. He acknowledged receipt of funds from Chatto. “Dod-rot the new book—as John the Baptist would say—it hangs along drearily.”

January 18 Sunday – Robert Green Ingersoll, whom Sam had met at the Chicago banquet of Nov. 14, 1879, wrote to Sam about attendance at a festival for Robert Burns:

January 15 Thursday – William Mackay Laffan wrote again to ask Sam if he’d not just attend but “participate” in the Tile Club dinner on the 24th [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote the date, place & time on the env.

January 13 Tuesday – William Mackay Laffan (1848-1909) wrote to invite Sam to dine with the NYC Tile Club on the 24th, at 3.30 in the studio of Mr. Chase, 51 West 10th. Laffan had tiny handwriting [MTP].

January 9 Friday – William Hooker Gillette (1853-1937) was back in Hartford in a play he’d written, which Andrews calls “miserable” [99]. The play was “The Professor” and Gillette lost all the money that Sam had lent him [257n56]. Though by 1880 it was no longer considered shameful to attend the theater in Hartford, Joe Twichell retained reservations about acting and faith mixing. From his journal: