December 8 Monday – In Hartford, Sam responded to the Nov. 30 insulting letter from Thomas B. Kirby, private secretary to the Postmaster General, about Sam’s objections to the new postal regulations, which ran in the Hartford Courant. Sam’s hilarious response to Kirby was also sent to the editor of the Courant, and was printed there Dec. 9 [MTLE 4: 170].
December 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller, asking if he could get someone up to Hartford right away to fix the music box he’d ordered in Geneva.
Sam confided that he’d backed out of Slote’s speculation because his “lawyer insisted that it was risky” [MTLE 4: 168].
December 4 Thursday – Sam probably returned to Hartford late on Dec. 3 or this day. He described the visit as “intolerably short” in a Dec. 9 letter.
December 3 Wednesday – In Boston Sam spoke at the Atlantic Monthly Breakfast for Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 70th birthday [Fatout, MT Speaking 134]. This time there was no embarrassment, as Sam delivered a Howells-approved speech.
December 2 Tuesday – Sam left Hartford and traveled to Boston, then on to Howells’ residence in Belmont, Mass. Charles Dudley Warner had lobbied for Sam to attend and accompanied him to Boston, where he then went on to visit friends [MTLE 4: 157].
December 1 Monday – From Park & Tilford, New York, a long list of grocery items $136.01 tot, incl 2 dz Glen Whisky for $28 total [MTP].
William A. Seaver wrote from Mt. Vernon, NY to Sam.
Noble young Man:— / A young friend called at my house last evening, just as the bells were gonging for church, and asked me, in a perfectly serious manner, if you were the author of
“Jim Dobbs and the Tom Cats.”
December, before the 20th – Livy and Sam had enjoyed the Mother Goose performance at the Colt Party on Nov. 24. Livy wrote of it in her diary on Nov. 30 and soon planned her own such performance using James Elliott’s Mother Goose Set to Music. Sam’s notebook lists Piper’s Son as Mr. Carter; Dame Trot as Anne Trumbull; Emily as Mother Goose; Miss Barnard as Miss Muffett, Mr.
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 44th birthday. He read a piece called “Plagiarism” to the Saturday Morning Club in Hartford [MTPO].
He also gave a reading at the home of Mrs. Samuel Colt for the Decorative Art Society [MTPO].
November 29 Saturday – Jesse Madison Leathers wrote to Sam after receiving his of Nov. 26 (not extant); he thanked Sam for a Feb. invite. He noted the recent death of the Earl of Durham and considered sending a cable, but thought better since “they do not know us.” He speculated the son would be easier to deal with (Leathers intended to be a claimant of the estate) than the father [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the rightful Earl of Durham.
November 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. Sam knew he would face the Boston Brahmins Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes, across tables once more, and have a chance to further redeem himself from the Whittier debacle. He asked Howells if he might “be heard among the very earliest…” and wanted Holmes to read what he might say prior to the event, “& strike out whatever you choose.” Sam took no chances this time.