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.
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 34th birthday – Sam wrote her a love note.
“I love you, my darling, & this my love will increase step by step as tooth by tooth falls out, milestoning my way down to the great mystery & the Sweet Bye & Bye” [MTLE 4: 162].
November 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Andrew H.H. Dawson, declining to come to another banquet and citing the Dec. 3 banquet, and also more time than anticipated on getting his book ready. If Dawson didn’t hear from Sam by Dec. 20, “cross me off & consider that my book as got me ‘in the door’ & I can’t come.” [MTLE 4: 160].
November 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote another postcard from Hartford to James Pond, saying he couldn’t take part in the “20 nights’ Entertainments,” but if he could spare the time he would “willingly do it for $7,000 a night” [MTLE 4: 159].
Sam’s letter of Nov. 22, “Mark Twain on the New Postal Barbarism” ran in the Hartford Courant [MTLE 4: 153; Camfield bibliog.].
November 24 Monday – Sam sent a postcard from Hartford to James B. Pond, the lecture circuit manager of the Boston Literary Bureau, who evidently had asked if he would lecture for charity. Sam responded he was “busy head over heels, & it’s just a solid impossibility” [MTLE 4: 158].
November 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. A Tramp Abroad was:
“…really finished at last—every care is off my mind, everything is out of my way—so I have accepted the invitation to be at the Holmes breakfast” (Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 70th birthday celebration).