January 2 Sunday – In New York, Bret Harte wrote to Sam about the dramatization of Gabriel Conroy. John T. Raymond had not agreed to Harte’s terms for the play, and another actor had pocketed Harte’s first play without performing it:
January 1 Saturday – in Hartford Sam wrote a postcard to William Dean Howells, asking to write a few articles for the Atlantic in a “new & popular low-comedy vein”—and Sam wrote “scofulous humor” inside of a box [MTLE 1: 28]. Sam’s postcard suggestion for “scrofulous humor” and a pasting of a newspaper clipping is revealed by the following ad, which is typical of many that ran for this product in the Hartford Courant (27 times in 1875) and other papers. use of a standard advertising phrase with double meaning, using the old physiology definition of “humor.”
January – Possibly this month Sam wrote from Hartford to Isaac H. Bromley, who had originated the popular expression, “Punch, brothers! Punch with care!” To Sam’s consternation, the line was often attributed to him. He advised Bromley,
“The next time you write anything like that for God’s sake sign your name to it…” [MTLE 1: 27].
December 31 Friday – Moncure Conway ended his visit with Sam and left for New York, where he was to deliver another lecture [MTL 6: 600-1].
December 30 Thursday – Sam wrote in a gift copy of Sketches, New and Old, for Moncure Conway:
To Friend Conway: / Who will kindly remember that the billiard-odds lay with him, & Victory with his gratified friend & servant, Mark Twain. Hartford, New Year’s 1876 [MTL 6: 607].
December 29 or 30 Thursday – Sam wrote a “Religious conundrum suggested by my present disease” to Twichell: “Question: If a Congress of Presbyterians is a PRESBYtery, what is a Congress of dissenters? Answer: A Dysentery” [MTL 6: 606].
December 28 Tuesday – Fidelia Bridges sent a receipt for $220 paid for watercolors [MTP].
December 26 Sunday – John W. Hart wrote from State Prison (“Sarcophogas 14 State Catacomb”) to wish Sam “A most obesely jocund Christmas.” Hart must have swallowed a dictionary, as his prose is a felony [MTP]. Note: Clemens wrote on the env. “From John W. Hart, who made the ship in prison”; a model ship was sent to Clemens.
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – Sam wrote a delightful letter he signed “Santa Claus” to Susy Clemens.
“I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother & the nurses, for I am a foreigner & cannot read English well” [MTL 6: 604].
December 24 Friday – In New York, Bret Harte wrote to Sam, asking a favor—to use his influence with Elisha Bliss to gain an additional $1,000 advance on his book, Gabriel Conroy. Harte reminded Sam of a day when their roles had been reversed, but believed that good times for him were coming.