January 11 Saturday – A humidor with this date engraved was purported given to Sam at a banquet, most likely in New York. The humidor is said to have been presented to Mark Twain at a banquet on January 11, 1873. The presenter was his good friend Charles Tiffany. Charles Tiffany and his son Louis Comfort Tiffany supplied many of the decorations for the Hartford home.
January 10 Friday – Sam’s article arguing for annexation of the Sandwich Islands ran on the front page of the Hartford Courant.
January 9 Thursday – Sam’s letters to Whitelaw Reid on the Hawaiian question were published in the New York Tribune [MTL 5: 266].
January 8 Wednesday – Bill paid to Isaac Glazier & Co. of New York for three watercolors by “Miss Whiting.”(possibly Lilian Whiting of Boston) Also frames, misc., totaling $36.60 [MTP].
January 7 Tuesday – Sam’s letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant ran on page one:
SIR: When you do me the honor to suggest that I write an article about the Sandwich Islands, just now when the death of the king has turned something of the public attention in that direction, you unkennel a man whose modesty would have kept him in hiding otherwise. I could fill you full of statistics, but most human beings like gossip better, and… [Courant.com].
January 6 Monday – Sam sent another telegram from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid: “Have mailed second & concluding paper” [MTL 5: 266].
Sam’s letter dated Jan. 3, about the Sandwich Islands, “Death of King Kamehameha” ran in the New York Tribune [MTL 5: 264n1].
January 5 Sunday, before – William Dean Howells visited Sam and took a “frightful cold,” as mentioned in a letter from Howells to Charles Dudley Warner [MTHL 1: 12].
January 4 Saturday – Bill paid to H.A. Botsford for four bales of straw, etc., $15.68 [MTP].
January 3 Friday – In Hartford, Sam telegraphed a response to Whitelaw Reid’s letter of Dec. 28, asking him to “write something, no matter what, over your own signature within the next week,”: “Will write the article today.” The untimely death of Horace Greeley had thrown the Tribune into chaos, and politics over ownership evolved into Reid buying controlling interest (with the help of Jay Gould).
January 2 Thursday – Handwritten receipt signed John Hooker $300 for house rent for quarter ending Jan. 1 [MTP].