To
Nathaniel W. Starbird, Jr.
20 December 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, correspondence card: CU-MARK, UCCL 01514)
20 December 1877 • Hartford, Conn. (MS, correspondence card: CU-MARK, UCCL 01514)
Hartford, Dec. 20.
slcMr. N. W. Starbird, Jr—
Dear Sir: Please send to me by express the brass fender (54½ inches long,) which you
showed to me
& Mr. Howells, editor of the “Atlantic Monthly” Tuesday 
morning.1explanatory note
In enclose check for the stipulated price ($60.)
Please ship it at once, so that I can make a Christmas present of it2explanatory note & escape further expense under that head.
Ys Truly
Samℓ. L. Clemens
Explanatory Notes
1 That is, 18 December 1877, the morning after the Atlantic Monthly birthday dinner
for John Greenleaf Whittier, at which Clemens delivered his famous speech
depicting three tramps calling themselves Emerson, Longfellow, and Holmes (see 23
Dec 1877 to Howells, and 27 Dec 1877 to Emerson, Longfellow, and Holmes).
Nathaniel J. Starbird, Jr., was a salesman at Freeman A. Walker and Company,
Boston dealers in house furnishings (Boston Directory 1877, 832, 896).
2 For Olivia Clemens (see 28 Dec 1877 to Howells).
MS, correspondence card, CU-MARK.
MicroML, reel 4.