Clemens replied to the following note from Conway, written on Wednesday, 10 December (CU-MARK):

For the club invitation see 16 Dec 73 to Colborne, n. 1click to open link. Conway’s “big book” was The Sacred Anthology: A Book of Ethnical Scriptures (London: Trübner and Co.), announced in the Publishers’ Circular for 17 January 1874 (“New Works,” 8). It comprised a selection of writings from Eastern religions, intended, as Conway later explained, to “provide thoughtful readers with some idea of the ethical and religious geography, so to say, of the world; and also to provide myself with a book of ethnical scriptures from which to read lessons from my pulpit.” The book was a popular success, earning Conway good profits even though he published it at his own expense (Conway 1904, 2:329, 332). Clemens acquired a copy of the book, presumably from Conway in exchange for The Gilded Age (MTB , 3:1584). Sir Samuel White Baker (1821–93), a well-known adventurer and explorer, had recently returned from a four-year term in the service of the Egyptian government as governor-general of the Equatorial Nile basin. He was honored at a reception by the Royal Geographical Society on the evening of 8 December, at which Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, delivered “a few words of welcome” (“Sir Samuel Baker’s Expedition,” London Morning Post, 9 Dec 73, 5).