1 The National Orphans’ Homestead was established at Gettysburg in 1865 as a home for orphaned children of the Union dead. On 23 December 1870, an editorial in the Buffalo Express had endorsed local efforts to collect donations for this “great charity” (“Soldiers and Sailors’ National Orphans’ Homestead,” 4). Now its Buffalo supporters planned a benefit concert by the “poet, composer, and vocalist” James Gowdy Clark, to be held in the North Presbyterian Church on 12 January. The Express’s first notice of this event appeared on the morning of 6 January: “The homestead has never been in such pressing need of help as at the present time. Let all benevolent citizens remember this” (“The National Orphans’ Homestead,” 4). Although Clemens could have written this request to his city editor almost any time in early January, it seems most likely that it was a response to the 6 January notice. The letter was hand delivered to the Express office probably on Friday or Saturday, 6 or 7 January. Berry apparently acted on Clemens’s instruction on Monday, 9 January, for the first of four subsequent notices appeared the following day (Buffalo Express: “Don’t Forget the Orphans of Soldiers,” 10 Jan 71, 4; “The Orphans’ Homestead Concert,” 11 Jan 71, 4; “The Orphans Homestead Concert,” 12 Jan 71, 4; “Clarke’s Concert,” 13 Jan 71, 4; NUC, 111:21–22; L3, 296–97 n. 2).