No letters written between 6 and 12 September have been found. On 10 September the Clemenses, accompanied by Clara Spaulding, left Elmira for New York City, where they checked into the Hoffman House, at 1115 Broadway between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth streets. This hotel, built in 1864, was one of the most beautiful in the city. Built of white marble, it boasted an art gallery, a sixty-square-foot banquet hall, and, according to Clemens, “the best table in New York.” It was conveniently located only a few blocks from the Park Theatre, at 932 Broadway between Twenty-first and Twenty-second streets, where Clemens planned to superintend rehearsals for the 16 September New York debut of the Gilded Age play. During the ten days the Clemenses remained in the city, they were also busy “buying carpets & furniture” for the new house, which they moved into upon their return to Hartford (21 Sept 74 to OCclick to open link; Moses King, 226; James Miller, unnumbered page following 68; Wilson 1874, 600, 1014; “Amusements,” New York Evening Express, 11 Sept 74, 2).