Vol 1 Section 0039

May 7 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. His opinion of Slote had, by this time, gone completely dark.

Dear Charley— / The fact that we are into Dan near $900, reconciles me to the other things. He must never have a cent of that while he lives.

   Come up here Monday—we can get through our talk before 6 P.M.—I leave then, for South Manchester [Conn.] to be gone till midnight.—or, come Tuesday, if you prefer.

   While you are here you must buy my scrapbook patent of me. Do not forget this.

   I enclose $500—mainly to pay superannuated bills with, maybe.

   You must run across McLaughlin, some time, & have a talk with him. He can tell some things, I guess [MTBus 155].

Note: South Manchester was where the Cheney brothers founded their silk mill; it was also the site of many paper mills. Sam’s business might have been with either, but after business hours would suggest the business was personal.

Sam also wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, discussing desired payment on some sort of magazine article. “…any rate you can beguile these people out of, above $20 a page, will be entirely satisfactory to me.” This was the page rate Howells gave Sam for the first story accepted in the Atlantic Monthly. Sam added,

“Now you said you wanted a letter of mine to frame. All right—just hang this one up; for it ain’t a screed exhibiting a man’s literary gait that you want for such a purpose, but a screed which will exhibit his moral lay-out” [MTP].

James Ahern, “practical plumber and gas fitter” Hartford, billed Sam $36.67 for long list of plumbing work, paid this date, no date on bill [MTP]. Note: Ahern often billed for work done many weeks or months before.

May 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. After going on about how he liked the way they kept their finances, Sam admitted, “I am not as business-like, myself, as I ought to be—consequently I peculiarly detest the like thing in others.” Sam told of plans to go to the “Sound-side near New Haven about June 1^st” and his hope that Paris would not be as “wintry & hideous as it was at this time in ‘79” [MTP]. 

It is not known if Sam went to South Manchester, Conn. as he wrote Webster on May 7, or what his business was there (see note in May 7 entry.)

Sam also telegraphed Herbert M. Laurence in Venice, Italy asking, “WHAT IS EARLIEST DATE YOU CAN BEGIN DECORATING OUR HOUSE” [MTP].

May 10 Tuesday – Arnold, Constable & Co., NYC billed Sam $4.50 for “3 caps”, paid May 13 [MTP].

Dean Sage wrote from Albany. “I received your telegram & letter on my return from Ithaca—I am very glad you did so well. I found out today that my ‘Pard’ in New York sold us out at so my profits are $550 instead of $2500 as they should have been.” He heard about Iron Mountain incomes, and “might buy some when he went to NY next week” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Dean Sage on investments”

May 11 Wednesday – James R. Osgood wrote from Boston to Clemens. “I sold the story to Scribner for $400 with the understanding that if it should exceed 13 1/3 pages you should be paid for such excess at the rate of $30 per page [MTP]. Note: written on the env., “Osgood sells M.T. story to Scribners / A Curious Incident?”

Charles Webster wrote from NYC on Kaolatype Engraving Co. Letterhead to Clemens.

“Dear Uncle Sam /Dan rushed up to see me as soon as I returned., he is nearly wild with fright. He says for ‘God’s sake! What a position this puts me in’ ‘What will the folks think I have been doing.’ ‘This will be the ruin of me’ &c. It is the first time he has been in the K office” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Keep this handy.”

May 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, thanking him for some service performed (unidentified):

“Old man, you performed gorgeously. You would make a good highwayman. Yes, sir, for the sake of your character (& mine) I will be very mum to those people.”

Sam also confided his barber had “invented a beverage, one pint of which will unfailingly kill or cure the rheumatic subject…” after taking it for one week. Osgood had the ailment, and Sam wrote he had “its brother-in-law” lumbago [MTP].

Annie E. Lucas wrote from Sandalwood, Australia to relate how Sam’s letter excited their small township. She signed “your ever thankful little friend” [MTP].

May 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam. “At last Slote is thoroughly convinced that Sneider has been swindling you.” He detailed how Sneider had done the deed, and said “Dan is furious,” that he “could not uphold any one in cheating Sam & he had hard work to restrain himself &c.” Webster also touched on several other business matters [MTP].

May 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam was still hot on the heels of Dan Slote and Sneider.

“Yes, it will doubtful be well to finish with Sneider & then tackle Dan. In order to force Sneider, though, you may find it necessary to hint to Dan that if S.’s case comes into court Dan will probably be proceeded against as a party to the swindle. Dan hopes to get out by simply dropping S. & leaving us to force him to terms” [MTBus 155].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam. “We have had that talk with Alexander & Green. Slote has told them enough to convict Sneider if it is true, and I have no doubt it is. …Alexander & Green propose to haul him [Sneider] up before Judge Patterson under a charge of getting money under false pretenses” [MTP].

May 16 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.

“Yes, if we snatch Sneider up before the court he will weaken & be glad to sign the documents & get out.

Warn Mr. Beck against him, first time you get a chance.” Sam asked what $3,000 worth of “plant” amounted to that he’d paid Dan Slote for. He sent a check for $400 he “…got for a magazine article. This, like stock speculations, is money got for nothing, so to speak. Send Perkins the Co.’s note for it” [MTBus 156].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood, thanking him for a $400 check and concluding that since he’d survived, the lumbago medicine (see May 12 letter) “is all right” [MTP].

Wm. T. Bassett, hairdresser, billed Sam $25.50 “from shaving apr 18 to may 14, 1881” [MTP].

May 18 Wednesday – Charles Webster reported to Sam:

“The bubble has burst. Sneider has confessed…that the whole thing was a swindle from the beginning….Sneider says he’s going to commit suicide” [MTNJ 2: 393n120]. Note: Sam’s loss on Kaolatype would eventually be some $50,000 [Powers, MT A Life 452].

Livy wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore, asking her and her husband to spend Saturday evening (May 21) to meet her brother and his wife [MTP].

Sam transferred 200 shares of stock to Frank Bliss (probably Am. Pub. Co. stock) [ViU].

May 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. He wanted an accounting of old bills paid. After they were done with Sneider, he told Webster to get their attorney’s view how to proceed against Slote. Sam also felt the American Publishing Co. was “getting mighty feeble” and talked of plans to dump his stock. There were problems in England, too:

“I reckon this is ‘my year.’ As nearly as I can make it out, my London publisher has succeeded (by conniving with my London agent [Conway]) in gouging me out of $19,000 on my recent book.”

Sam added he didn’t want to see Talbot (unidentified) in Boston or elsewhere. When the contract was ready he would sign it, but wanted “no interviews” [MTBus 156-7].

C.S. Griswold billed Sam $4 for “64 ft of wood” [MTP].

Charles Webster sent a telegram: “Sneider has signed the release & assigned patents to you”; and also wrote the same to Sam, adding, “…so we are through with him. He at our request acknowledged before the notary that the whole thing was a fraud. … Slote was seen by Rand, after the matter was settled, in a saloon drinking with Sneider. Truly I have “fell among the Philistines” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “After the settlement the two thieves retire to a saloon & take a glass together”

May 20 Friday – Sam sent two telegrams from Hartford to Webster about Dan’s Slote’s punishment:

FIRST TELEGRAM 11:30 A.M. …I PREFER THEY [LAWYERS] MAKE DEMANDS UPON HIM THOUGH I WILL DO SO IF THEY SO ADVISE [MTP].

SECOND TELEGRAM: 12:59 PM: FRAUD NO. TWO MUST GIVE UP ALL HIS STOCK, HE MUST REPAY EVERY DOLLAR, WHICH THE LATE SWINDLE COST, INCLUDING LEGAL EXPENSES ALSO PART OF THE OUTLAY ON THE FORMER SWINDLE, AND HIS FIRM MUST GIVE THEIR NOTE FOR THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS WITH INTEREST FROM EIGHTEEN SEVENTY EIGHT THAT MONEY BEING OBTAINED BY FRAUDFUL REPRESENTATIONS, WHICH I SEND FOR YOU I WILL SHOW YOU WHY I THINK THESE DEMANDS WILL BE CONCEDED [MTBus 157].

 A contract between Clemens and Osgood for “Mark Twain’s Cyclopedia of Humor” was dated this day (See May 30 entry). Sam was to receive 70 percent of the profits beyond manufacturing costs. If there were losses, he agreed to pay 70 percent of those [MTLTP 137n1].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam, “Enclosed please find a rough account of receipts & expenditures since I have been in charge as you request” [MTP].

May 21 Saturday – Livy had invited the Whitmores for the evening to meet her brother, Charles Langdon, and his wife, Ida Clark Langdon, who were visiting from Elmira [MTP see May 18 entry].

Percy F. Sinnett wrote from Norwood-Adelaide, Australia to Sam because his father (d.1866) had been Sam’s friend and because he wanted to write, though ill. Fan letter [MTP]. File note: “see SLC to Sinnett, 24 July 1881, SLC to Austr. Public 24 July 1881; Sinnett to SLC 25 Oct 1881.”

May 23 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Osgood & Co. He ordered two novels, Green Hand (1879) by George Cupples, and Sailor’s Sweetheart (1880) by William Clark Russell [MTNJ 2: 395n131; Gribben 168, 596]. Sam sent a check for $160.76 for past books ordered. Osgood had set up an account for such purchases [MTLTP 136-7].

May 24 Tuesday – Sam’s May 19 transfer of 200 shares of stock to Frank Bliss (probably Am. Pub. Co. stock) was completed [ViU].

Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy that she’d received and kissed many times their photographs. Josie was very homesick [MTP].

May 26 Thursday – G.H. Olmstead, Jr., Hartford, billed Sam $8 for “1 16in daisy; [?] by old mower” [MTP].

May 27 Friday – Haynes & Simmons, “fine boots, shoes & rubbers” billed $8 for goods (illegible); paid [MTP].

Miss E.T. Morgan wrote from Knoxville, Tenn. to thank Sam for the $25 he gave to Mrs. Olmstead for her. (This letter was enclosed in Mrs. J. Olmstead’s June 1; see entry) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a damn fool in Tennessee —OLMSteads”

May 28 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, still trying to figure out how to make a living. His arm had swollen painfully so could not go to Chicago to set type. Could Sam “risk $200” for him to go to Colorado to check out that mining possibility? [MTP]. Note: begs the question: if he couldn’t set type how could he mine?

May 30 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam forwarded notes he’d made a week or two before, one of which suggested Slote had used his money to pay Kaolatype debts incurred before Sam purchased stock [MTBus 158].

Sam also wrote to Frank Bliss about profits on Tramp Abroad. Sam was to receive quarterly ten-percent royalties, with annual accounting adjusting to half the profits. Sam expected to be paid half the profits by July 1 [MTLTP 138].

Sam also wrote to Karl Gerhardt. “A friendly letter mentioning St. Gaudens’ statue of Farragut” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood:

I signed the contract and sent it [for the “Mark Twain Cyclopedia of Humor”]. And again, now, that clause about sharing losses comes troubling me. For although such a thing is exceedingly unlikely, there might be a loss instead of a profit—and I would have to pay my proportion of that loss and $6,200 besides! (the money which I stand pledged to pay to Howells and Clark whether the book pays or not.) Come, old man, add a codicil specifying that the $6,200 shall stand as a cash payment on my proportion of the loss. No, I won’t require this—couldn’t if I wanted to!—but I submit it for consideration and prayer [MTLTP 137].

Sam also wrote to Charles Webster, an assortment of business matters, and a direction to “Collect from Herald and former publishers of Galaxy” for monies Sam felt were still owed. He added:

“We go to the Montowese House, Branford, Conn. next Saturday June 4” [MTP].

May 31 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster advising him on the stock price of American Bank Note Co. Howells had informed Sam that a broker named Shepard could get the stock cheaper than Bissell, the Hartford broker Sam usually dealt with. Sam authorized Webster to buy $1000 worth. Samuel Webster observes: “Apparently Mark Twain’s only reason for choosing this investment was to get a little printing business” [MTBus 159].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman about the ”notorious Diamond-King hoax” saying he had “never told a ‘magnificent lie’ that cost anybody pain or a postage stamp” [MTP]. Note: The diamond hoax of 1872 was caused by two men salting diamonds in a Wyoming mine field and gathered such investors as Horace Greeley and Charles Tiffany before it was exposed by Clarence King, a U.S. Government geologist.

June – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster advising him that Woodman, Dan Slote’s former partner, might be someone valuable to consult on scrapbook matters [MTP].

Sam inscribed: “S.L. Clemens, Hartford, June, 1881” on the flyleaf of Charles Anthon’s (1797-1867) Classical Dictionary (1880), which treated Greek and Roman literature and history [Gribben 25].

Sam wrote a doggerel parody of Thomas Haynes Bayly’s old poem and song, “Gaily the Troubadour,” which Sam had heard in his Hannibal days. The work celebrated Osgood’s departure for a European holiday. Part of the original lyrics followed by Sam’s parody:

Gaily the Troubadour / Touch’d his guitar, ‘ When he was hastening / Home from the war.

Gaily the Osgoodar / Smoked his cigar, / When he was contempla- / Ting his depar

June 1 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to J.S. Wood replying to a request for some unidentified materials. “…my slips will arrive ‘the day after the Fair’ ” [MTP]. This may possibly be John Seymour Wood (1853-1934), Author.

Orion Clemens wrote to his brother that he now had 1776 MS. pages on his autobiography [MTP].

Mrs. John Olmstead wrote from Boston to Clemens:

“The enclosed letter, from my friend Miss Morgan, came yesterday in my regular weekly communication from her, and I presume you will be happy to make the acquaintance of such an earnest, and successful worker among the hitherto neglected & needy ones. / Respectfully Yours, Mrs. J. Olmstead” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “From a dam fool in Tennessee”.

Miss E.T. Morgan’s letter of May 27 inclosed in Olmstead’s; in part:

Dear Sir, Your nom de plume is more of a household word than your veritable name, and if I use it as your address because it is pleasantly familiar, and also find it necessary to append the dignifying letters I.S. (Imperial Satirist), don’t allow your brilliant imagination and love of fun to construe them into something doubtful or derogatory. Many thanks for the twenty five dollars you gave Mrs. Olmstead for me; but your native South ought to be able to get a much larger donation at your hand. Tennessee disputes Missouri’s claim as your birth place, and if this state is right, then surely she is entitled to whatever aid her distinguished son can give her toward the civilization and elevation of her other children…. [MTP] Note: Morgan thought he should send $500 at least, or come to Knoxville and give two lectures to aid the children there.

June 2 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam, a summary of business activities: the Independent Watch Co. stock, Kaolatype, and the Scrap Book and how to recover what Slote had taken [MTP].

June 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the A.V.S. Anthony, asking him to buy “100 of the choicest cigars in Boston, for [Osgood] to fight the Atlantic voyage with….” [MTP]. Osgood was taking a trip abroad.

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood, agreeing with his calculation and conclusion that P&P should be given to Chatto & Windus on “the same basis”—evidently as Osgood’s agreement for the book. Sam added that “Warner is having it rough. Malaria chills & fever” [MTP].

June 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion that “Everything is packed & the house is ready for the decorators.” They would leave in an hour for Branford, planning to stay through July, then to Elmira till mid-September. Sam used a West Point invitation envelope which had just arrived to send Orion a picture of baby Jean [MTP].

The Clemens family left Hartford for the summer to the Montowese House, Branford, Conn. [MTBus 158; MTNJ 2: 396n135].

A.V.S. Anthony of Osgood’s office wrote to Clemens that he’d selected a cigar priced at $13 (likely per 100), the “Zarquelas” [MTP].

John H. Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) wrote from St. Louis to ask if he might use one of Clemens’ sketches in his annual almanac [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From ‘Commodore Rollingpin’, a far Western ‘funny man’ ”

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens that there was “no where near $3000 worth of stock in the Kaolatype works”[MTP].

June 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Webster, confirming his legal actions taken (“…you did right to sue the quack”). Sam concluded that Slote had paid him only about a third ($1,800 or $2,000 per year) of what he should have received on the scrapbook invention [MTBus 160].

June 7 Tuesday – Sam left the family in Branford, Conn. and went back to the Hartford house, which was being decorated for some sort of event. Sam wrote to Livy at 8:45 P.M. that he’d helped Mr. Beals to string flags of countries around the balconies, and nixed a giant arch that bore “letters as big as your head” spelling out “The Home of Mark Twain.” Katy Leary made up a bed for Sam on the study divan [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam (only the envelope from Paris survives), but the Gerhardts sent regular letters, at least weekly, on the progress of their art work and family [MTP].

June 8 Wednesday – Clara Clemens’ seventh birthday.

Sam gave a speech at the Army of the Potomac Banquet, Allyn House, Hartford: “The Benefit of Judicious Training” was the toast that Sam responded to [Fatout, MT Speaking 151-4]. West Point was the example Sam gave as the basis for his advice:

“All I know about military matters I got from the gentlemen at West Point, and to them belongs the credit” [Leon 148].

June 9 Thursday – Sam went with a party by train to West Point for graduation festivities, otherwise known as “June Week.” The group included Joseph Twichell, General Sherman, Secretary of War Robert Lincoln (son of Abraham Lincoln) and a dozen others. On the way to the Point, Sam and Sherman engaged in some fun “whistle-stop” speeches, with Sam putting on Sherman’s uniform and speaking from the caboose platform until someone recognized him and the joke was up. They made several stops with Sam “warming up” the crowd followed by a speech from Sherman and sometimes Lincoln. The party arrived at 6 PM at Dutchess Junction on the Hudson River above West Point. From the Junction a special steamer brought them downstream to the military academy’s South Dock. They were welcomed there by General Oliver O. Howard and staff.

Later in the evening Sam attended the alumni dinner in Schofield Hall with 61 graduates, including two ex-Confederate generals, “Fighting Joe” Wheeler (USMA 1859) and Milo T. Polk (USMA 1852). Sam did not speak on this trip [Leon 54-5].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam about an offer of $1,000 from Slote and his American Kaolatype stock to settle the dispute over what was owed on the Scrap Book sales [MTP].

June 10 Friday – Sam attended the West Point graduation exercises for the class of 1881. He sat on the dais with the other dignitaries, even though he had no speaking role. General Christopher C. Augur gave the graduation address. There were other speakers as well, including Dr. Samuel Spahr Laws (1824-1921) president of the University of Missouri, Robert Lincoln, and General Sherman [Leon 55]. During Sam’s four previous visits to the Point, he had gotten to know many in the class of 1881. He entertained them at their One Hundredth Night celebration (Feb. 28, 1881) and talked informally to small groups in the barracks. For Clemens their graduation was a high point.

June 11 Saturday – Sam said goodbye to his West Point friends and returned to Hartford.

At Hartford Sam wrote to John Henton Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) of St. Louis, giving him permission to use “any published sketch of mine you choose,” but Sam added that he couldn’t “furnish anything new,” being “limited by existing contracts” [MTP].

June 11 or 12 Sunday – Sam returned to his family in Branford, Conn. He was there by Monday, June 13, when he and Livy traveled to Hartford to meet George W. Cable [Bickle 69].

June 12 Sunday – Clemens wrote to Dwight H. Buell asking if he might buy stock in the typesetter early. This letter not extant but referred to in Buell’s June 14 reply.

June 13 Monday – Sam and Livy traveled to Hartford and met George W. Cable, as testified by Cable’s June 14 letter to his wife:

      I think my last line was Sat’y morning. After writing I went to the office of J.R. Osgood & Co. & made the acquaintance of Mr. Osgood’s brother, E.L. Osgood & of the two Messrs. Ticknor. Then I went & bade my dear Col. Fairchild goodbye (as I had already done Howells & Col. F.’s sister, Mrs. Dean), and so on the cars and away for Hartford.

      I went to see Charles Dudley Warner. Found him, his brother George & Mrs. George Warner. It is hard to realize now that I have known these kind, gentle, hearty friends only four days. They telegraphed at once to Mr. Clemens (Mark Twain) to come up—from somewhere beyond New Haven [Branford]. On Monday they came—taking the first train that started after their rec’t of telegram. We doubted its reaching them & I was out inspecting the insane asylum & then seeing the marvelous beauties of the state-house (inside & outside). Both Mr. & Mrs. Clemens came, Mrs. Clemens “inviting herself,” as she said.

      And so I met Mark Twain. We all lunched together & “Mark” & Mr. Warner were ever so funny. But soon the Clemenses had to bid us good-bye & return to the cars & to New Haven. I will tell you all about it some day, from the hearty meeting to the pleasant but regretful parting. George Warner took me out again in the afternoon, driving in & out of the beautiful town.

      In the evening I dined with them. Met Charles Dudley Warner, Rev. Jos. Twichell, Rev. Ed. Parker, Mr & Mrs. Geo. Warner & Gen’l Hawley. A brilliant company [Bickle 69]. Note: MTNJ 2: 396n137 gives only “mid-June” for the first meeting of Cable and Twain. This letter clearly gives June 13.

Charles E.S. Wood wrote to advise Sam he was mailing a shirt which he thought Twichell had left during a recent visit to West Point (Col. R.C. Morgan to Wood of June 9 enclosed) [MTP]. Note: Morgan was the brother of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864).

June 14 Tuesday – Dwight H. Buell, Hartford jeweler, wrote to Sam, noting his request of June 12 (not extant) to pay for the typesetter stock in advance [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Consent to my paying Type-Setter stock in advance”

June 16 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Branford, Conn. to Frank Bliss requesting unbound copies of each of his books to be delivered to Charles Clark of the Hartford Courant [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Osgood & Co. asking to honor all of Charles Clark’s orders for books in the preparation of the Library of Humor. Sam labeled Clark as the “main pile-driver of the three who have contracted to compile” the work [MTP].

June 18 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam: “By giving one more turn to the screw we have succeeded in getting $2200 out of Slote instead of $2000”: two notes for $1,200 and $1,000 signed by Alonzo Slote, Dan’s brother (d. 1901). Release enclosed for Sam to sign [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Slote Released.”

June 20 Monday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster about the Kaolatype stock. There was evidently still hope the process would prove productive and profitable:

“The day that Kaolatype arrives at a point where it pays its own expenses, you are to have $900 of its stock. Meantime, I wish to give you $100 of its stock, now, anyhow, & make you Vice President & Treasurer—also Manager” [MTBus 160].

June 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster in New York, asking Charley or Annie to go to Tiffany’s and have a silver chatelaine-watch expressed to him with Livy’s initials engraved on it [MTBus 161].

June 22 Wednesday – Charles Webster replied to Sam’s June 21: he’d been sick but had ordered the chatelaine watch Sam wanted from Tiffany’s [MTP].

June 23 Thursday – Laura C. Redden Searing wrote from Sherwood, NY to thank Sam for his publishing advice [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “An authoress.”

June 26 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. Things were going well for the two families. Sam referred to another protégé he’d helped launch career efforts.

Your letter was full of interest, & gave us great pleasure. We want to hear all about the progress of both of you—the one toward success in the competitions mentioned, & the other toward the use of colors. We’ll hope for good luck for you, since this seems to be a favorable year for young aspirants,—Mr. Gillette, for instance. You remember I confided to you a state secret (about our helping him to get his play started on the western boards, which resulted in his presently becoming manager of the Madison Square Theatre.) Well, his play was put on the stage at the Madison Square the first of this month, & achieved a handsome success. The papers say it will have a long & popular run. A play which he previously wrote with Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett is now loudly called for by several New York managers. So we consider that Gillette’s pecuniary future is safe [MTP]. Note: Burnett (1849-1924). William Gillette’s successful play referred to was The Professor, which enjoyed a long run. Sam first saw the play on June 15, 1880 (see entry). The financial help was in the form of a $3,000 loan made in 1874-5; Sam’s patronage may well have included additional help since.

June 27 Monday – Charles E.S. Wood wrote from West Point to Sam that Col. R.C. Morgan “writes vols. of thanks (on a half note) for ‘1601’”. Wood was planning on a visit to Hartford [MTP].

June 28 Tuesday – The New York Sun, ran a comic interview on p.2 titled, “The Lookout of the World / Mark Twain’s Preparations for a Possible Encounter with a Comet” [Schmidt].

June 29 Wednesday – Charles E. Perkins wrote a summary of the directors’ meeting for Kaolatype Engraving Co. at which Sam is listed as attending this day. It was voted that Webster would be VP & treasurer, authorized for all financials [MTP].

July – During the Branford vacation, Sam wrote a description of a game he called “Tenpins in verse.” He kept scores of Susy and Clara Clemens in his notebook [MTNJ 2: 398].

July 2 Saturday – James A. Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau at 9:30 AM., less than four months after his term began. Garfield would linger through the rest of the summer and die on Sept. 19 1881.

Sam wrote from Branford to Osgood & Co. asking him not to buy more of “Brer Talmage” and asking for the proofs of the pictures completed for his book, probably P&P [MTP].

Sam also wrote a one-liner to Charles Perkins on an unidentified matter:

“I thought that this ridiculous attempt at a swindle was given up, some 3 or 4 years ago. Didn’t you understand it so?” [MTP].

July 4 Monday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy on their artistic progress, enclosing a commendation for Karl Gerhardt, in French, from a professor [MTP].

July 5 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Branford, “P.S. But never at any time” and drew a partial bar of music with a bass clef (or f-clef) and a G-note, to an unidentified person [MTP]. The note may have been an inside joke between Sam and the recipient.

Charles Webster wrote from Providence, R.I. to request $500 from Sam for expenses [MTP].

July 8 Friday – Howells wrote to Clemens: “Guiteau’s shot knocked the breath out of me, or I should have written sooner to boast that thanks in your absence I saw the boat race in all its glory—altogether a most beautiful and exciting thing” [MTP]. (Not in MTHL) This could have been the July 1 Regatta between Yale and Harvard.

H. Peet Penosbscott, M.D.  wrote to tell Clemens about a cure he’d worked on for several years for Elephantiasis Cranium. He didn’t ask anything of Clemens [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a lunatic”

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens of Scrap Book matters: “what I call a splendid success at Providence” [MTP].

July 9 Saturday – Sam wrote from the Montowese House, Branford, Conn. to Charles Webster:

“So it appears that the scrap book sales have fallen off one half in the past six months; —i.e., from 50,000 copies a year to 28,000. I return to you Slote’s ck, for use in the K[oalatype] eng. Co business. Send Perkins a note for it” [MTBus 161].

July 10 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Branford to Charles Webster possibly about Kaolatype castings. Sam thought they looked good, and suggested having prints made from them in “two colors, & if the thing turns out a success, show the result to Koch’s people” [MTP]. Note: refers to Peter Koch of Koch & Co., New York printers referred to in Mar. 31 letter to Daniel Slote and Apr. 26 letter to Webster.

July 11 Monday – From Twichell’s journal:

“Another trip with our three oldest, — this time to Branford, on the invitation of our most kind friends, M.T. and wife with whom we had a charming visit (at their expense) at the Montowese House” [Yale, copy at MTP]. Note: see Twichell’s July 13 for some of the activities on this visit.

July 12 Tuesday – The visit with Joe and Harmony Twichell and their three oldest children continued for a second day [Twichell’s journal, Yale]. Note: Edward Carrington Twichell b. 1867; Julia Curtis Twichell b. 9 Jan. 1869; Susan Lee Twichell b. 1871

July 13 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam.

Dear Mark: / We got home all right, and found Harmony and the small fry well. / Now we desire to waft back on formal, deliberate, and most hearty thanks for the hospitality that will always add sweetness to the memory of our golden little excursion. …

      With no end of love to all and every one of you—yours aff—but before I close, remember us to the delightful Whitmores. I shall long remember with satisfaction that wicked, wicked evening in my room.

      I know that I was very dull and unprofitable company yesterday and Monday, but the fact is I have got below the point of spontaneity for this year…I love you to-day as well as ever.

      But, my sakes, how lame my arm is. I can hardly write. Likewise my back and side and legs—all from those blessed ten pins. [MTP].

July 13–July 16 Saturday – Sometime during the week William Dean Howells came to Branford and “spent a day” with Sam, most likely after the Twichell’s visit [MTHL 1: 364].

July 15 Friday – Clemens wrote to C.F. Cobb, letter not extant but referred to in Cobb’s July 18 reply.

July 17 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to George W. Cable. Sam mentioned Howells “spent a day with me last week” and that he was “still in the mind to go to New Orleans with me in November for the Mississippi trip…” [MTHL 1: 364].

Clemens also inscribed his photo for Mrs. Embury. “To Mrs. Embry, / With the kindest regards of her friend & fellow-summer-boarder, / S.L. Clemens / (‘Mark Twain’) / Montowese House / July 17, 1881.” [MTP].

Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy about studies and competing for a medal [MTP].

July 17?–31 Sunday – Sam wrote sometime during this period to Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), expressing his admiration for “Uncle Remus,” and proposing that Harris visit him in Hartford at some early date. Sam wanted to discuss Negro fables, in particular a “ghost story” [MTP].

July 18 Monday – A copy in Charles Webster’s hand of Sam’s notice to the American Publishing Co. exists, giving Webster “full control of my interests…is amply empowered to act for me in all matters appertaining thereto. S.L. Clemens” [MTBus 161].

C.F. Cobb wrote from Wash. DC to Sam: “Ten thousand thanks for your kind letter of July 15 [not extant]. / I can’t imagine how such a report started. If there be no offense and no offender and no offended, it resembles, very strongly, a footless stocking without a leg” [MTP].

July 19 Tuesday – C.F. Cobb wrote to Sam with a follow-up explanation how a rumor might have been started in Hartford when she visited looking for him, that she wanted to interview him. Sam was in Branford, Conn. [MTP].

July 20 Wednesday – Herbert M. Laurence wrote from London to Clemens, having rec’d his letter of July 2 asking if he’d undertake decorating Sam’s house, but he was afraid his return in the fall would be too late for him to do so [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Lawrence, artist / 1881”

Charles Eliot Norton wrote from Ashfield, Mass. to ask Clemens to speak at their annual breakfast [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Prof. Norton”

July 21 Thursday – Herbert Evans wrote from Adelaide, S. Austr. to Clemens, thanking with pleasure Sam’s of Apr. 23. Anecdotes and wishing Clemens long life; a fan letter [MTP].

Charles Dudley Warner wrote from N.H. to Clemens: “The enclosed letter about Anna Dickinson is piteous and explains itself. I cannot do any thing up here, but if I were in Hartford I could I think raise the sum she needs at once. I am ready to chip in to the extent of my means. Do you feel like doing any thing?” [MTP]. Note: letter 27 July in the file from Dickinson to Livy, thanking her profusely shows Clemens did chip in.

July 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Branford, Conn. to the Australian public, a letter which was printed in the Adelaide Observer on Oct. 15. After discussing that someone had been “scattered all over Australia pretending to be him,” Sam informed Australians that he’d never been in any part of the country and that he suspected the man to be “a pretty shabby sort of rascal.” He closed with:

Today’s mail brings a letter…from an old English friend of ours, dated “Government House, Sydney, May 29,” in which the writer is shocked to hear of my “sudden death.” Now, that suggests that that aforementioned imposter has even gone the length of dying for me. This generosity disarms me. He has done a thing for me which I wouldn’t even have done for myself. If he will stay dead now I will call the account square, and drop the grudge I bear him.

Note: The letter was later published in the Springfield Republican and the New York Times (Dec. 8) as AUTHORITATIVE CONTRADICTION [Fatout, MT Speaks 129].

Sam also wrote to Reginald Cholmondeley who wrote on May 29 while visiting Sydney, Australia, to inform him that the imposter there, who’d been posing as Mark Twain for years, had died.

It is odd that a letter containing the news of my own death should give me pleasure & a lively sense of relief—yet these were the effects produced by this one: pleasure in the recognition of the fact that I still possess a friendship which I so greatly value, & a sense of relief in the conviction that a fraud who has been passing under my name during some years in New South Wales & neighboring regions is at last disposed of & out of the way…I was beginning to get tired of him & his performances [MTP].

Sam also replied to Joseph G. Hickman who wrote on Jan. 20 (not extant) informing Sam of the “Florida Literary Association,” in his Missouri birthplace. Sam lost his letter and must have recalled it, for he sent a donation of $25 and ordered a copy of each of his past books for the group. He also inserted a page of a weekly New York journal, Good Literature, which he claimed was “devoted to advertising some astonishingly cheap books” [MTP]. Note: this letter was printed in the Monroe County (Missouri) Appeal on Aug. 12. See Hickman’s earlier letter of Jan. 20, 1878.

Sam also wrote to Charles Eliot Norton agreeing to come, probably to another event for the arts and sciences that he’d declined a year before, what now was a regular mid-summer Academy Dinner in Ashfield, Mass. “Any date between now & the 10^th September will suit me” [MTP]. Note: Norton was the founder of The Nation and Prof. of poetry at Harvard.

Sam also wrote to Percy Frederick Sinnett, enclosing a card (“A Word of Explanation”) for him to print with a denial that he’d ever been in Australia. Sam also enclosed Cholmondeley’s May 29 letter [MTP].

“If he [the imposter] will only stay dead, now, I will call the account square, & drop the grudge I bear him.”

July 25 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer, bankers & brokers, telegraphed Sam that they’d purchased 100 shares of Omaha Pfd. And 100 of Denver & Rio Grande for a total of $20,200 [MTP].

MY DEAR MR. HARRIS,—You can argue yourself into the delusion that the principle of life is in the stories themselves & not in their setting; but you will save labor by stopping with that solitary convert, for he is the only intelligent one you will bag. In reality the stories are only alligator pears—one merely eats them for the sake of the salad-dressing. Uncle Remus is most deftly drawn, & is a lovable & delightful creation; he, & the little boy, & their relations with each other, are high & fine literature, & worthy to live, for their own sakes; & certainly the stories are not to be credited with them. But enough of this; I seem to be proving to the man that made the multiplication table that twice one are two. 

Old Uncle Dan’l, a slave of my uncle’s’ aged 60, used to tell us children yarns every night by the kitchen fire (no other light;) & the last yarn demanded, every night, was this one. By this time there was but a ghastly blaze or two flickering about the back-log. We would huddle close about the old man, & begin to shudder with the first familiar words; & under the spell of his impressive delivery we always fell a prey to that climax at the end when the rigid black shape in the twilight sprang at us with a shout.

When you come to glance at the tale you will recollect it—it is as common & familiar as the Tar Baby. Work up the atmosphere with your customary skill & it will “go” in print.

Lumbago seems to make a body garrulous—but you’ll forgive it. Truly yours S. L. CLEMENS [MTP].

Further than to thank him for his courtesy in sending his book. I am not bold enough to express an opinion about it, for I never read poetry, & a criticism from me would be a thing which I should laugh at, myself …But I do read prose & am not perplexed for opinions concerning it; & you may imagine I have been well entertained by your theological article…& Judge Black’s ludicrous “reply” to it…Judge Black is not a fool; therefore it must amuse him to the marrow to see his fatuous nonsense & coarse bluster received with bland respect by the whole respectable world [MTP].

August 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor, enclosing a check for $850.26 for publishing costs, probably for P&P and its circular. Ticknor had requested sales points for a circular and Sam replied that he wasn’t the best man to give them, that he should “leave it alone ten days & then get the points from Osgood & Anthony, & a suggestion or two from Howells…” [MTP]. (See Aug.14.)

Lara M. Gallandet wrote a short note to Clemens: “Your loving friend / Lara M. Gallandet / Indiana / Mich”. In the four corners in tiny hand: “Its going to rain!”; “codfish”; “Eyebrows”; “Short-stories” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote of several business matters, including an offer from “the French gentleman.” Webster thought a tight contract might be drawn with him (not further identified) [MTP].

August 12 Friday – Sam wrote twice from Elmira to Charles Webster. The longest letter asked him to negotiate with the remodelers William & Robert Garvie and James Ahern on work in progress at the Farmington Avenue house, principally a remodel of the kitchen. Sam gave quite a long laundry list of things to check, recheck, prove and consider.

“Scan that mason’s bill sharply, for that mason is an infernal thief, I’m afraid. He is a prominent politician” [MTBus 163-5].

The second letter only survives partially, and directs Webster to “Make any contract you please” with “the French gentleman…the tighter the better…” Sam wanted to “limit his ownership of the”—and this is where the fragment ends [MTP]. Who was the “French gentleman”? What did he own?

Sam also wrote to Howells:

“Say— I am going to Ashfield, Mass. Aug 25^th. Tell me—what does a body have to do there? Talk? And if so, who are the audience? 1. Is it a school? 2. If so, is it male, or female, or both? 3. Boys & girls? or bigger bucks & fillies? Are you going? In a hurry, Yrs Ever Mark” [MTHL 1: 364]. Note: “In 1879 Charles Eliot Norton had begun sponsoring an annual midsummer Academy Dinner at Ashfield, Mass., where he had long maintained his summer home. Each year Norton invited some celebrated friend or acquaintance to speak…” [364n1].

Sam also wrote to Franklin Whitmore. After relating illnesses just past for baby Jean and himself, plus a “crick in the neck” for Livy, the sale of their old carriage for $300 and his disregard of advice to buy more stock in Oregon & Transcontinental, Sam boasted that he’d been “playing many games of billiards with former antagonists of mine—took them into camp, every one.” Sam, the cat lover, also told of losing and then finding a “splendid cat”:

That cat of ours went down to town—3 miles, through the woods, in the night,—& attended a colored-people’s church-festival where she didn’t even know the deacons—was gone 48 hours, & marched home again this morning. Now think of that! That cat is not for sale. Talented cat. Religious cat…and no color-prejudices, either [MTP].

August 13 Saturday – A.W. Johnson wrote from Salisbury, Mo. to tell Clemens of his wife’s connections to Florida, Mo. and of his love of Sam’s books [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a fellow native’s husband”

Mark Twain Club per Phil Hannagan sent a voluminous paper, “Twain Club Papers No 1” to Clemens [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Introduced by that lunatic Irishman of Carlow Castle”

August 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor about the advertising circular for P&P, and the illustrations he’d chosen for a run of 20 special books. Frank T. Merrill was the principal illustrator of the book and Sam wrote:

“Merrill probably thinks he originated his exquisite boys himself, but I was ahead of him there!—in these pictures they look and dress exactly as I used to see them in my mind two years ago. It is a vast pleasure to see them cast in the flesh, so to speak—they were of but perishable dream-stuff before” [MTLTP 140].

August 15 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Benjamin H. Ticknor, agreeing with Ticknor’s processing an engraving cut down to the required reduction. Sam would wait for Chapter 1 of P&P to evaluate the book fully illustrated consecutively [MTP].

Sam received a letter dated Aug. 15 from Major John B. Downing (1834-1914) of Middleport, Ohio, who had been a pilot on the Mississippi. Downing related a story about how Sam got his nom de plume; he wanted Sam to confirm it.

Schmidt writes:

“Known as Major Jack Downing and sometimes “Alligator Jack,” Downing was born in Rutland, Meigs County, Ohio. He was a pilot for twenty-seven years on the Mississippi. Downing, an accomplished violinist, toured with a minstrel company when the Civil War disrupted river traffic. Norwegian violinist ‘Ole Bull’ (Bornemann Bull) claimed Downing was the best amateur violinist he had ever heard.”

Downing wrote that Bart Bowen had recalled a version of how Sam got the name Mark Twain, one that varied from Paine’s biography [MTNJ 2: 398n144].

August 16 Tuesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam:

Your Ashfield audience will be the farmer-folks of the region, quiet and dull on top, but full of grit and fun; they’re fond of speaking, and rather cultivated, but not spoiled. They know you, like a book, and you can trust all your points to them. Their life is one of deadly solitude and suffocating frugality; but they are smart. They will stand lots of human nature from you [MTHL 1: 365].

August 16–22 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor, on proof-reading minutiae for P&P. He wanted the printers to follow the copy strictly, in preparing proofs, because he was having to focus too much on punctuation and capitalization which they’d changed. Like many writers, Sam revised with an eye to specifics:

“What I want to read proof for is for literary lapses & infelicities (those I’ll mark every time; so, in these chapters where I have had to turn my whole attention to restoring my punctuation, I do not consider that I have legitimately read proof at all” [MTP].

August 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Evidently Webster had recommending closing up the Kaolatype business, but Sam poured good money after bad.

You wish to know when I shall “close up?” When the business pays me $5,000 a year clear profit. Not before. The brass alone shall pay me more than that, before I am done with it….

Yes, it will cost some money to make it pay—but it shall pay. I shall retain the privilege of complaining over the money-drain; a privilege which I seldom exercise, whereas any other man would abuse it [MTBus 165].

Orion Clemens wrote to his brother that he’d finished his autobiography at 2,346 MS. pages. He asked for any letters to Livy or Sam that he might want to send [MTP].

J.J. Doyle wrote from the San Jose, Calif. jail to Clemens, enclosing an essay for July the 4^th he’d written in the San Jose Daily Mercury. He was writing asking for aid for Jerome Settle, who he claimed was the son of Caroline Clemens, sister to John Marshall Clemens; no such Settle is listed in genealogy charts [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Mention of the humbug Earl of Durham (T.P. Leathers.)” The man’s name was Jesse M. Leathers.

Joe Twichell wrote to Clemens, but the “dark mood in Washington” (Garfield) took his desire to write away. He “was sending a periodical containing an article by our friend Lt. Wood” [MTP].

August 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore who had spent some vacation time with the Clemenses at Branford, Conn. earlier in the summer. Sam squared accounts with Whitmore on his share of the meals. He also enclosed a:

…letter received from Mr. Watrous some time ago. Show it to Mr. Bennett & others—or tell them about it—& ask them to keep a strict eye on that conductor, & report him the very first time they catch him in an impoliteness to anybody. If they don’t want the disagreeable office of reporting him, ask them to give the facts to me, & I will gladly do the reporting.

Sam ended with a bit about news of Garfield’s failing “makes us all apprehensive & gloomy-spirited” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Howells, who wrote on Aug. 16 that the Ashfield, Mass. audience would be:

…farmer-folks of the region, quiet and dull on top, but full of grit and fun; they’re fond of speaking, and rather cultivated, but not spoiled. They know you, like a book and you can trust all your points to them…You speak at a cold public dinner in the Town Hall.—I can’t go: we are a hospital: our dear girl has to lie abed now all the time—rest cure. I wrote you at Montowese [Branford, Conn.] on Friday. How I wish you could give us a day whilst you’re on this side of the mountain [MTHL 1: 365-6].

Sam’s letter sent sympathy for Winny Howells, the seventeen-year-old daughter who had suffered a nervous breakdown. Sam also rued the critical state of President Garfield, who was shot and would die in September. If Garfield died, Sam wrote, he could not go to Ashfield or “enjoy a festival of any sort…” [366].

Zo Swisshelm (Jane Swisshelm’s daughter) wrote to Sam unable to find a good picture of her mother that Sam had asked for, but they all looked cross. She did enclose one, however [MTP].

August 18? Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to John B. Downing (“Alligator Jack”) (See Aug. 15).

“Dear Major: And has it come to this that the dead rise up & speak? For I supposed that you were dead, it has been so long since I heard your name.”

Sam mentioned another old pilot, Grant Marsh; he hoped to see Downing when he made a trip up the Mississippi the following year; once again, Sam clung to the story that he’d stolen his nom de plume from Isaiah Sellers [MTP].

Sam also wrote from Elmira to John Esten Cooke (1830-1886) American novelist best known for his books about his home state, Virginia, including two on Robert E. Lee. Sam would have said his writing style was high-falootin’. The first two pages of the letter are lost, but the third discusses subscription publishing, with an interesting highlight about Sam’s attitude toward Osgood:

All subscription houses in America are “equipped” alike; for they all use the same canvassers—but they differ in that some of the houses (in Philadelphia, for instance,) use some energy & some money.

Osgood is organizing a subscription department, & will make his first experiment with a book of mine this fall [P&P] I shall have one advantage, there, for if he fails to sell my book he will at least not swindle me [MTP].

August 19 Friday – Charles Eliot Norton wrote to Clemens, hoping they would see him before Wednesday, and asking what day he might expect him for the festival [MTP].

John Esten Cooke wrote from Boyce, Va. to thank Clemens for info on Hartford publishing houses, but there wasn’t much to encourage publishing there. Cooke was likely a book agent for he stated that they would do well with Sam’s latest book [MTP].

August 21 Sunday – Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy that “everything with us goes along about the same.” She also wrote of working on a child’s bust (Jean Clemens?) and asked if she should “have a photo taken of it while it was clay so that alteration can be made?” [MTP].

August 22 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James R. Osgood. Sam was planning a trip to Boston.

“All right—but before you order a room for me at the Vendôme, I wish you’d ask Howells if Mrs. Howells didn’t mean to let me come to her house in case Mrs. Clemens couldn’t ”[MTP].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote a notice they’d bought 100 Denver & Rio Grande at 85 for his account [MTP].

Sam wrote to Hubbard & Farmer, the letter not extant but referred to in H&F’s reply of Aug. 24.

August 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Charles Webster, saying he was returning the “tile patterns….They do not happen to be the right ones.” Wasn’t there a “great bound book—a multitude of designs to select from”? [MTP].

Sam also telegrammed & wrote to Charles Eliot Norton that he had “finished loading myself up with my speech” and had “ordered a sleeping-section for Albany in to-night’s train.” However, bad news about Garfield’s condition caused Sam to cancel the trip and speech at Ashfield, because he shuddered at the thought of his humorous talk appearing in newspapers full of “black bars of mourning” [MTHL 1: 367n2]. Sam did leave on his business trip to Hartford and Boston, however, as planned. The telegram is not extant but referred to in Norton’s reply of Aug. 24.

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood who had just returned home from abroad. After welcoming him back, Sam got to the point about chapters six and seven in P&P:

“I don’t want to see any more until this godamed idiotic punctuating & capitalizing has been swept away & my own restored. I didn’t see this chapter until I had already read Chap. VII—which latter mess of God-forever-God damned lunacy has turned my hair white with rage. Sweetly, sweetly / Yours/ Mark” [MTP].

Sam left Elmira in the evening, spent some time on the train with John Slee (Jervis Langdon’s old business manager), and slept in the cars [Aug. 25 & 30 letters to Livy, Norton].

August 24 Wednesday – Sam reached “Albany early in the morning, Hartford at noon; Boston at 6 p.m.” (See Aug. 30, Norton). He stayed in Boston and Belmont until Aug. 26, and possibly a day or two more. [MTHL 1: 371n5].

Franklin G. Whitmore wrote from Branford, Conn. to Clemens, advising Sam on various bills and memos Sam had sent for him to review [MTP].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to Clemens: “Your favor of the 22^nd inst. rec’d…enclosure as stated for which we cr. Your a/c $3000” [MTP].

Charles Eliot Norton wrote to Clemens that he’d rec’d Sam’s telegram the night before. He expressed disappointment at Sam’s inability to come to their dinner, due to Garfield’s perilous condition [MTP].

August 25 Thursday – Sam wrote in the morning from Boston to Livy about his trip from Elmira.

“I never saw Mr. Slee any more after I went to bed at midnight in the cars. I found, next morning, in Albany, that I could catch the Springfield train by rushing; so I rushed—in a hack—& was the last passenger that joined it.” Sam told of seeing a working man who’d taken the wrong train so Sam paid his fare back on a 2-day ticket.

On this day or the next, Sam visited Charles Fairchild (1838-1910) (see Sept. 3 entry to Howells).

Sam also wrote to Chatto & Windus, accepting the royalties they’d offered in a July 15 letter over those of Routledge & Sons.

Mr. Osgood showed me your account on sales of “Tramp” to July 1^st, & he said you had given it to Conway for transmission. Conway has forgotten to send it, I suppose. But that is no matter, inasmuch as we have it; if the notes had accompanied the statement, I should feel it best to have Conway killed, on account of the delay; but as they were not then due, he has not committed a capital offense [MTP].

Livy wrote to Charles Webster about details on the remodel of the Farmington Avenue house. She was still in Branford, Conn. [MTBus 166]. Webster was running two businesses and trying to coordinate details on the Clemens home, all while in New York. A very busy man.

Orion wrote more about pages of his autobiography and revisions of it [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens about Yung Wing’s note that he heard “officially from China” and that they were considering adopting “the American system” (unspecified). He also wrote of James Ahern’s estimate of $273 was preceded by a bill this day for $491.77, and “he hasn’t finished yet. If we don’t stop it will cost as much as Chamberlain’s whole house” [MTP].

August 26 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Boston to Charles Webster (“at residence of S.L. Clemens”), probably about the mason and plumber, William & Robert Garvie and James Ahern. Sam wrote on Aug. 12 about problems with the kitchen remodel.

“STOP THE NONSENSE SHORT OFF MAKE CONTRACTS OR TURN THEM OUT” [MTP]. Note: A contract with this date between Webster, Sam, and Ahern the plumber is on file at MTP, which would conclude that Webster did in fact “stop the “nonsense.”

Herbert M. Laurence wrote from Venice, Italy to Clemens. “Upon arriving here yesterday, I found your note of Aug. 2 awaiting me. As I hardly know what the character of your proposed work is it would be difficult for me to specially recommend any one” [MTP].

Joe Twichell wrote to Clemens that “Alex Holley is abroad” and “I don’t suppose you can wait to hear from him about the stock, if, indeed he could tell you under the circumstances.” More on the gloomy news from Wash. DC about Garfield, news that took two days to reach him [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley (1832-1882) was the foremost steel engineer of his time.

Orion Clemens finished his Aug. 25 letter [MTP].

August 27 to 29 Monday – Sam was possibly in Boston past Aug. 26 a day or two, but by Aug. 30 was back in Elmira [MTHL 1: 371n5]. In an Aug. 31 letter to the Gerhardts, Sam referred to seeing Augustus Saint-Gaudens “two or three days ago” on the train, which would set his return to Aug. 28 or 29 [MTP].

August 30 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton. He related his decision not to honor his engagement in Ashfield at Norton’s Annual Dinner, due to President Garfield’s critical and hopeless condition; Livy’s objection to Sam not going to Ashfield but going to Boston for business; Sam’s trip by rail, and the “dreadful news” about Garfield worsening on Friday, Aug. 26.

“I was inexpressibly glad that I had held to my purpose & broken my engagement. Howells & I often spoke of it as we moved along the streets breaking our hearts over these ghastly bulletin boards & watching the domes & pinnacles for that dreaded sign, the flag at half-mast” [MTP].

August 31 Wednesday – The Clemens family waited in Elmira for most of the work to be completed on their Hartford house. Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, about locating Herbert M. Laurence a New York decorator; about a request to secure four acting copies of Hamlet from Samuel French on Nassau Street; and advised to keep back a day’s wages for the workmen. Several more pages of details were included about the Kaolatype business [MTBus 167].

Sam was working on a burlesque Hamlet which involved an additional character, “Basil Stockmar,” who was trying to sell subscription books. Howells actually liked the idea [Powers, MT A Life 453]. Note: Joe Goodman liked this idea so much he “blocked out” such a work to show Sam the possibilities—see Mar. 18, 1883 entry.

Sam also wrote from Elmira to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt, congratulating them on winning an art competition called the “Concours”; Sam showed their last letter to Augustus Saint-Gaudens while traveling from Boston to Elmira. Saint-Gaudens was spending “the coming ten days in Hartford,” Sam wrote. He mentioned hanging “with bated breath upon the bulletins from Washington” about President Garfield’s condition. Sam also enclosed a new letter of £100 credit for his young protégé, and a half page of advice about worrying for the future:

Every time one wastes a thought on the future he misses a trick in the present. …

However, I wouldn’t talk so feelingly on this subject, but for one circumstance: I have never taken thought about my future, & it has always come out about right; but my brother has devoted all of the 56 years of his life to trying to fix up his future satisfactorily. Well, now, don’t you know, by the time he gets it fixed up just right, there won’t be any of it left? Lord bless you, he is the very worst failure that ever lived. Brim full of talent, too [MTP]. 

Sam also wrote to Edward R. Faxon, offering Karl Gerhardt’s Paris address; letter not extant but referred to on Faxon’s snarky reply of Sept. 11.

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement of Sam’s acct. with a Sept. 1 balance credit of $28,825.77 [MTP].

September – Based on Aug. 31 entry evidence, Sam probably wrote the Hamlet burlesque during this month.

September 2 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, sending a design for the back & side of P&P. “Take perfect care of it, & don’t let it get injured.” Sam wanted a Kaolatype cast of it [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam that Garvie had refused to make a contract, telling him “how honest he was,” etc. Webster threatened to use another contractor, which brought Garvie around. Several details of work needed on the house [MTP]. Note: which of the three Garvie’s is not specified, though John Garvie was a general contractor.

September 2? Friday – Sam telegraphed from New York City per Charles Webster to Herbert M. Laurence, a decorator in the city, asking what was the earliest date he could begin decorating their house [MTP]. Note: also seen as “Lawrence.”

September 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells:

What I call my mind, has been in a state of fierce irruption during three successive days. The consequence is, I am on my back, burnt out, devastated, & merely smoldering. …

Take it all around, it was a pretty fat visit that I made to Boston & Belmont. Among other things, that visit cast in my way an idea toward perfecting an invention of mine; it gave me the right character for my Hamlet; the incident for my “mental telegraphy;” chapter on international etiquette; mighty nice dog; a staving good time at your house & Fairchild’s—yes, & the great day of mourning, in Boston, that memorable Friday, when one could almost feel the heart of the nation beat [MTHL 1: 370]. Note: Sam once tried to add a character to the play, and then tore up the MS. The “memorable Friday” (Aug. 26) was one that brought news of Garfield’s hopeless condition. The Howells family had connections with the fellow Ohioan.

Sam also wrote to Franklin Whitmore, confessing that he was “in bed, exhausted by six days’ work done in three.” Sam wanted advice on whether to sell or hold his “Omaha pf & Omaha common” stock [MTP].

September 4 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote two letters to Charles Webster, responding to his letter of Sept. 2. Webster had written that the upper part of the house was finished if the hearths were not changed. Sam responded that yes, the hearths must be changed. “I have written to N.Y. for specimens of tiles to be sent to us here.” Sam had written to the firm of Wm. H. Jackson & Co. [MTNJ 2: 401n 155]. Sam was arguing about the overall cost of the project, and wanted to use the estimates of his architect, Alfred H. Thorp, as leverage against William & Robert Garvie.

“If Thorp’s estimate for future work is lower than Garvie’s, make Garvie come down. And make him reduce his previous bills about down to Thorp’s estimate—& if he won’t, he must wait till I come to Hartford (& then he can wait still longer, & sue me)” [MTP]. Note: Thorp designed the octagonal study for Quarry Farm, where much of Huck Finn was written. See NY Times Dec. 7, 1901 p. BR4.

Charles Webster wrote to Sam, more details of improvements on the Farmington Ave. home [MTP].

September 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Josiah G. Holland of Scribner’s, inquiring if he might “simultane” an article he’d sold them to an Australian magazine in Melbourne [MTP]. Note: Holland died on Oct. 12, just five weeks after Sam’s letter.

Sam also wrote to Howells about a subject they dealt with often during the decade—collaborating on a play, variously called “Orme’s Motor,” “The Steam Generator,” Colonel Sellers as a Scientist, and finally The American Claimant. Sam suggested a play with Sellers being 75, “with that fool of a Lafayette Hawkins (age 50) still sticking to him & believing in him, & calling him ‘my lord’.” Sam added that he’d “made $70,000 out of that devil [John T. Raymond] with that other play [The Gilded Age] [MTHL 1: 372-3].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam about showing brass plates to Mr. Marsh of Koch Sons & Co., who was impressed. He thought they ought to buy more Kaolatype stock [MTP]. Note: George N. Marsh.

September 6 Tuesday – Sam telegraphed from Elmira to Charles Webster that the terms were satisfactory for a contract Webster was to frame to “suit” himself. Sam added that he would send money this day [MTP]. Note: the nature of the contract is not specified, but may have been with Garvie; see Webster’s of Sept. 9 to Clemens.

September 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote a twelve-page letter from Elmira to Charles Webster, “mostly detailed and intricate instructions” on Kaolatype. The final message was:

“My experience with Slote teaches me that this sort of letter should be destroyed. Therefore, read this till you are sure of its several points, then burn it” [MTBus 168].

Samuel Webster writes that Sam was “anxious to make Kaolatype cuts for use in The Prince and the Pauper” [168].

Sam also telegraphed Webster, who was in Hartford:

“RENEW THE ENGLISH PATENT WHEN YOU RETURN TO NEW YORK” [MTP]

September 8 Thursday – Felix N. Gerson wrote from Phila. to Sam, enclosing “an English version of Heine’s poem ‘The Lorelei,’ which I undertook to translate after perusing your ‘Tramp Abroad’” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A poor translation”; the poem enclosed from the Sept. 2 North American.

September 9 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. He’d just received a telegram from the printers—Prince and the Pauper would be finished on Monday, Sept. 12. Sam asked Webster to take the engravings (for the cover) himself to Boston, call on Osgood and take him to “that fancy foundry…in that portion of Boston called Chelsea.” Osgood was to take charge of the casting and finishing so that Charley could return home to New York.

…Let them keep on casting & recasting till they get it right. Pay what they require.

      2. Now a chief reason why I want you to go, is, that you may talk with that foundry & see if they will do other jobs for us, & expeditiously.

      3. And another reason is, if they can’t make this casting, & do it right away, I want you to rush off to Providence with it & make them hurry it up & express it to Osgood.

      It is of vast importance that no time be lost—for it might delay the issue of my canvassers’ copies, & cost me several thousand dollars….Start along, now—either Monday or Monday night [MTBus 169].

Sam also wrote to Benjamin H. Ticknor about the cover design and casting for P&P. Sam hoped the cover might be cast using the Kaolatype process with brass [MTLTP 140].

P.H. Bagenal wrote from Newport R.I. to ask Clemens for an interview [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens that he’d “closed” with Garvie for $6,860 including “the carvings, veranda painting & everything about the house.” More details. Also about Slote, patents, etc. [MTP].

Elizabeth (Lily) M. Millet (Mrs. Francis Millet) wrote from Boston to advise Sam that Frank was “cruising along the Maine coast” and she wasn’t sure when he’d be home. Had Clemens rec’d a letter when their son was born, some 8 weeks ago? She’d had no reply [MTP].

September 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Franklin Whitmore acknowledging receipt of his telegram on the matter of selling stock; he would follow Whitmore’s lead. Sam affected a cockney accent:

“It as been orrible weather ere, otter then we’ve ever seen it before on the summit of this hill. But we shan’t complain, as long as it isn’t killing the President” [Note: Garfield died Sept. 19].

He also telegrammed & wrote to his brokers, Hubbard & Farmer, letter not extant but referred to in H&F’s Sept. 13 reply.

Charles Webster wrote twice to Sam, enclosing a clipping “Patent Laws of England” from the NY Telegram. He’d been fixing up his office so would need more funds. A page or two on Kaolatype. He’d rec’d Sam’s of the 7^th [MTP].

September 11 Sunday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam:

“That is a famous idea about the Hamlet, and I should like ever so much to see your play when it’s done. Of course, you’ll put it on the stage, and I prophesy a great triumph for it.”

Howells also wrote about Sam’s “very generous willingness” to pay in advance for his “Library of Humor” work. Daughter Winny was still “trying the rest cure” [MTHL 1: 373].

Edward R. Faxon wrote a short note from Hartford. “Yours of the 31^st Aug received. I know Mr. Gerhardt’s French address perfectly well without the information from you” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the damfool is Secy of Gerhardt’s K. of H.”; Note in file: “Edward R. Faxon was an officer of the Pioneer Lodge, No. 315, Knights of Honor, Hartford”; “See SLC to the Gerhardts, 31 Aug 1881”

September 12 Monday – Sam went alone to pay his mother, Jane Clemens, and sister, Pamela Moffett, a visit in Fredonia. Livy could not coordinate a nursemaid for the trip. After four hours he stopped in Rochester to rest and spent the night [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].

Charles Webster wrote from Boston to Sam about brass plates and his plan to meet Osgood the next day [MTP].

September 13 Tuesday – Sam left Rochester at 10 A.M. and got to Fredonia at 3 PM. While there he checked up on one of his investments. From the Fredonia Censor, Sept. 21, 1881:

W.B. Gwyn attorney, wrote from Asheville, NC to Clemens, enclosing some sketches he hoped Sam could use to frame a book around [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the back, “From a North Carolinian idiot.”

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to Clemens having rec’d his letter & telegram of Sept. 10 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Will obey instructions to sell when W. does”

September 14 Wednesday – Jane Augspurg wrote from Hartford to ask Sam if she might translate some of his works into German [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a translator”

September 15 Thursday – When Sam left Fredonia his mother accompanied him the three miles to the station at Dunkirk, then returned home. Sam waited at Dunkirk until 3 A.M. for a train to take him the 45 miles to Buffalo, where he stayed overnight at David Gray’s [Sept. 18, 19 letters to Fairbanks, Jane Clemens].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam that he “at last got the furnace men started.” Also that Osgood liked the plates [MTP].

September 16 Friday – Sam left Buffalo and reached Elmira in the evening [Sept. 18 Fairbanks letter].

 September 17 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster.

All right. I am glad you staid in Boston to look after the castings yourself. I hope you will accomplish your second plate to-day, so that you won’t have to be in Boston next Wednesday; for we shall be at the Gilsey House Wednesday morning, & remain a day or two for Mrs. Clemens to do some shopping before proceeding to Hartford [MTP]. Note: It had become the routine for the family to stop a day or more in New York when traveling from Elmira to Hartford or vice versa.

September 18 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks. After relating his trip to Fredonia and back, Sam’s fatigue led him to declare, “I am an old man at 45—older than some men are at 80.” He urged Mary to visit them in Hartford, that he didn’t think he could stand a trip to “that remote region” (Cleveland) where she lived. He expected to be able to send her a copy of P&P by Dec. 1.

We shall leave here for Hartford day after tomorrow, unless the weather is very hot. We have rebuilt our kitchen & doubled its size; we have torn out the reception room & made the main hall larger by that much; we have carried the driveway off to the right, past the greenhouse, & it now enters the avenue a hundred feet east of where it did before; & we have lowered that ground & brought the house up into view [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote to thank Sam and Livy for the letter of credit, and to tell of their progress [MTP].

September 18? Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster and Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). Sam enclosed a letter to Tiffany that Webster was to mail upon Sam’s telegram. Sam’s letter to Tiffany requested “a moment on business” upon arriving in New York [MTP]. Note: Herbert M. Laurence, New York decorator, had recommended Tiffany. (See Oct. 24 entry.)

September 19 Monday – James A. Garfield lost his long struggle. He was the second U.S. President to be assassinated. Chester A. Arthur would be sworn in as the new President on Sept. 20.

Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, that it “took me two days to get rested again” from the trip to Fredonia, the return trip through Buffalo, and home. He was glad Livy and the children had not been along, but:

“…by & by they will finish that new road, & the time-tables will improve, & then Livy & the children will come with me” [MTP]. 

Samuel Webster writes that years later, anybody who Sam disliked he claimed came from Dunkirk; this due to a three and a half hour wait there once at the train station [MTBus 170].

Sam also wrote to Thomas Aldrich enclosing an article about “one of the most horrible episodes” Sam had ever read about. “I thought I would cut it out & send it to you for the C. Club.” [MTP]. Most probably this would have been the Correspondent’s Club. The “episode” is unidentified.

Sam also wrote a spoof on a Ralph Waldo Emerson aphorism above his fireplace (The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it) to an unidentified person:

“Mr. Emerson would say, ‘The curse of a house is the mumps who frequent it—especially if they is malarious’ ” [MTP].

September 20 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Elmira and traveled overnight to New York. (See Sept. 17 to Webster).

September 21 Wednesday – The Clemens family checked into the Gilsey House (see Sept. 17 to Webster). They spent “a day or two” in New York. Their stay was spent looking after the Kaolatype business and arranging for the redecoration of the Farmington Avenue house, which had been under renovation since March [MTNJ 2: 399n148].

New York weather: 73 to 62 degrees F. No precipitation [NOAA.gov].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to advise they’d sold 100 Omaha at $108 [MTP].

September 22–23 Friday – The Clemens family returned to Hartford, where they found the house in disarray:

We are in our carpetless & dismantled home living like a gang of tramps on the second floor, the rest of the house in the hands of mechanics & decorators. We have pulled down the kitchen & rebuilt it, adding twenty feet to it, & have lowered the ground in front of the greenhouse, & also carried the driveway a hundred feet further to the east [MTNJ 2: 399n148]. (Oct. 9 letter to Hattie Gerhardt)

September 23 Friday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote again to Sam and Livy about details of their artwork and their life in Paris [MTP].

Charles Webster to Sam: “I delay writing to Nealy for fear of stirring up Joyce & Goff it seems to me on reflection that we want to buy them out on K. & English patent before we seem to enlarge by employing Nealy.” Two pages on Kaolatype details [MTP].

September 24 Saturday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to advise selling 100 shares of Omaha Common at $45 [MTP].

September 28 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich for Atlantic Monthly wrote to Sam: “I have just rec’d a telegram message from that girl in Chattanooga. She says it was a shame to inflict the death penalty on [illegible word], as he only outraged her in the ‘second degree.’…Did the typhoon and the maelstrom hit you the other day?” [MTP].

September 29 Thursday – Moncure Conway wrote to Clemens that he had a statement from Chatto & Windus of Sam’s account up to July 1 [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote to Clemens, clarifying many points on Canadian copyright law and advising it would be necessary for Clemens to go to Canada “four or five days preceding and four or five days following the date of publication” [MTP].

September 30 Friday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement showing a credit balance to Oct. 1 of $13,679.32 [MTP].

October – On a Saturday, Sam spoke on “mental telegraphy” as a guest of William D. Whitney, a Yale professor, at Whitney’s home in New Haven. Sam gave his talk at a meeting of the New Haven Saturday Morning Club, a young ladies’ social and cultural group much like Hartford’s. Whitney’s daughter, Marian, was twenty [MTNJ 2: 359n12].

Sam inscribed William Wood’s General Conchology; or, a Description of Shells, etc. to: “Susie Clemens, Oct. 1881/ from Papa” [Gribben 784].

William W. Ellsworth sent calling card only [MTP]. Note: Sec’y of the Century Co., NYC

Bruce Weston Munro wrote to Clemens seeking advice about writing [MTP].

October 1 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, “working steadily on my revising.”  He noted Sam was no longer writing for the Atlantic. He was going to subscribe to Scribner’s [MTP].

October 2 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster, mentioning his hope of interesting William W. Ellsworth of Scribner’s in the Kaolatype engraving process. Ellsworth was “the nephew of the business manager & chief owner of Scribner’s” and would become head manager of the Century magazine in 1882 [MTNJ 2: 358n5; MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood, who wrote on Sept. 29 of a plan to gain legal control over Canadian publication of P&P, so as to avoid the kind of piracy that he’d experienced with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam asked if all he needed was a bill of sale to transfer the rights to Chatto. He might “run up to Boston Thursday of this or early next week” [MTLTP 142].

Joe Twichell wrote Sam from Keene Valley, NY, enclosing a “discourse of George Eliot’s, which I would like you to read at your leisure…” [MTP].

“Therefore observe you this, and keep it in mind; none genuine without the signature on the bottle. Yours truly, Mark Twain” [MTP]. Note: Phila. patent medicine king, Thomas W. Dyott likely the first to use this slogan, later used by Jim Beam bourbon.

October 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, announcing they had all reached home and were living in a couple of rooms while the workmen finished remodeling.

“O never revamp a house! Leave it just as it was, & then you can economise in profanity” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: entries for amounts due, deposits made with his banker, Bissell & Co. [MTNJ 2: 401]. 

October 5 Wednesday – Sam was well acquainted with frustration from contractors. In his notebook:

“Sent Patrick for Ahern 10 days ago.— He didn’t come. Sent for him yesterday by D^r Hooker, to mend up a hot water leak & other things. He didn’t come. Sent for Robt. Garvie this morning, the necessity being pressing. He came, & did the work” [MTNJ 2: 401-2].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam that he’d seen a “brass man” Mr. Hoe who said he could make better plates for Sam’s book than those Webster had made [MTP].

October 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisabeth Fairchild, wife of Charles Fairchild, neighbors of the Howellses in Belmont, Mass. A dog of Sam’s had been killed, perhaps chasing a carriage or a horse. The dog was named Rab, after Dr. John Brown’s famous book. Another “pup of Rab’s exact breed” was wanted.

“No, indeed, poor Rab was an expense to nobody…His soul is stainless, both of the crime and the intent. The three servants who only had to feed & pet Rab, were inconsolable over his loss; none but the coachman & the gardener desired his departure. It was these whom he kept busy dragging him away from vehicles” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam: “All right. I will see Munn & Co about that brass business. I have written to Rants [?] to have those specimen sheets finished up at once” [MTP].

October 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. He acknowledged payment of £874.16.9 from Moncure Conway, for which he sent thanks. This amount was for A Tramp Abroad royalties [MTNJ 2: 401n157]. Sam added:

I told my nephew, C.L. Webster, to write & ask you if you wanted duplicates of the brass stamps which are to be used in printing the covers of the “P.& P.” But you need not answer him, for I perceive the time is too short, now. The suggestion was only born of personal vanity, since these stamps were made by a process of my own invention, whose merits are cheapness & celerity of production [MTNJ 2: 401n154].

Sam also wrote to Stephen C. Massett:

Am sorry, but the latch string is hauled in for repairs. The house is in the hands of the carpenters & decorators for the season, & no visitors received but the butcher & the grocer.

In regards to a squib someone had given Massett, thinking Sam had written it, he replied:

I think you must have known at a glance that the writer of that silly & witless production carries on his shoulders a gourd full of rotten oysters in place of brains [MTP]. Note: see Massett’s Oct. 9 reply.

Sam also wrote to Charles Webster with advice about testing some new base of Webster’s in use with brass and clay castings. Sam wrote that he also telegraphed Webster, “to Fredonia, to-day, to pay Dean $1100 or $1200 if you want to, & that will fetch him” [MTP]. (Dean is not further identified.)

October 8 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, seeking another visit from him and his daughter Koto, as long as he could get rid of the plumbers, carpenters and decorators by the first of November [MTP].

Sam’s Oct. 2? letter to W.H. Lentz was paraphrased and quoted in the Honolulu Saturday Press [MTP].

October 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt (see also Sept. 22-23 entry).

While in Paris, Mrs. Warner was kept constantly at the bedside of the late Mrs. Fiske, so doubtless she got no opportunity to go to you. Mr. Warner left here 2 or 3 days ago, & is about sailing, now, for Europe. He will be in Paris, presently, & will hunt you up. We have received the two large drawings from Mrs. G.’s pencil, & we note enormous progress over her early efforts here in Hartford. If she keeps up this gait, in advancement, she will surprise & gratify us all. I have not seen St. Gaudens since I last wrote. We arrived here from Elmira a week ago; & meantime he has finished up his Hartford work & gone. But I shall run across him by & by [MTP].

Stephen C. Massett wrote to Sam: “You wrong me! I cut that ‘squib’ out of a country paper—headed just as I inserted it—I, thinking it—as did many others, very funny—sufficiently so to pass around, with all the honors!—so the only harm done is—that I see—a difference of opinion, about the fun, or wit of it…” [MTP].

In Washington, Kate D. Barstow wrote again to Sam. This rather long and faded letter is on a large fold out stiff paper. She thanked Sam profusely, then referred to monies she would need for her books and dissecting equipment for studying medicine…her faith in teachers…her “love” for Joe Goodman who never answered her letters…and reminiscences:

MY DEAR CHARLIE,—A Parthian Arrow [meaning, a parting shot]. Now what have I ever done to you that you should not only slide off to Heaven before you have earned a right to go, but must add the gratuitous villainy of informing me of it?...

The house is full of carpenters & decorators; whereas, what we really need here, is an incendiary. If the house would only burn down, we would pack up the cubs & fly to the isles of the blest, & shut ourselves up in the healing solitudes of the crater of Haleakala & get a good rest; for the mails do not intrude there, nor yet the telephone & the telegraph. & after resting, we would come down the mountain a piece & board with a godly, breech-clouted native, & eat poi & dirt & give thanks to whom all thanks belong, for these privileges, & never house-keep any more.

…

Maybe you think I am not happy? the very thing that gravels me is that I am. I don't want to be happy when I can't work; I am resolved that hereafter I won't be. What I have always longed for, was the privilege of living forever away up on one of those mountains in the Sandwich Islands overlooking the sea.

              Yours ever /           MARK.

I am delighted with your review, & so is Mrs. Clemens. What you have said, there, will convince anybody that reads it; a body cannot help it. That is the kind of a review to have; the doubtful man; even the prejudiced man, is persuaded, & succumbs. …

What a queer blunder that was, about the baronet. I can’t quite see how I ever made it. There was an opulent abundance of things I didn’t know; & consequently no need to trench upon the vest-pocketful of things I did know, to get material for a blunder [MTHL 1: 377-8]. 

Edward W. Bok wrote from Brooklyn, NY mentioning that on March 16 of 1880 he’d sent a request for a “short note” in Sam’s handwriting but had heard nothing. He was now “respectfully” reminding [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Bok, the impossible”; See Feb. 24, 1882 for more on Bok.

Katherine K. Walker (Mrs. Edward Ashley Walker) wrote from New Haven to Clemens. A rather strange letter about publishing and her desire to be in “3 or 4 first-class magazines” [MTP]. See Sam’s Oct. 28.

Charles Webster wrote to Sam with news of a contract signed with the New Orleans Democrat for Kaolatype use. Nothing new in the brass process [MTP].

October 30 Sunday – Orion began a letter he finished on Oct. 31. He was glad Sam liked the papers he sent and was delighted with the photographs Sam sent, the “three children are beautiful…” Other family and acquaintance doings [MTP].

October 31 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote again to James R. Osgood, to coordinate when he needed to go to Canada. Osgood had written that the book could be set up in 48 hours there, so was no need to set it up in Boston. Sam could leave the evening or morning of Nov. 27, but since that was Livy’s birthday, he didn’t want to go the day before, as perhaps Osgood had suggested. Sam requested a copy of Voltaire’s “Age of Louis XIV” if Osgood could “scare it up in the English tongue” [MTP].

Sam also wrote again to Katherine K. Walker (Mrs. Edward Ashley Walker), responding to her Oct. 29 letter.

“Come now, please write that article & dispatch it to the magazine, Mine has gone where it won’t appear in print for several months, I judge. So you see yours would be almost certain to come out ahead of mine.” The rest of the letter contained a few of Sam’s thoughts on phrenology [MTP].

Orion Clemens finished his Oct. 30 to Sam [MTP].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement Nov. 1 balance of $13,448.94 credit [MTP]. 

November – The Century Magazine for November ran Sam’s sketch, “A Curious Experience,” later part of The Stolen White Elephant [Camfield, bibliog.].

Sam’s notebook includes mention of Canadian naturalist and geologist Henry George Vennor (1840-1884) [MTNJ 2: 407, 411]. Sam joked about Farquhar Martin Tupper and his bromides [408].

Sam’s notebook also includes a series of four notes about Francis Parkman’s Pioneers of France in the New World (1874) [Gribben 534]. Also, an inscription: “S.L. Clemens / Hartford, Nov. 1881.” in volume 1 of the 3 volume set of Saint-Simon’s The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the Reign of Louis XIV, and the Regency (translation 1880?) [600].

Sam inscribed two volumes of Cotton Mather’s (1663-1728) Magnalia Christi Americana (1820 first Am. edition): “S.L. Clemens / Hartford, Nov. 1881” [Gribben 457].

November 1 Tuesday – Sam wrote to James R. Osgood, offering advice as to how to best use Howells’ review of P&P with canvassing. He also dealt with submitting the “Mental Telegraphy” article to the Century, and details about printing in Canada [MTLTP 145].

Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote from Paris to thank Sam for the sample engravings from P&P. They’d been delighted to see the Warners. Karl had done a medallion of Charles Dudley Warner in baked clay and sent it to a student he knew at Harvard to express it from there [MTP].

November 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas B. Aldrich about a check received for an article. Sam knew he’d written it since he’d received a check for it; if Aldrich had “any other articles” he didn’t “wish to be responsible for,” Sam wrote, “remember I am here.” Sam announced he would:

“…arrive in Boston about 4 to-morrow afternoon. Let’s dine with Osgood—what do you say? Invite Howells—better telegraph him, perhaps” [MTP].

Sam also telegraphed James R. Osgood that he would “come per New England road, & arrive about 1 PM.” He received a similar telegram from Osgood, which arrived just before he sent his. [MTP]. James R. Osgood had telegraphed: “Why not take New York & New England train leaving at nine & due here at one & have afternoon for consultation?” [MTP]. For Sam, this was another happening he called “mind-telegraphing”

Sam also wrote to Daniel W. Wilder (1832-1911), an early Kansas resident and one of its first historians. Wilder campaigned for Lincoln and was a Kansas delegate to the 1860 Chicago convention.

“I have just received the Herald, for which please accept my thanks. I shall be a resident of Canada, when the book issues there….Pity a book isn’t a machine: because a body could patent it, then, up yonder, & save the time & expense of that wintry journey” [MTP]. Note: Wilder likely reviewed P&P.

Orion Clemens wrote to advise Sam he’d bought 3 pecks of hickory nuts. Molly was ill [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens that he’d seen attorneys Alexander & Green & they had “the matter” (unspecified) under consideration. He then commented on photos of the Clemens girls [MTP].

Edward Bunce wrote a postcard to Clemens: “I read your two notes this p.m. just as I was starting after the festive duck & no, I must decline your gory invitation. Otherwise would be delighted ‘To carve a slice of liver or two’ ” [MTP].

November 3 Thursday – Sam traveled to Boston as planned and conferred with Osgood. He probably dined with Aldrich and Howells in the evening (see Nov. 2 entries). It is not known what day he returned to Hartford.

Harper & Bros., per William L. Alden wrote to solicit submissions from Twain [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote about his efforts to garner investment from NY men for the typesetter [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Type-setter”

November 4–6 Sunday – Sam returned to Hartford during this period.

November 5 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam about failed brass castings made by Adams [MTP].

November 6 Sunday ca. – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood on Webster’s Nov. 5 letter about making fine brass casts. Sam admitted:

“The patterns for my book cover were coarse & awkward because they were done in such a hurry” [MTP].

November 7 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt, with a note to Charles Ethan Porter (1847/8-1923), a black painter born in the Hartford area, now famous for his fruit and flower paintings. Sam may have also given Porter financial assistance to get him to Paris and was later concerned about remarks made by Hattie Gerhardt that Porter “had gone to the dogs.” (See May 1 & 3 1883 letter to Gerhardt.)

“It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you a friend of mine, Mr. Charles E. Porter, citizen of Hartford, who comes to Paris to continue his studies in painting…I am satisfied that he is worthy of your & their kind attentions & will prove it by his conduct & his appreciation” [MTP]. Note: Porter was able to enroll the same year in the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris and studied from 1881 to 1884, often painting in the countryside. Toward the end of his life, Porter’s fortunes declined and he peddled his paintings door-to-door, trading them for food or flowers to paint. He died in Rockville, Conn.

Christian B. Tauchnitz, Jr. wrote to Sam. His father was “a member of the upper chamber at Dresden,” so was away. He thanked Sam for his letter of Oct. 10. He’d corresponded with Chatto & Windus about P&P and offered Sam £75 to make his edition of it. Would Sam advise? [MTP].