Vol 1 Section 0040

Ency J. Coleman wrote from Kalamazoo, Mich. to ask for a letter on “Clubs” for his club [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No Answer”

January 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote that he had Patterson at work on the brass. He enclosed (not in file) a report of the Am. Pub. Co. from Bradstreets and would get another from Dunn & Wyman and “we can see how they agree. I think there are some lies in that statement, especially about the par value of stock” [MTP].

M.M. Mitivier wrote from Holyoke, Mass. inviting Sam to a dinner on Jan. 31 for Louis H. Fréchette, Poet laureate of Quebec [MTP]. Note in file: “Between 15 & 18 January 1882, SLC telegraphed Louis Frechette, evidently professing ignorance of this banquet (see Frechette to SLC 15, 18 January 1882)”

January 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, page 1, ran an article headlined “SAGEBRUSH SKETCHES, How Mark Twain’s Brightest Effort Was Kept from Print.” The paper gave credit without a prior date to the San Francisco Call. It seems Joe Goodman once called upon Sam to write up a fancy new saloon in Virginia City. Sam gathered a box of liquors from the saloon and “arranged them in a long row,” then tasting and describing each in print. The foreman compositor took it upon himself to conclude Sam had been drunk when he wrote the piece and thus “straightened the whole thing out.”

Louis Fréchette wrote to Sam in French, urging him to come to the banquet on the 31^st in Holyoke [MTP].

January 16 Monday – Worden, Webb & Co. wrote advising of the sale of stock, 100 shares of Western Union @ 82 [MTP].

January 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. He informed him of Ned House’s visit, a story Charles Dudley Warner had told of a faulty will for the late Mrs. Dan Fisk, and enclosed a Jan. 1 letter from Hattie Gerhardt. The Gerhardts were in Paris, where Karl was studying art, and had enjoyed a visit from the Warners. Sam found purity in nineteen-year-old Hattie’s letters:

“If I had that child’s artless ways of saying the moving thing, I would quit humor & write on the higher plane. No matter how brief a note she writes, or how scrawly or ill-spelled it may be, she is always sure to get in a sentence or two that makes me think the Creator intended her for a writer” [MTHL 1: 384].

Sam also wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing a slip he wished pasted in the front page of P&P and sent to: “William Smith, Esq / Osborne House / Morley, near Leeds, / England” [MTP].

Orion wrote to Sam that he had shipped the final manuscript of “Autobiography of a Crank,” some 2,523 pages [Fanning 194-5].

R.B. Buchanan wrote from Chicago requesting Sam’s autograph with “some sentiment” [MTP]. Note: though Clemens usually complied with requests for a simple autograph, he nearly always refused or ignored those for more.

Louis Fréchette wrote another note in French, referring to the Springfield Republican [MTP].

A.V.S. Anthony wrote his “profound thanks” for P&P [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A.V.S. Anthony, Engraver”

Winifred Howells wrote from Boston thanking Sam the “beautiful book,” P&P. “The binding is so exquisite that I hardly dare handle it” [MTP].

January 19 Thursday – Sam’s letter of Jan. 18 to Howells implied Ned House and daughter Koto ended their visit at the Clemens home this day. Koto had been ill but was “up & around again, now” [MTHL 1: 384].

Orion wrote Sam again, anxious that he had not personally addressed the package with his MS, asking Sam to let him know as soon as it arrived [Fanning 195].

January 20 Friday – Howells, in a Boston boarding house where he might be close to his doctor, answered Sam’s Jan. 18 letter. Howells thanked him for the Gerhardt letter and remarked how “the ideal perfection of some things in life” led him to conclude, “never to meddle with the ideal in fiction….” He was just now recovering from a five-week stint in a sick bed due to exhaustion.

“I’m not myself, by any means. I’m five years older than I was two months ago. I may young up again, but that is the present fact. The worst of it is that I work feebly and ineffectually” [MTHL 1: 385].

He also gave Sam advice about the Whitelaw Reid flap:

“I told Osgood, the other day that I should write you about—or against—your dynamitic life of Reid; but I concluded not to do so, partly because I did not know how you would take unprovoked good intentions from me, and partly because I believe you will be sick of the thing long before you reach the printing point” [386].

Orion still had not heard from Sam about the arrival of the MS, “Autobiography of a Crank,” and wrote again asking Sam to send a telegram upon its arrival [Fanning 195].

Nathaniel J. Burton wrote that P&P had just arrived and would entertain his sick wife [MTP].

Hjalmar Boyesen wrote from NYC to decline a visit due to his wife’s illness [MTP].

January 21 Saturday – Sam may have been influenced by Howells’ comments of Jan. 20, and took Livy’s advice—He directed Charles Webster to examine the New York Tribune for evidence that Reid was persecuting him. Ned House may have also complained of similar treatment to Sam; Charles Dudley Warner certainly did complain [MTHL 1: 390n1].

Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.

Suppose you put in an hour or two of your time for me at one of the big advertising agencies where they keep full files of the daily papers. Just quietly copy off & send to me every remark which the Tribune has made about me since the end of October, up to present date. Keep your own counsel; say nothing to anybody about this. As I understand it, these remarks have usually been brief original paragraphs on the inside pages, & borrowed slurs on the other pages. Copy them exactly, punctuation & all; & give the origin of the borrowed ones [MTBus 183].

Sam also wrote to Orion explaining that he didn’t give letters of introduction for someone he didn’t know, but if he knew the lady in question he’d recommend her to Lucy Hooper. He agreed to look at some manuscript, and said they didn’t have any photographs yet (of baby Jean?) but they were promised [MTP]. Note: he no doubt reassured Orion that he’d received the manuscript sent Jan. 18 [Fanning 195].

Sam then wrote to Lucy Hooper and enclosed it in the letter to Orion. The “young lady” in question:

…is recommended to me by my brother as being of excellent character & position, & as an able & facile translator of French into English & English into French. She desires opportunity to use her pen. If anybody in Paris can tell her whom to apply to, it is you; & if you can’t, you are the very person who can tell her so without causing her a pang [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Samuel Hollyer, an English-born engraver who worked in New York. Sam wrote that he had “taken the liberty to forward your favor of Dec. 31^st to them [Chatto & Windus] this day” [MTP].

Sam’s Nov. 22, 1881 letter to W.H. Lentz ran in the Honolulu Saturday Press [MTP].

Thomas Nast’s cartoon of Sam, in Canada arranging for copyright, ran in Harper’s Weekly [Tenney 11]. See insert.

January 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louis Fréchette. There’d been a mix-up on an invitation; a man had invited him to an event honoring Fréchette in Holyoke, Mass., and then told Fréchette that Sam had accepted when he had not. Sam felt honor-bound to go along and so cleared the air. He also wanted to discuss a matter with Fréchette that he could not write about, and asked if Fréchette might be able to stop in Hartford for a day or two before the Holyoke dinner [MTP].

Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy about Karl’s progress at the school [MTP].

January 23 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with a credit balance of $11,640.95 [MTP].

David M. Drury wrote from NYC to solicit an autograph [MTP].

Worden & Co. Wrote advising purchase of 100 shares of Western Union at 80 [MTP].

January 24 Tuesday – A.P. Mitchell, NY stockbroker wrote, promoting a copper mine in Ariz. He claimed he’d made Sam’s acquaintance 10 years before in Pittsburgh [MTP]. Note: Clemens was in Pittsburgh during his 1872 lecture course on Jan. 11 to 16.

Louis Fréchette wrote from Montreal, another note in French, thanking for a visit [MTP]. Note in file: “Frechette evidently visited SLC in Hartford on 4 Feb. 1882. See Charles H. Clark to SLC, 4 February, 5 February 1882”; Actually, Frechette was a guest of the Clemenses on Feb. 2, and Friday Evening Club on Feb. 3.

January 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:

“If you and Roswell Smith are proposing a new magazine & Howell’s won’t take the editorship, why don’t you offer it to House?…Of course I have said nothing to him of the matter, & don’t know if he could drop his Japanese interests & his Japanese Consul-Generalship…” [MTP]. Note: Roswell Smith (1829-1892).

Sam inscribed P&P to George W. Curtis (1824-1892): “To Mr. George William Curtis, With the great & sincere respect & esteem of the Author. Hartford Jan. 25/82” [MTP].

John Russell Young wrote: “I send you the World with the autobiography of Reid. I will have The Tribune files looked over to see if Mr Walstein’s report is confirmed” [MTP]. Note: all of this was caused by the suspicion (unfounded) that Whitelaw Reid was attacking Clemens in the press, leading Clemens to deliberate on a bio of Reid.

January 26 Thursday – John Russell Young of the New York Herald inscribed a copy of his Around the World with General Grant in 1877, 1878, 1879 (1879): “To Mark Twain, honoring his genius; and remembering the friendship of many, many years. Jno Russell Young, N.Y., January 26, 1882” [Gribben 795].

Daniel Appleton & Co., New York, billed $9 for “science book and N.A. review; $5 paid Jan. 24 by cash” [MTP]. Note: Webster may have made this N.Y. purchase/payment for Sam.

Charles Webster wrote from NYC: “I have looked the files through very carefully and only find the enclosed. Some of which are copied from other papers as you will see.” Several copies of newspaper reports, negative reviews, are enclosed [MTP]. Note: again, to determine if there was a campaign against Twain.

January 27 Friday – Worden, Webb & Co. advised sale 100 shares Western Union @ 82 [MTP].

John Russell Young wrote: “I send you a copy of my work by express” [MTP]. Note: see Jan 26.

January 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about the Whitelaw Reid “persecutions” of the New York Herald, which Sam had thoroughly investigated after Livy suggested he do so (See Jan. 21 entry to Webster).

Nobody knows better than I, that there are times when swearing cannot meet the emergency. How sharply I feel that, at this moment. Not a single profane word has issued from my lips this morning —I have not even had the impulse to swear, so wholly ineffectual would swearing have manifestly been, in the circumstances. But I will tell you about it.

About three weeks ago, a sensitive friend [Warner], approaching his revelation cautiously, intimated that the N. Y. Tribune was engaged in a kind of crusade against me. This seemed a higher compliment than I deserved; but no matter, it made me very angry. I asked many questions, & gathered, in substance, this: Since Reid’s return from Europe, the Tribune had been flinging sneers & brutalities at me with such persistent frequency “as to attract general remark.” I was an angered—which is just as good an expression, I take it, as an hungered. Next, I learned that Osgood, among the rest of the “general,” was worrying over these constant & pitiless attacks. Next came the testimony of another friend, that the attacks were not merely “frequent,” but “almost daily.” Reflect upon that: “Almost daily” insults, for two months on a stretch. What would you have done?

Sam “set a man out” [MTBus] to search the Tribune and also had London friends collect articles there; only a few items turned up, all explainable. What could his friends have been thinking?

There—that is the prodigious bugaboo, in its entirety! Can you conceive of a man’s getting himself into a sweat over so diminutive a provocation? I am sure I can’t. What the devil can those friends of mine have been thinking about, to spread these 3 or 4 harmless things out into two months of daily sneers & affronts? The whole offense, boiled down, amounts to just this: one uncourteous remark of the Tribune about my book—not me between Nov. 1 & Dec. 20; & a couple of foreign criticisms (of my writings, not me,) between Nov. 1 & Jan. 26! If I can’t stand that amount of friction, I certainly need reconstruction [MTHL 1: 388].

Sam also wrote to Arnold, Constable & Co., letter not extant; referred to in the Co.’s Feb. 1 reply.

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement of Sam’s account [MTP].

January 29 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote from Fresno, Calif. to Sam offering his opinion on P&P.

…I am going to say something that will not be agreeable, I presume, but which is spoken with the same warm regard I have always entertained for you and your writings. “The Prince and the Pauper” is the first of your works in which I have ever been disappointed. Aside from the clear-cut English and an occasional bit of elegant description or quiet humor, there is no evidences of your handiwork in the volume. It might have been written by anybody else—by a far less masterly hand, in fact. You went entirely out of your sphere. The laboriousness is apparent everywhere by which you endeavor to harmonize irreconcilable improbabilities, to manage the obsolete customs and parlance of the times, and to wrestle generally with a condition of things to which you feel yourself alien and unsuited. And after all you don’t succeed. The impression of a skillfully wrought-out improbability is still uppermost when the volume is closed; we feel that all the pomp and pauperism has been a masquerade, and not the genuine article, and we are conscious of not having heard the real language of the age and personages, but a stilted imitation that never did and never will have existence outside of a book. You develop no character through any subjective trait. Your princes and paupers, your lords and rogues all express sentiments in common through a common diction. But I am getting more sweeping in my remarks than I intended. Perhaps I should not have indulged in criticism at all, but I have such a high opinion of your abilities that I can’t bear to see them misdirected or exerted at a disadvantage. After all, it is only my own obscure judgment, and I have learned to distrust that mightily. I have seen no newspaper notices of the work. The only other opinion of it I have heard was one directly opposed to mine. Sam Davis, now of the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote me that he was charmed with the story, thought it by far the finest thing you ever did, and that it had exalted you to the highest niche in his estimation.

…

Who designed the mechanical and artistic features of the book? They are superb [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote a long letter on various topics to Sam, clipping enclosed from Keokuk Gate City about Rev. Dr. Craig. “Many thanks for your dispatch. It made me as easy as an old shoe” [MTP].

January 30 Monday – Edward “Ned” House and his adopted Japanese daughter, Koto, evidently returned for what was intended to be a brief visit, because Sam wrote on Jan. 28 to Howells that “House & Koto are coming Monday. They leave again Tuesday.” House and daughter may have traveled somewhere and returned to spend another day with Sam. An attack of gout would keep House abed at Sam’s for three weeks. House wouldn’t leave until Feb. 20 or 21 [MTNJ 2: 447n34].

Charles Webster wrote: “Your plan of making a variety of cuts for country printers I think is a good one, and I shall keep the boys busy at it. / You forgot to enclose the music store cut from the Courant. / Our printer has broken down & we may not get our new specimen book for a couple of weeks yet” [MTP].

January 31 Tuesday – The Canadian poet laureate, Louis Honoré Fréchette of Quebec, was a big fan of Sam’s and met him during the Montreal dinner. Fréchette was also William Dean Howells’ brother-in-law, husband of Anne Howells. Fréchette soon came to the U.S.; Sam spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Windsor, in Holyoke, Mass. His subject: “On After-Dinner Speaking”:

Your little talk, which sounded so fine and warbly and nice when you were delivering it in the mellow light of the laps and in an enchanted atmosphere of applause and all-pervading good fellowship, looks miserably pale and vapid and lifeless in the cold print of a damp newspaper next morning, with obituaries and cast iron politics all around it and the hard gray light of day shining upon it and mocking at it. You do not recognize the corpse. You wonder if this is really that gay and handsome creature of the evening before. You look him over and find he certainly is those very remains. Then you want to bury him. You wish you could bury him privately [Fatout, MTSpeaking 166-8].

Howells wrote Sam that his letter about dropping the Whitelaw Reid biography:

“…was an immense relief….I never believed that he was a man capable of persecuting you, or systematically nagging you” [MTHL 1: 390-1].

According to Sam’s Feb. 3 letter to John Young, Edward House became “quite sick” this day, which was the day he was to leave this second visit, planned for one day [MTP].

W. & J. Sloane of Carpet Warehouse, NYC, sent thanks for remittance of $1,375 [MTP].

Worden & Co. (twice) wrote advising purchase of 100 shs of W.U. @ 79 ¾; Also, they sent a statement of account with Jan. 31 balance of $1,968.41 [MTP].

February – Sam’s notebook: “Get Kellogg’s Andersonville experiences through a short-hand reporter,” referring to Robert H. Kellogg’s Life and Death in Rebel Prisons (1865). Kellogg was an agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Hartford at this time [Gribben 366].

February 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote: “Your remembrance of dear Alex Holley, and your liking for him will give the enclosed eulogy and notice of the works he wrought some interest to you….Hope Jean and House are better this morning…” [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley died on Jan. 29; he was the foremost steel engineer of his time.

Arnold, Constable & Co. wrote: “Replying to your favor of the 28^th inst., the rugs therein mentioned have been received and placed to your credit, amt. of credit $500.⁰⁰” [MTP].

February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”

February 3 Friday – Sam’s 6 PM Friday Evening Club (drinking, smoking, billiards for men) included: Charles Hopkins Clark, asst. editor of the Hartford Courant; Joe Twichell; Edwin Pond Parker, Congregationalist clergyman; Samuel C. Dunham and Henry C. Robinson attorneys; and William T. Hamersley, state attorney for the Superior Court of Connecticut [MTNJ 2: 445n24]. This meeting provided an introduction to Louis Fréchette. From Twichell’s journal about the gathering:

Dined at M.T.s with a company of gentlemen, invited to meet Mr. Frechette the poet laureate of Canada. Mr. Frechette is a thickset man of medium height—full faced—looks German-ish—very respectable, though rather still—laughs well. M.T. never was so funny as this time. The perfect art of a certain kind of story telling will die with him. No one [illegible word] can equal him, I am sure [Yale, copy at MTP].

Sam wrote from Hartford to John Russell Young, thanking him for his “beautiful volumes.” Sam reciprocated with one of his own, probably P&P and said he’d send another next year. Sam confessed the Tribune had mentioned him “only 5 times in the 2 ½ months; & in the 5 mentions didn’t say anything that could annoy” him “in retaliating.” Sam didn’t want to destroy the notes just yet, though. Explaining why he hadn’t been down to New York, his guest Edward House had been “quite sick” and “not out of bed for 4 days” [MTP]. Note: Sam and Livy were in New York from about Feb. 14 to 18 (see entries).

Charles E.S. Wood at West Point wrote to Sam inviting him to a ball (“an Officers Hop”) on Feb. 22.

“Mrs. Wood has gone to Baltimore to stay till April and I want you and Mr. Twichell and Mr. Blackburn and Mr. [A.W.] Drake Art Supt of the ‘Century’ and Mr. Jones, a young artist lately from Russian & Parisian wilds to occupy my sanity, destroy the terrapins, play whist and use up that Scotch Whisky you left here” [Leon 225-6]. Note: “terrapins” were bowling pins.

February 4 Saturday – Wm. H. Jackson,  mfr. grates, New York, billed $17 for “1 large Brass wire Fireguard, special mesh, boxing” paid Mar. 2 [MTP].

Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to thank Sam for the prior evening at his home [MTP].

February 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway.

Only a mere P.S.—a single sentence to say this morning Springfield Republican has your talk upon Tennyson’s “Despair,” & that I have read it through twice, from the first word to the last, & that it is as beautiful as music,—& full-freighted with all the merits, virtues & charms of literary art: sound reasoning, true poetry, lofty thought, noble imagery; & all set forth with a grace of expression which is enchanting. Thank you heartily for writing it [MTP; Univ. of Nevada Library].

Arnold, Constable & Co, New York, billed $39 for seven slips (four line items), paid Feb. 8 [MTP].

Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to Sam that he hadn’t written for the Springfield Republican “for many a year” and the paragraph about Frechette was not his [MTP].

February 6 Monday – Sam cabled Karl Gerhardt that the idea of him taking private lessons from “The Master” was an excellent idea [MTP, see Mar. 21 letter to Gerhardt].

Lillie Edmunds wrote from NYC, a begging letter for help with her design schooling [MTP].

Chatto & Windus wrote to advise they’d offered Tauchnitz to print a German ed. of P&P for £75 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Tauchnitz sent him £75”

February 7 Tuesday – Estes & Lauriat, bookseller wrote to Sam; letter not extant [MTP].

I have not had a large experience in the matter of alcoholic drinks [!!] I find that about two glasses of champagne are an admirable stimulant to the tongue, and is, perhaps, the happiest inspiration for an after dinner speech which can be found; but, as far as my experience goes, wine is a clog to the pen, not an inspiration. I have never seen the time when I could write to my satisfaction after drinking even one glass of wine. 

[Reprinted by Webb and Bush, “Mark Twain’s Supplement Two” American Literary Realism 40.3 (Spring 2008): 272-3.]

March 29 Wednesday – According to the New York Times, page 8 under “PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE,” Samuel L. Clemens, of Hartford,” was at the Hotel Brunswick.

Jane W. Bruner wrote from NYC to address Sam as “My old friend,” relating how 11 years before her illness prevented her from visiting. She divorced Dr. Bruner 8 years before for extreme cruelty. She was awarded custody of the children and related their college studies. “Would you use your gifted pen in saying a few kind things?” about her play A Mad World [MTP]. Note: see Apr. entry, also Apr. 7

March 30 Thursday – Sam wrote to Christian Tauchnitz, letter not extant but referred to in Tauchnitz, Jr.’s reply of Apr. 15.

Edward T. Potter wrote offering to “arrange the matter of the bill in any way that would be most satisfactory to you & Thorp. I do not want any thing for my services & think there is about 200 coming to me that I will gladly relinquish.” Evidently Sam felt there had been departures from what was agreed upon for the house while the family was in Europe, though Potter didn’t recall any [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens (twice). In the first letter he was sorry he’d been away to Albany when Sam came by but assumed George N. Marsh “told you all about the matters.” The second short note as about hearing from George E. Jones of the NY Times, “that the Hartford people that are interested in the type setter have been down here to see him” for a $10,000 investment [MTP].

March 31 Friday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote two notes: sold stock and bought J. B. & Y Western @ 45 ½ [MTP]. 

William Thomas St. Clair (1859-1910) wrote offering $10 for Clemens to write him an essay for St. Clair’s lady friend on the subject “How old are you” [MTP]. Note: St. Clair would write twice more in April, pressing his request, and Livy answered his third letter. After teaching high school math and publishing two books on Latin, St. Clair hanged himself. Latin will do such things to a man.

Jo Twichell brought me your note and told me of his talk with you. He said you didn’t believe you would ever be able to muster a sufficiency of reckless daring to make you comfortable and at ease before an audience. Well, I have thought out a device whereby I believe we can get around that difficulty. I will explain when I see you [MTP].

         Our idea is to strike across lots and reach St. Louis the 20th of April—thence we propose to drift southward, stopping at some town a few hours or a night, every day, and making notes.

         To escape the interviewers, I shall follow my usual course and use a fictitious name (C. L. Samuel, of New York.) I don’t know what Osgood’s name will be, but he can’t use his own. 

         If you see your way to meet us in New Orleans, drop me a line, now, and as we approach that city I will telegraph you what day we shall arrive there.

         I would go to Atlanta if I could, but shan’t be able. We shall go back up the river to St. Paul, and thence by rail X-lots home. (I am making this letter so dreadfully private and confidential because my movements must be kept secret, else I shan’t be able to pick up the kind of book-material I want.)

         If you are diffident, I suspect that you ought to let Osgood be your magazine-agent. He makes those people pay three or four times as much as an article is worth, whereas I never had the cheek to make them pay more than double [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote to Sam, offering a list of sketches that Howells advised cutting from the Library of Humor, which left 18 pieces at about 80,000 words [MTP].

April 9 Sunday – The Lotos Club, New York receipted Sam $6.25 for dues [MTP].

April 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to reply to the Apr. 6 compliments from Rutherford B. Hayes, who had expressed a “happy reception” for P&P at his house. After explaining the receipt of his letter came just when their dinner friends were discussing the potential greatness of the Hayes administration (to Sam another example of “Mental Telegraphy”),  and being “deeply gratified” by Hayes’ letter, Sam added after his signature:

“I never thought of it before, but it seems strange that there should be no title for an ex-President but plain Mr. Still, it is reasonably conspicuous, since in our day pretty much everybody else is Esq.” [MTP].

William Thomas St. Clair wrote his third letter from Shelby City, Ky. to Sam after receiving his of Apr. 6 (not extant). He now offered $30 for a “few ideas” for his essay (answered by Livy) [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote a half page from NYC. He’d written to Orion and he planned to go to Fredonia on the 18^th. Also, “Mr. Talbott Pres & Manager of the Railway Age wants to know what we will take outright for Chicago. He was the man who tried to get it on a royalty last spring. What do you say?” [MTP].

April 11 Tuesday – Office of the Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army per H.M. Adams wrote to advise that “a copy of a map of the alluvial basin of the Mississippi River and 16 sheets of the new map …have been sent by today’s mail” [MTP].

April 12 Wednesday – Roswell Phelps mailed Sam a contract for his employment, which Sam signed. Phelps was to receive $100 per month for “at least four weeks” work, all traveling and living expenses and for transcribing notes made on the trip by June 1, one dollar per thousand words. The contract is in the MTP [MTNJ 2: 517].

Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam felt he had the American Publishing Co. on the run, but what he really wanted was control.

Can’t we manage, next fall, to scare them out of my copyrights & plates?

By that time they will have sold 85,000 “Tramps,” possibly, & charged 10 cents too much.

If I had the copyrights, I could make them pay me $25,000 a year, right along. They now pay me less than $3,000.

I would not care to have the “Tramp” by itself. I should want all or none.

Now how the mischief can I get hold of those copyrights? [MTBus 185].

Frank Fuller wrote again to push stock, & hoped him a good voyage [MTP].

William M. Laffan for Harper & Bros.  wrote to advise Sam not to bring Osgood to the Union League Club instead of Delmonico’s on Monday night at 7 [MTP].

James R. Osgood wrote to Sam, enclosing contracts for The Stolen White Elephant for signature [MTP].

Roswell H. Phelps wrote to Sam, enclosing a one page contract for his services. Sam signed on Apr. 13. $100 per month and all living and travel expenses paid [MTP].

April 13 Thursday – Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, delighted with the Clemenses letters even though typed. He’d sent Sam’s last letter to a London Publisher and rec’d a valuable dictionary in return. A detailed page or two of their expenses [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Gerhardt / Part of Expense a/c for 17 ½ months—Mc 17 ’81 to Sept. 1 ’82–/ $900 a year

April 14 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, arranging dates for the first leg of the Mississippi River trip.

“All right, call in Apl. 17—and start from New York, at 6 P.M., Pennsylvania road (ain’t it?) Hotel car all the way to Chicago—dam sight better than a mere dam sleeping car. How does this strike you?” [MTLTP 155].

Sam traveled to Boston to meet Howells and Aldrich at Osgood’s—all guests for the next day’s Saturday Morning Club of Boston [MTNJ 2: 455n69; MTHL 1: 399]. No doubt Sam returned Fairchild’s bumbershoot.

Johnny Bright & Claude Hope (yes, two girls) wrote a fan letter from Columbia, Ga. asking Sam for an answer and a visit to play his fiddle, if he had one. They added a PS for Livy “(Mrs Twain)”: “Please ask Mr Twain to answer this letter” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered in such a way that it need not be answered again.”; and “From two children / foolish letter”

Charles Webster wrote to Sam, still chasing after the Blisses about any loss Sam incurred. Frank Bliss agreed to come to Alexander & Green “the lion’s den” to answer questions, where they could “scare him if he is to be scared.” He added notes about family and Orion, who wasn’t coming to NY [MTP].

April 15 Saturday – Sam gave a talk at Boston’s Saturday Morning Club. Fatout designates this as “Advice to Youth” [MT Speaking 169-71] but Fatout prefaces this as “date and time uncertain,” the 1882 written later on Sam’s manuscript. Gribben notes that Sam urged youth to read only “good” books, such as Robertson’s Sermons, Baxter’s Saint’s Rest, and Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad [583].

Sam’s notebook and letter to Rutherford B. Hayes of Apr. 10 cite this paper as “Mental Telegraphy”  [MTNJ 2: 455n69]. Whatever the talk, after the luncheon Sam, Howells and Aldrich went to Concord to pay their respects to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who would die Apr. 27 [MTNJ 2: 432].

Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote to Sam, authorizing him to use “any portion or all of the matter contained in ‘Punch, Brothers, Punch’” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the note, “You need to keep this, Osgood, I reckon. / SL Clemens”

Charles Webster wrote to Sam that they would need another $500 before he left for his trip. He also felt “we have got Bliss” for short paying, and added details [MTP].

Frank D. Haynes & Frank B. White wrote to ask Sam a list of questions, leading with “Who is the greatest general of modern times?” and 3 others [MTP].

Christian Tauchnitz, Jr. wrote “In consequence of your kind lines of the 30^th of March, I handed over the books wished by you to the bookbinders to be bound in red leather like vol. 2000.” He added that Washington Irving’s Mahomet and Kimball’s Student Life were by American writers so he could not add those. He enclosed his invoice (not in file) for 172.90 Marks [MTP].

April 15 Saturday ca. – Sam sent authorization from Slote & Co. for use of “Punch, Brothers, Punch” to James R. Osgood, noting that he needed to keep the authorization [MTP].

April 16 Sunday – Sam returned to Hartford, where he wrote Howells.

O dear! I came home jubilant, thinking that for once I had gone through a two-day trip & come out without a crime on my soul: but it was all a delusion, nothing but a delusion—as I soon found out as I glided along in my narrative of how Aldrich—but no, I have suffered enough already, though Mrs. Clemens’s measureless scorn & almost measureless vituperation.

Sam had committed some trivial affront for which he profusely apologized. Livy added a note that he only represented her as “abusing him so terribly” but that most of his suffering was due to a guilty conscience [MTHL 1: 400-2].

April 17 Monday – Sam left Hartford with 37-year-old Hartford schoolteacher Roswell Phelps, hired stenographer. Phelps was to take down Sam’s impressions of the trip, and also letters of Sam’s ongoing business matters [Kaplan 244]. The men were bound for St. Louis and the Mississippi River, where Sam’s decade-old dream (since at least Jan. 1866) to revisit the river in preparation for another book would be realized [Powers, MT A Life 455-6]. The first stop was New York, where they met up with James R. Osgood. Kaplan writes that Sam “made a careful inventory, including certificate numbers, of the $110,000 in securities he kept in a box at the Mount Morris Bank” [244].

Sam also typed a short letter to Charles Webster. Sam directed Webster to Livy should he run out of money while Sam was traveling up the Mississippi.

I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO TELL YOU HOW TO REACH ME WITH LETTERS OR TELEGRAMS, AND BESIDES I DO NOT MUCH WANT TO BE REACHED BY BUSINESS ANYWAY WHILE I AM GONE. RUN THINGS ACCORDING TO YOUR BEST JUDGEMENT AND I THINK YOU WON’T MAKE ANY MISTAKES OF CONSEQUENCE [MTP].

At the invitation of journalist William Mackay Laffan, Sam and Osgood attended a banquet at the Union League Club [MTNJ 2: 432, 459n89]. They spent the night in New York, probably at the Gilsey House.

April 18 Tuesday – At 8 AM, Sam, Osgood, and Phelps left New York on the Pennsylvania Railroad. They would travel through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, then St. Louis. Sam noted in the evening:

“Speaking of dress. Grace and picturesqueness drop gradually out of it as one travels away from New York” [Ch. 22, LM].

In Boston, Howells wrote a send-off letter to Sam:

I am sorry that Osgood is with you on this Mississippi trip; I foresee that it will be a contemptible half-success instead of the illustrious and colossal failure we could have made it. But we still have our chance in the Library of Humor, (unless Clark ties our hands) and what can we not hope from the Circus? [referring to Sam’s scheme of touring the country with Aldrich, Cable and himself] [MTHL 1: 403].

April 19 Wednesday – “This morning struck into the region of full goatees—sometimes accompanied by a mustache, but only occasionally” [Ch. 22, LM].

Noon: Sam changed trains in Indianapolis.

Afternoon: “—At the railway-stations the loafers carry both hands in their breeches pockets; it was observable, heretofore, that one hand was sometimes out-of-doors—here, never. This is an important fact for geography.”

Sam wrote five minutes from Indianapolis to Livy,

“It is not easy to write on this joggling train. Slept better than I ever did before in a sleeping car. We are due at St. Louis at 8 to-night, where I hope to find a telegram from you saying you are a great deal better than when I left. With a world of love, sweetheart. / Sam” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook reveals he arrived in St. Louis at 8 PM [MTNJ 2: 436]. In Ch. 22 of Life on the Mississippi (hereafter abbreviated to LM) the time is given as 10 PM. The party checked into the Southern Hotel, one Sam called “ a good hotel…large and well conducted, and its decorations do not make one cry, as do those of the vast Palmer House, in Chicago” [Ch. 22 LM]. “Lawrence Barrett stumbled on us.” Barrett, the matinee idol was well known to both Osgood and Clemens. On this day he performed at the St. Louis Grand Opera House in a traveling production of Yorick’s Love, an adaptation by Howells. Osgood had published Barrett’s biography of Edwin Forrest in 1881 [MTNJ 2: 465].

Charles Robert Darwin died at around 4 PM at his home in Kent, England. His funeral was held on Apr. 26 at Westminster Abbey. Sam made a notebook entry about each of them being embarrassed at their only meeting at Grasmere on Aug. 19, 1879. “I am glad to have seen that mighty man,” Sam wrote. Darwin did not evolve after his death.

Jane “Jennie” Sevillee Walker (1870-1947) wrote from Flint, Mich.:

Mr. Mark Twain / I have read your Tom Sawyer and am very much interested in it. Wont you please tell me whether Tom and Huck Finn had the initiation that night. If you have the time. We have all your works. Papa said he knew you once, his name is Gorge L Walker. Tom must have had a hard time to keep still with the spirit of three boys in one, was Huck Finn composed of two or three boys. If you have time please answer my letter as soon as you can. You must be a ever so nice because you write such nice books. / Yours Truely/ …[MTP]. Note: in the preface to TS, Twain called Tom “a combination of the characteristics of three boys.” Jennie’s father was George L. Walker (1838-1909), Flint, Mich. businessman who helped set up Buick Motor Co. No connection between Walker and Twain was found.

April 20 Thursday – From Ch. 22, LM:

Next Morning we drove around town in the rain. The city seemed but little changed. It was greatly changed, but it did not seem so; because in St. Louis, as in London and Pittsburgh, you can’t persuade a thing to look new; the coal-smoke turns it into an antiquity the moment you take your hand off it. The place had just about doubled its size since I was a resident of it, and was now become a city of four hundred thousand inhabitants.

Sam noticed “melancholy” and “woeful” changes on the docks—“Half a dozen sound-asleep steamboats where I used to see a solid mile of wide-awake ones!…Here was desolation indeed.” It was the railroads that killed the steamboats, Sam wrote.

Sam and company left St. Louis at 5 PM, headed south aboard the Gold Dust, a “Vicksburg packet…neat, clean, and comfortable.” Nevertheless, they were delayed at East St. Louis at 10 PM [LM, Ch 23; MTNJ 2: 436].

Paine on the Mississippi excursion:

“The New Orleans excursion with Osgood, as planned by Clemens, proved a great success. The little party took the steamer Gold Dust from St. Louis down river toward New Orleans. Clemens was quickly recognized, of course, and his assumed name laid aside. The author of “Uncle Remus” made the trip to New Orleans. George W. Cable was there at the time, and we may believe that in the company of Mark Twain and Osgood those Southern authors passed two or three delightful days. Clemens also met his old teacher Bixby in New Orleans, and came back up the river with him, spending most of his time in the pilot-house, as in the old days. It was a glorious trip, and, reaching St. Louis, he continued it northward, stopping off at Hannibal and Quincy” [MTLP 419-20].

One trip schedule may be found at: www.twainquotes.com/steamboats/Itinerary1882.html

April 21 Friday – The Gold Dust finally got underway at 2 AM and at 6 AM paused at Menard, Ill. to let off passengers near St. Genevieve. Sam enjoyed the scenery, passing Chester, Ill., Grand Tower, Ill., and Cape Girareau, Mo., stopping at Cairo, Ill., some 200 miles from St. Louis. It was night when the Gold Dust made Cairo [Ch. 25 LM; MTNJ 2: 436]. Sam noticed many changes in the river, including several islands that had been washed away.

Sam telegraphed from Cole’s Landing, Menard, Ill. to Livy (ref. Apr. 22 letter, though telegram now lost), and wrote aboard the Gold Dust to Livy:

Livy darling, I am in solitary possession of the pilot house of the steamer Gold Dust, with the familiar wheel & compass & bell ropes around me. We are taking in coal. I came up here at a quarter to 8 (1/2 an hour ago,) while the dog watch was still on, & before the regular watch began—consequently I’ve had a brief acquaintanceship with both pilots. I’m all alone, now (the pilot whose watch it is, told me to make myself entirely at home, & I’m doing it [ )].

Thus far our fictitious names are a sufficient protection; but we had to get out of St. Louis in a hurry, because I got to meeting too many people who knew me. We swore them to secrecy, & left by the first boat [MTP].

F.W. Christern, “foreign bookseller & importer” New York billed Sam $3.50 for “1 Genovefa .75; 1 Weihnachsabend .55; 1 Scheree Volkslieder 2.20”; paid Apr. 22 [MTP].

April 22 Saturday – The Gold Dust left Cairo early in the morning. When Sam “turned out” the packet had passed Columbus, Ky. and was approaching Hickman. Sam noted the damage that the “flood of 1882” had caused to New Madrid, Mo. and the unprotected lowlands from Cairo south.

“We met two steamboats at New Madrid. Two steamboats in sight at once! An infrequent spectacle now in the lonesome Mississippi. The loneliness of this solemn, stupendous flood is impressive—and depressing” [Ch 27 LM].

Sam saw a steamboat named Mark Twain, “the first time” he’d “ever encountered this species of honor.”

The Gold Dust arrived at Memphis in the evening, and was “to tarry at Memphis till ten the next morning” [Ch 29 LM]. Sam recalled the yellow fever epidemic of years ago, and noted the town’s admirable new sewage system.

Sam wrote aboard the Gold Dust to Livy. After telling about being recognized, Sam added:

We are having a powerful good time & picking up & setting down volumes of literary stuff. I take a trick at the wheel occasionally, & find the mechanical work of steering a steamboat as familiar as if I had never ceased from it. But the “Upper” river! It was as new to me if I had never heard of it before. However, I recognize the river below Cairo—I know it pretty fairly, though some of the changes are marvelous….Telegraphed you from Cairo last night. Shall telegraph you from Memphis to-morrow morning [LLMT 208].

April 23 Sunday – Sam and party toured Memphis in the morning.

“A thriving place is the Good Samaritan City of the Mississippi: has a great wholesale jobbing trade; foundries, machine shops, and manufactories of wagons, carriages, and cotton-seed oil; and is shortly to have cotton-mills and elevators” [Ch 29 LM].

From Sam’s notebook:

“Passed the wreck of the ‘Golden City’ below Memphis. Caught fire early in the morning Mch. 30/82. The negro crew jumped ashore and deserted her. They ran her into shore but she got out of line. Great many lives lost—people asleep. She drifted down inside of President Island and sunk” [2: 570].

The boat discharged freight at Helena, Ark. on this sunny Sunday and Sam’s party had “two full hours’ liberty ashore.” Sam expounded about the town in Ch. 30, LM. From Sam’s notebook:

Reached Helena Ark. About 5:30 P.M. Went out for a stroll about the town. All had been under water. The plank walks loosened and irregular. Had to step careful or a loose board would fly up and hit Johnson on the nose…. Saw a garden which a man had planted with oyster cans. Couldn’t raise anything else, so tried to raise oysters [2: 536-7].

Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, pleased with their letter calling Karl by his first name—would they call her by one of her two names, Hattie or Josephine? The weather, and other details of their lives in Paris [MTP].

April 24 Monday – At about noon, the Gold Dust passed Napoleon, Ark., which used to be a thriving town but now was all but gone due to the shifting Big Muddy.

April 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote aboard the Gold Dust to Livy. He’d been on deck at 4 AM and watched the sun come up, complete with “cluttering” bullfrogs, aromas of dead fish on the ground, and “marvels of shifting light & shade & color & dappled reflections…bewitching to see” [Powers, MT A Life 460]. The writing would find itself in Huckleberry Finn.

“Our present plan is to stay in Vicksburg all day to-morrow, & then go on to New Orleans—remain there a week & then go straight through to St. Louis on the great steamer “Baton Rouge,” which is commanded by Horace Bixby, who taught me the river, & to whom I owed & paid absolute obedience during a year & a half” [MTP].

In Arkansas City, Ark., Sam wired congratulations to journalist friend John Russell Young on the day of his marriage to Julia E. Coleman, in Hartford [MTNJ 2: 463n110].

 “I send a thousand congratulations & add to them as many regrets that I can not be present” [MTP].

H.J. Gibbs, attorney, wrote from Montreal to ask if Sam might reference the case where Sam successfully prosecuted a man from using “Mark Twain,” “…as a trademark” [MTP].

April 26 Wednesday – The Gold Dust arrived at Vicksburg, Miss., where Sam, Osgood and Phelps boarded the Charles Morgan [MTNJ 2: 436]. A notebook entry for the date at 11 AM may be the time of the Morgan’s departure [462]. Before boarding, the party took a ride to the National Cemetery, where Sam jotted the motto over the gateway:

Here rest in peace 16,600 who died for their country in the years 1861 to 1865.

Sam added the corresponding motto at Arlington, lines from Theodore O’Hara’s “The Bivouac of the Dead” [572].

The Vicksburg Daily Herald (possibly from the Memphis Ledger) printed “Mark Twain Tries to Pull Wool Over the Marines, but Doesn’t.” This reported Sam’s use of pseudonym “C.L. Samuels” on his trip up the Mississippi; included stories about Sam, Captain Bart Bowen, and the pranks played on Captain Isaiah Sellers [Tenney 10].

April 27 Thursday – The Charles Morgan stopped a half an hour at Baton Rouge, La. [MTNJ 2: 546].

“Baton Rouge was clothed in flowers, like a bride—no, much more so; like a greenhouse. For we were in the absolute South now—no modifications, no compromises, no half-way measures. The magnolia trees in the Capitol grounds were lovely and fragrant…” [Ch.40 LM].

Ralph Waldo Emerson died in Cambridge, Mass. Clemens, Howells, and Aldrich had visited Emerson on Apr. 15.

The Vicksburg Daily Herald ran “Mark Twain visits the Historic City and Takes Some Views of Things as They Exist in These Parts. How He Looked to a Casual Observer.”

“…like a man who had just escaped from a lunatic asylum, whose only sense was in the perfect realization of that fact, and whose every energy was concentrated in an effort to dodge its keeper” [Tenney 10].

Noah Brooks wrote from NYC to advise that Sam would soon receive an invitation from Judge Horace Russell to speak at the next New England dinner of the New York Society [MTP].

April 28 Friday – At 8 AM, the Charles Morgan arrived at New Orleans. Sam stayed at the St. Charles Hotel [MTNJ 2: 458n84]. While in the city, he met up with George W. Cable. From Sam’s notebook:

Took a carriage after breakfast and drove about the old French part of the city. Visited the old “St. Louis Hotel.” Reminds one of a vast privy. Place where the legislature has met. Hasn’t been swept for 40 years. Saw old ornamental iron railings on balconies & before windows; much of it quite pretty and unique. Great deal of this iron work.

Old cemetery surrounded by high wall just over the top of which could see the roofs of the quadrangular tombs.

Evening 28^th Drove to the “West End”. Cable with us. All round N. Orleans there seems to be a line of forest but one never reaches it. Cemetary on the way. Monument to Stonewall Jackson [2: 550].

April 28 to May 6 Saturday – Sam described his stay in New Orleans to Livy as a “whirlpool of hospitality” [Kaplan 245]. He met up again with George Washington Cable and met Joel Chandler Harris for the first time. Sam’s days began early and ended late. He enjoyed the city’s cuisine and good fellowship so much that he’d scarcely talked to more than a few steamboatmen, and then for a few minutes (see May 6 entry).

April 29 Saturday –Sam’s notebook records a mule race staged to benefit the Southern Art Union, a group promoting New Orleans artists:

Mule race with Burke & Houston. Later mentioned the Voudoo superstitions. Among old creoles if one meets a funeral he removes his hat & walks back with procession one block.

At the mule races managers wore rosettes large as sunflowers. Riders dressed in silk and velveteen costumes of the gayest colors. All leaders of fashionable society here [2: 550-1, &n54] Note: Edward A. Burke, managing editor of the New Orleans Times-Democrat; James D. Houston, a tax collector in New Orleans [MTNJ 2: 550n53].

Sam wrote from New Orleans at 10 PM to Livy, relating the day’s events, which were many:

Livy darling, we are in the midst of a whirlpool of hospitality—breakfasts, dinners, lunches, cock-fights, Sunday schools, mule-races, lake-excursions, social gatherings, & all sorts of things. And I enjoy it, too, though it is powerfully taxing, both mentally & physically, & I shall be glad of a rest by & by. However, I go to bed early, sleep soundly, rise early, snatch a couple of hours’ rest at noon, drink little or nothing, & consequently start out in a fresh & vigorous condition every morning. The weather is mighty hot, but I do not mind that. Called on a friend at 7.15 this morning; met an appointment at 11; stripped & lay quiet till 1; drove with friends to the mule-races; returned at five; dined with some new acquaintances; spent the evening at Cable’s; have just reached home, now (10 P.M.), & am somewhat tired. So, with your permission I will stop writing & go to bed [MTP].

Judge Horace Russell wrote to Sam asking him to speak & respond to toast at Dec. 21 dinner [MTP].

April 30 Sunday – 7 AM at the train depot, Sam met Joel Chandler Harris, who’d traveled from Atlanta. Harris registered at the St. Charles Hotel,  where Sam was staying; the two then met George Cable and attended church services of the Prytania Street Presbyterian Church, Rev. J.H. Nall. The sermon was on John 14:2, “In My Father’s House are Many Mansions” [MTNJ 2: 468n127; 507n245]. Afterward, interestingly, they took in a cockfight. In Life on the Mississippi, Sam changed the day of the following cockfight from Sunday to Saturday, evidently to avoid criticism. First, his notebook:

Cockfight Sunday, Apl. 30.

Circular, amphitheater arrangement partially filled (200 or so) with audience of whites, negroes, creoles, Mexicans, Spanish, &c. / Honor of an introduction to the proprietor—a Frenchman.

From Life on the Mississippi:

We went to a cockpit in New Orleans on a Saturday afternoon. I had never seen a cock-fight before. There were men and boys there of all ages and all colors, and of many languages and nationalities. But I noticed one quite conspicuous and surprising absence: the traditional brutal faces. With no cock-fighting going on, you could have played the gathering on a stranger for a prayer-meeting; and after it began, for a revival—provided you blindfolded your stranger—for the shouting was something prodigious [Ch 45].

Joel Chandler Harris recalled leaving the cockfight in mid-fight, calling it “disgusting in the extreme” [MTNJ 2: 551n55].

More from Sam’s notebook on attending Winan’s Chapel, also known as the First Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Stephen Priestly, pastor.

Colored church Sunday eve’g. / Opened with singing of a choir. 12^th Chap. Daniel read by black clergyman, during which an aged deacon back by the door chided some young dusky damsels saying “Takes yo’ long time get seated. Settle yo’ d’rectly ef yo do’ get seated.”

Clergyman then lined a hymn. Offered prayer very well, —better than some white ministers because it was short. The whole thing was a failure because too good for literature. / White woman preached [2: 552].

Madame Fogarty, New York, billed Sam $160.00 for silk costume, $130, bonnet $30 [MTP].

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with a balance for May 1 of $4,145.63 [MTP].

May – Sam’s notebook carries an entry to “see Dickens for a note on Cairo [Illinois]” [Gribben 187]. In LM Sam focused on the improvements in Cairo, no longer the place Dickens had described, a:

“…hotbed of disease, an ugly sepulcher, a grave uncheered by any gleam of promise.”

The May issue of The Nineteenth Century carried an unflattering evaluation by Matthew Arnold in “A Word about America.” Arnold called Sam’s humor “Quinionian” and America “still, from an intellectual point of view, a very rude and primitive soil…” [Tenney 11].

May 1 Monday – Sam, Cable and Harris spent the afternoon “at Cable’s red-and-olive cottage, surrounded by orange trees and a garden, on Eighth Street, on the lip of the Garden District” [Kaplan 245]. The crowd of children who’d come to Cable’s house to see their beloved Uncle Remus were shocked to find the red-haired man was white and too shy to read to an audience. Sam and Cable saved the day when they read “Tar Baby” and some of their own stories. “Cable read from the Grandissimes & sketches” [MTP letter to Livy May 2].

In the evening, they were entertained at the home of James Guthrie, a friend of Cable’s, and brother-in-law to David Gray, Sam’s old friend from Buffalo. “There was piano music by some young ladies, Cable sang a Creole song, Clemens read from Innocents Abroad and some unpublished travel sketches, Guthrie recited Shakespeare, and two of Guthrie’s children, a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, played Romeo and Juliet in the balcony scene” [Kaplan 245]. “There was an audience of twenty-five ladies & gentlemen” [MTP letter to Livy May 2].

In Sam’s notebook, most likely an account of morning events:

“Tug Boat ‘W.M. Wood’. Sailed up & down river front for 10 miles. Saw Chalmette Cemetary 5 miles below N. Orleans. 12,600 soldiers of last war buried there. Saw battle ground of 1815 near here” [MTNJ 2: 552].

Note: in footnote 57: According to the “River News” column in the Wednesday 3 May 1882 issue of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, “Capt. Mumf. Wood had Mark Twain on the Wm. Wood yesterday, giving him a sight of our harbor, and at the same time a pleasant ride on one of the finest tugs afloat.”

Tiffany & Co. New York, billed Sam $60 for “12 plates 1 dish”; paid May 14 [MTP].

F.W. Taylor for Danville Illinois Holy Trinity Church wrote to ask Sam if they might “casting the story [P&P] into the form of a drama”[MTP].

May 2 Tuesday – Dr. John Brown of Scotland, favored friend of the Clemens family died. Sam would learn of the death before he left New Orleans, in a “damp newspaper.”

Sam wrote from New Orleans to Livy:

…we are still booming along in the sociabilities, & find it a pretty energetic business & rather taxing to the strength…./ We are reduced to lying, at last. We pretend to have engagements which we have not, in order to escape others which we want to avoid.

A big, fast steam-tug was offered us, & this morning we steamed up & down the river a couple of hours at a tremendous rate. I did the steering myself….I took along a couple of old-time pilots as our guests.

We dine with the editors tonight, (& pretend to go down to the Mouth of the river to-morrow, but shall lie abed & sleep, instead.) [MTP].

In the evening, Edward Burke hosted a dinner for Sam and James R. Osgood at John’s Restaurant [Kruse 7], John Strenna’s popular restaurant on the corner of Canal and Dryades Streets [MTNJ 2: 461, 463]. Among the guests was Page Mercer Baker (1840-1910), along with Burke an editor for the Times-Democrat who later wrote Sam about the good memories of the evening, about “the good stories over wine, the music (in which Cables thin but melodious tenor mingled sweetly with [L. André] Burthe’s magnificent barytone)” [MTNJ 2: 468n128]. See Baker’s of Sept. 26.

Dr. Joseph Chase, Jr. Wrote from Concord, N.H. to ask “something concerning yourself, from you personally” for a paper on “American Humorists” he had to write [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”

James Leibert wrote from Bethlehem, Penn. to ask for “a short article” for their Seminary [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “O Geeminy!”

May 3 Wednesday – Sam “lay abed till toward noon…& made Osgood go out & meet the appointments.” After Osgood returned they began a game of billiards, but Horace Bixby came by. Sam went and dined with his old mentor [May 4 to Livy, MTP]. In Ch. 48 of Life on the Mississippi, Sam wrote he encountered Bixby on the street and the two men embraced, but the May 4 account is probably the correct one.

May 4 Thursday – Sam wrote that he and Bixby “joined a party of ladies and gentlemen, guests of Major Wood, and went down the river fifty-four miles, in a swift tug” [Ch 48 LM].

From Sam’s notebook:

On tug “W.M. Wood” to plantation ex-Governor Warmouth [Henry Clay Warmouth 1842-1931] 47 miles below N. Orleans. Party numbered 15—7 ladies. Parrot on board keeping up constant stream of remarks, some irrelevant, some not. Parrot’s swearing very inappropriate….Warmouth met tug in river opposite his plantation. Tall, witty, self-possessed man of 40. Took us in carriages over his place [MTNJ 2: 555-6].

On Warmouth’s sugar plantation, Sam saw an early steam-plow there and was fascinated by it [Ch 48 LM]. Sam decided to wait for Bixby’s City of Baton Rouge to return him north. One of the last large steamboats to be built (1881); 300-foot, 2,300 tons boasted six bridal chambers and all the trimmings [Powers, MT A Life 461]. (See Loges.)

Sam wrote from New Orleans to Livy. After relating the reunion with Bixby, Sam added:

“I hunted up Tom Moore, who used to be mud clerk on the John J Roe when I was a cub. He is short, & unwieldy with flesh, is a rich & respected burgher, & looks it. Good fellow is Tom; am going to his house to see his wife & six children, tomorrow” [MTNJ 2: 465n116]. Note: John T. Moore, Jr & Co. was wholesale grocers on Tchoupitoulas Street.

May 5 Friday – Sam was quite fascinated by an ice factory he visited and described it the next day in a letter to Livy. “They make 60 tons a day in summer & 100 in winter, & sell it at a cent a pound.”

In the evening Sam received a letter from Susy and Clara and Livy [May 6 letter to Livy, MTP].

May 6 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:

Visited Armory of the “Washington Artillery”. Hanging there is an equestrian portrait of “Stonewall” Jackson & Lee (by Julio.) Also an original portrait—full length—of Andrew Jackson.

Flags of the Wash. Artillery with names 60 noted engagements embroidered thereon. Also flag of the Cross and Stars—the first one made after adoption of change from Stars & Bars.

In another room were portraits of Gen. Beauregard & Gen Owens—our chaperone [MTNJ 2: 557]

At 5 PM Sam and party left New Orleans aboard the City of Baton Rouge (afterward referred to as CBR), with Horace Bixby piloting.

“…a delightfully hot day, but with the main purpose of my visit but lamely accomplished. I had hoped to hunt up and talk with a hundred steamboatmen, but got so pleasantly involved in the social life of the town that I got nothing more than mere five-minute talks with a couple of dozen of the craft” [Ch 51 LM].

Sam wrote from New Orleans to Livy. After describing in detail an ice-making plant, Sam gave his travel plans:

“We leave this evening for St. Louis, direct, in the City of Baton Rouge, Horace Bixby master, dam this pen, & shall arrive there next Friday, remain a few days, then a day in Hannibal, Keokuk; Quincy; then straight up to St Paul & across country to home” [MTP].

May 7 Sunday – The CBR arrived at Baton Rouge at 4:10 AM, Bayou Sara at 7:30 AM, and Natchez, Miss. at 4:15 PM [MTNJ 2: 560].

“We made Natchez (three hundred miles) in twenty-two hours and a half—much the swiftest passage I have ever made over that piece of water” [Ch 51 LM].

At Natchez there was a slight accident and a small delay. The boat took a barge in tow about a mile north of town. The towline parted, causing the barge to strike the CBR’s larboard wheel. The barge sank. The CBR had to return to Natchez for repair [Loges 5-6]. (See Loges’ article for descriptions and pictures of the City of Baton Rouge.)

Kate D. Barstow wrote to ask if she could get an “author’s discount” Sam had mentioned for Appleton’s American Cyclopedia [MTP]. Note: Livy wrote on the env., “Answered, at the same time sending one of Estes & Lauriat Clearance Catalogue with two copies A.C. advertised in it. / O.L.C.”

May 8 Monday – Sam’s room was over the boilers and “some idiot had closed the transoms,” the heat waking him at 4 AM. He “went on watch”; it was foggy. He noted that George Ritchie steered by compass until the watch was over, using “his & Bixby’s patented chart for crossings & occasionally blowing the whistle” [MTNJ 2: 471]. The CBR arrived in Vicksburg, Miss at 8 AM [560].

We had a heavy thunder-storm at Natchez, another at Vicksburg, and still another about fifty miles below Memphis. They had an old-fashioned energy which had long been unfamiliar to me. The third storm was accompanied by a raging wind. We tied up to the bank when we saw the tempest coming, and everybody left the pilot-house but me…the pilot-house fell to rocking and straining and cracking and surging, and I went down in the hold to see what time it was [Ch 51 LM].

The CBR reached Greenville, Miss., at 8 PM. From Sam’s notebook on or about this day on the CBR:

Two colored cabin hands; one more colored than the other. One played banjo & both sang. Concert opened with “Golden Slippers” in Negro dialect, followed by “Old Black Joe” “Empty is the cradle” &c. Following are the words to “Mary’s Gone Wid de Coon” [words followed] [2: 562].

Aboard the City of Baton Rouge en route to St. Louis, Sam wrote to Livy.

We are moving along up the river pretty swiftly, Livy darling, & by Friday I expect to get a letter from you in St. Louis. It was a very genuine pleasure to receive such a nice long letter from you just before leaving New Orleans. I went to bed a trifle after midnight last night, & got up at 4 & was in the pilot house in a tolerable thick fog until breakfast….it’s as hot as hades—but, I love you & the kids [MTP].

Joe Twichell noted in his journal that “Mrs. S.L. Clemens (Mrs Mark Twain) to bear the cost of Julia’s going to Europe with me…” [Yale, copy at MTP]. Note: Julia Curtis Twichell was one of Twichell’s daughters; the three-month trip to Europe was offered by Twichell’s friend, Mr. Newton Case (1807-1890). For more on Case, see AMT 2: 488.

Joseph R. Hawley wrote from Wash. DC to relate a trip to Ft. Monroe, the party including President Hayes, who told several stories from Sam’s works. When asked if Hayes had met Twain, he said no but would like to. Hawley invited Sam to Washington to join a literary group that he led every fortnight. Sam could then meet President Hayes [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Gen.l Hawley. / Answered”

May 9 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook:

“30 miles below Memphis tied up to the bank while they washed out the boilers and let a hurricane, thunder & hail storm pass over. The wind snapped off several forest trees near by making sounds like reports of a rifle” [MTNJ 2: 563].

Joseph P. Smyth, customs agent wrote from NYC to bill Clemens 22.30 for a case of books [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “About books from Tauchnitz”

May 10 Wednesday – The CBR arrived in Memphis, Tenn., early in the morning. The time of 2 days 20 hours and 38 minutes out of New Orleans—even with the delay at Natchez, was the fastest time since the famous race between the Robert E. Lee and the Natchez [Loges 6]. Sam recorded that he noticed “several sheds were blown down” from the storm, “& the hail stones were nearly 3 inches in circumf. Unusual for this latitude” [MTNJ 2: 563]. Sam spent most of his time aboard in the pilot house, where he recorded the wartime stories of Horace Bixby and George Ritchie [Loges 6]. “Left Memphis 10 AM” [MTNJ 2: 476].

Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford

      I suppose you have heard from Livy how the lightnings of my peculiar sort of luck has struck me again, and this time from a most unexpected quarter. In your neighbor Case was the last man, on Asylum Hill anyhow, that I should have thought would treat me so—the very last. I hardly know what to make of it. However, I will try to make the dear old gentleman glad of his venture.

      And I suppose you have heard, too, of what Livy is up to, in sending Julie along with me. I can’t begin to tell, and she will never know, what gratitude Harmony and I are overflowing with, for her generosity. For to tell the truth, Mark, the prospect of a three months campaign in foreign parts with Mr Case and party, was not altogether blissful,—you can understand why [MTP]. Note: Newton Case, Sam’s neighbor, was on the board of American Publishing Co. See May 8 entry of Joe’s journal.

May 11 Thursday – The CBR arrived in Cairo, Ill at 11 AM [MTNJ 2: 476]. An old friend of Sam’s, John Henton Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) came down from St. Louis, and went aboard the CBR to escort him to his hotel upon arrival [Budd 39].

May 12 Friday – The CBR arrived in St. Louis. John Henton Carter escorted Sam and his party to the Southern Hotel, where they spent the night. Sam shared “a couple of farewell hot scotches with Bixby” [Powers, MT A Life 461]. Carter interviewed Sam about his books, the new suspender he was inventing, complaints about his image as a mere humorist, and his ability as a steamboat pilot. The interview would be published in Rollingpin’s Humorous Illustrated Annual for 1883.

Sam was interviewed by a reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [Budd, “Interviews” 37-9]. The interview probably also ran during the month in the St. Louis Times [Schmidt]. An excerpt from that interview:

In this interview Sam also spoke about a matter that interested him greatly—Arctic expeditions (a tragic failure of the Greeley expedition to the North Pole had left in 1881 and the main party was found frozen to death a year later; recent stories dealt with a rescue party that found the bodies) [Budd, “Interviews” 37-8].

The St. Louis Chronicle ran a piece on page 1 paraphrasing Sam; he said he never chooses titles for his books before they were finished [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

The “River News” column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:

The same paper, on page 2, ran an interview of Sam discussing a fantasy expedition to fix the location of Hell. Sam also railed at interviewers and discussed his planned Mississippi travel book [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

James O’Neal was now superintendent of the Anchor Line. Sam had called him “The whitest Captain I ever sailed with” [MTNJ 2: 477n154].

Sam and his stenographer Roswell H. Phelps left St. Louis at about 4 PM aboard the Gem City on an overnight packet headed north to that “white town drowsing in the sunshine.” On board was a sister of Clint Levering, the ten-year-old boy who drowned while playing with Sam and friends on Aug. 13, 1847 (see entry). Sam noted the sister was with her husband (unnamed) and had “grown sons (one, anyway.)” Sam used a nickname for Clint of “Writer Levering.”

James R. Osgood took a train for Chicago for business and agreed to meet up with Sam in Davenport, Iowa on May 18 [MTNJ 2: 434].

May 13 Saturday – The St. Louis Globe-Democrat ran an interview with Sam on page 8, “Mark Twain’s Travels / A Round Trip on the Mississippi in Search of Book Material.” Sam recalled his “Babies” speech and discussed his planned river book [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

The St. Louis Missouri Republican ran a descriptive article about Sam on page 5 titled, “Mark Twain / The Famous Humorist Pays a Flying Visit to St. Louis”; Sam refused to be interviewed [Budd, “Interviews” 2].

May 14 Sunday – The Gem City arrived in Hannibal, Mo. at 7 AM [Ch 53 LM]. Kaplan writes it was “a still Sunday morning. The town seemed deserted.” Sam later wrote Livy that “Everything was changed, but when I reached Third or Fourth street the tears burst forth, for I recognized the mud” [Kaplan 246].

Sam registered at the Park Hotel.

May 14 to 17 Wednesday – Sam spent three days in Hannibal staring his history in the face:

During my three days’ stay in the town, I woke up every morning with the impression that I was a boy—for in my dreams the faces were all young again, and looked as they had looked in the old times; but I went to bed a hundred years old, every night—for meantime I had been seeing those faces as they are now.

Of course I suffered some surprises, along at first, before I had become adjusted to the changed state of things. I met young ladies who did not seem to have changed at all; but they turned out to be the daughters of the young ladies I had in mind—sometimes their granddaughters.

I noticed the greatest changes observable were the women, not the men. I saw men whom thirty years had changed but slightly; but their wives had grown old. These were good women; it is very wearing to be good [Ch 56 LM].

May 15 Monday – Sam was the guest at the summer home (“Woodside”) of John Garth, “A popular schoolmate of Sam’s, beginning at Mrs. Horr’s…son of a tobacconist who taught the boys at Sunday school in the Presbyterian church” [Wecter 144]. Garth had married another childhood friend, Helen Kercheval and made his fortune in New York [Rasmussen 163]. He returned in 1871 to live in Hannibal, now a town of 15,000. Garth was president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank in Hannibal [MTNJ 2: 513n269]. The town now boasted paved streets and a large railroad depot where six lines came together. It was John Marshall Clemens who led the push to charter a railroad to Hannibal back in the 1840s. It must have seemed to Sam that the railroads had destroyed the steamboats, and the river life that he knew.

In the morning Garth’s black coachman called for Sam at 10 instead of 7:30 and excused himself by saying that time was an hour and a half slower in the country. The servant drove Sam around and then delivered him the three miles to the Garth home [MTNJ 2: 478].

John Brown, Jr. wrote from Edinburgh to advise of the death of his father on the morning of May 11. “We were all with him at the last….Inflammation of the lungs” [MTP].

Charles L. Lamb wrote inviting Clemens to the Missouri State Medical Assoc. banquet for May 17 Sam [MTP]. Sam replied to Lamb, declining.

May 17 Wednesday – Roswell H. Phelps left Hannibal and returned to Hartford. Sam left Hannibal alone aboard the Minneapolis, which stopped at Quincy, Ill. and stopped at Keokuk, Iowa. Sam wrote from Quincy to Livy:

Livy darling, I am desperately homesick but I have promised Osgood, & must stick it out; otherwise I would take the train at once & break for home.

      I have spent three delightful days in Hannibal, loitering around all day long, examining the old localities & talking with the grey-heads who were boys & girls with me 30 or 40 years ago. It has been a moving time. I spent my nights with John & Helen Garth, three miles from town, in their spacious & beautiful house. They were children with me, & afterwards schoolmates. Now they have a daughter 19 or 20 years old. Spent an hour, yesterday, with A. W. Lamb, who was not married when I saw him last. He married a young lady whom I knew. And now I have been talking with their grown-up sons & daughters. Lieutenant Hickman, the spruce young handsomely-uniformed volunteer of 1846, called on me—a grisly elephantine patriarch of 65 now, his grace all vanished.

      That world which I knew in its blossoming youth is old & bowed & melancholy, now; its soft cheeks are leathery & wrinkled, the fire is gone out in its eyes, & the spring from its step. It will be dust & ashes when I come again. I have been clasping hands with the moribund—& usually they said, “It is for the last time.”

      Now I am under way again, upon this hideous trip to St. Paul, with a heart brimming full of thoughts & images of you & Susie & Bay & the peerless Jean. And so good night, my love [MTLP 419; MTP].

The Minneapolis stopped at Keokuk in the evening and left about 11 p.m. Lorch quoted the Keokuk Daily Constitution of May 18: “Judge Davis, Ed. F. Brownell, Al Patterson, and Dr. J.M. Shaffer went on board to greet him and take him off for an hour or two, while the boat stopped, to talk over old times” [McDermott: 195-6 quoting Lorch: “Lecture Trips and Visits of Mark Twain in Iowa,” Iowa Journal of History and Politics, XXVII (October 1929), 518].

Augustus Saint-Gaudens wrote to Sam, having rec’d a telegram from “the young man I wrote you about (Mr Elnell).” He did not understand the message. Did Sam send the letter “I begged you to write”? [MTP].

May 18 Thursday – The Minneapolis arrived at Muscatine, Iowa. Osgood rejoined Sam at Davenport, Iowa.

“We had not time to go ashore in Muscatine, but had a daylight view of it from the boat. I lived there awhile, many years ago, but the place, now, had a rather unfamiliar look; so I suppose it has clear outgrown the town which I used to know” [Ch 57 LM].

The Keokuk Constitution ran an interview with Sam on page 4; Sam gave some details of his current trip [Budd, “Interviews” 3].

The Keokuk Gate City ran “Mark Twain / … A Short Chat with the Gentleman,” but included no direct quotations; mentioned that Sam recently told an anecdote about reciting the same Bible verses for five years [Budd, “Interviews” 3].

May 19 Friday – The Minneapolis arrived at Dubuque, Iowa.

We noticed that above Dubuque the water of the Mississippi was olive-green—rich and beautiful and semitransparent, with the sun on it….The majestic bluffs that overlook the river, along through this region, charm one with the grace and variety of their forms, and the soft beauty of their adornment…And it is all as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this-worldly about it—nothing to hang a fret or a worry upon [Ch 58 LM].

The Muscatine Journal, on page 2, ran an account of Sam’s brief stop there, without opinion or quotes [Budd, “Interviews” 3].

May 20 Saturday – The Minneapolis arrived at Lake Pepin, Minn. Sam and Osgood saw a “wretched poor family on boat going to the frontier—man on deck with wagon; woman & several little children allowed in cabin for charity’s sake. The slept on sofas & floor in glare of lamps without covering. Must have frozen last night.” Sam told how he and Osgood took pity on the family and got them hot meals and blankets [MTNJ 2: 480n164].

Sam wrote to Livy and told her about the poor family and their assistance: 

“The woman stopped me afterward and asked if it was I that paid for their meals—& thanked me & broke down. They are all sound asleep on sofas…but I notice that my interest in them has had an effect, for they all have pillows & coverings” [MTP].

May 21 Sunday – The Minneapolis arrived at St. Paul, Minn. at 7 AM after a “hideous trip” where Sam and Osgood spent the night at the Metropolitan Hotel. It was cold and snowing [Kaplan 246].

“St. Paul is a wonderful town. It is put together in solid blocks of honest brick and stone, and had the air of intending to stay. Its post-office was established thirty-six years ago; and by and by, when the postmaster received a letter, he carried it to Washington, horseback, to inquire what was to be done with it. Such is the legend” [Ch 60 LM].

May 22 Monday – “Snowed a few flakes. We left at 1.45 east” [MTNJ 2: 480].

Sam and James Osgood left St. Paul, Minn. by train, bound for home [Powers, MT A Life 462].

The St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press ran a brief article on page 7 paraphrasing Sam’s mistrust of interviewers and the reasons for his current trip. There were no direct quotations [Budd, “Interview” 3].

May 23 Tuesday – Judge Caleb F. Davis, President of Keokuk Savings Bank & Trust, wrote to Clemens:

I write to remind you of my request, and your promise to send me your photograph, and the published sketch you mentioned. … /

      Jo Patterson says, that when you first commenced to write and lecture, the greatest surprise of your immediate friends and relatives, was your familiar quotations from the Bible, as you were never known to read that book. Al Patterson says, if you do not write me something good, he will refer to you in his own sketch and tell how, when your family moved from the country, down in Missouri to Hannibal…they found you missing. Going back they found you in an old flour barrel asleep.

      Now save yourself from our friends and fill the sheet [enclosed]. As a general rule, literary fellows are impecunious, and you may not be an exception, therefore I enclose P.O. stamps for return favors. … /PS. Genl. Belknap, who is sitting by while I write, wants to know what became of your ‘patent Suspender,’ as he now has trouble in keeping up his pantaloons. / Keokuk, Iowa / May 23d 1882 [McDermott, “Mark Twain and the Bible” Papers on Language and Literature 4 (Spring 1968): 195-8]. Note: See Sam’s answer July 8, 1882.

 May 24 Wednesday – On entering Philadelphia, Sam and Osgood observed a crowd had formed to gaze at an Italian laborer whose foot had been severed by a train.

“Our tracks ought to be fenced—on the principle that the majority of human beings being fools, the laws ought to be made in the interest of the majority” [MTNJ 2: 481].

Sam and Osgood arrived in New York. Sam arrived home in Hartford [Powers, MT A Life 462; MTNJ 2: 434].

William H. Thompson, publisher, Phila. wrote a postcard to Sam “Why no report or order from you?” He was pushing a new ed. of Pocket Manual & Book Rack [MTP].

May 25 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed The Poetical Works of Robert Browning to Susy Clemens: “These volumes, (in place of a promised mud turtle,) are presented with the love of / Papa / May 25, 1882. / N.B. The turtle was to have been brought from New Orleans, but I gave up the idea because it seemed cruel” [MTP].

F.A.O. Schwartz, New York, billed Sam $1.05 for “2 nurse bottles, 2 puffbones [?]” [MTP].

May 25 to June 8 Thursday – Sam began organizing and adding to his notes, reviewing his old Atlantic articles, “Old Times on the Mississippi,” which would comprise part of Life on the Mississippi. It was difficult for him to write at the Hartford house; he was anxious to leave the heat and distraction for Elmira and Quarry Farm, where high over the Chemung River, he was always quite productive. His notebook for this period reveals many planning entries for Clara Clemens’ upcoming birthday party.

Sometime shortly after May 24, Sam wrote to Louis C. Tiffany, evidently for glass work performed:

“I have been down the Mississippi river or I would have answered sooner. I am happy to say that the work is not merely and coldly satisfactory, but intensely so” [MTP].

May 28 Sunday – In Lexington, Mass., William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

I hope you are safely and triumphantly at home again, and that you are bulging at the new book. I have heard from Osgood what a glorious time you had.—I suppose you got my letter at St. Louis [not extant]. We have been here for a month, and we expect to spend June at Belmont; then we go to see my father at Toronto, and we sail from Quebec July 22d….I’m going to write your life for The Century. When and why were you born? [MTHL 1: 403-4].

Arnold, Constable & Co. , New York billed Sam $7.44 for 1 “Salqui” [?] or “Saeqni”; paid [MTP].

May 29 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens, who was contemplating a trip from Fredonia to Keokuk to see Orion and Mollie. After commenting on his mother writing to an “old gentleman” and criticizing a “young man who prints the paper,” Sam encouraged her to travel part way by water for her comfort; he wanted to pay the cost [MTBus 186].

Sam also wrote to Charles Webster, sending him the name of one “Mr. Dennison” in the lithography business for Webster to perhaps hire:

“Enclosed is a name given me by my old friend Ned Bunce, Cashier of the Phenix Bank, here” [MTP].

Sam also typed a letter to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of their note for £1,590 & 1s, and that their suggestion to stimulate demand for P&P seemed “wise and reasonable.” Sam informed them that Osgood & Co., was poised to publish the first of June [MTP].

Charles H. Wells for Assoc. Press wrote to ask for an autograph prefaced by a sentiment; SASE [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From some low-bred & unrefined son of a bitch in Pennsylvania”

May 30 Tuesday – In Lexington, Mass. William Dean Howells wrote hoping to lure the Clemenses for a visit before they left for Elmira for the summer and before he sailed for Europe [MTHL 1: 404-5].

May 31 Wednesday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement showing $4,167.05 credit in Sam’s account [MTP].

June – The Stolen White Elephant was a collection of stories published by James R. Osgood. Sam wrote the title story in 1878, and the earliest copies printed early in June [Hirst, “A Note on the Text,” Oxford Edition, 1996]. This book combined the elephant tale with all those in Punch, Brothers, Punch! (1878) as well as several others, including two on the “McWilliamses” [Rasmussen 445].

Sam inscribed a copy of Horace Williams Fuller’s Noted French Trials. Imposters and Adventurers (1882): “S.L. Clemens / Hartford, June 1882” [Gribben 248].

Sam’s notebook “Life of Jon Edwards about 1820 Northhampton Mass” [323]; On Charles Lamb (1775-1834):

“Make no end of Chas. Lamb, & people who have been educated to think him readable, & really do think him so. The same prejudice of education in favor of some other passé authors” [MTNJ 2: 489].

June 1 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the son of the late Dr. John Brown, John Jr., nicknamed “Jock.” The Clemens family offered condolences. Sam asked for a picture of Dr. Brown.

“I was three thousand miles from home, at breakfast in New Orleans, when the damp morning paper revealed the sorrowful news among the cable dispatches” [MTNJ 2: 500n223]

Sam also typed a letter to the Gerhardts. It is a friendly letter about finances, complimenting them on how “cautious and careful” they were in expenses, and reacting to a drawing sent of a proposed sculpture,

FROM THE DRAWING SENT, I SHOULD SAY KARL’S GROUP PROMISED TO BE VERY BEAUTIFUL; BUT HE MUST NOT EXPECT INTELLIGENT CRITICISM OR SUGGESTIONS FROM US, BECAUSE IF ANY OCCURRED TO US WE SHOULD NOT HAVE THE EFFRONTERY TO GIVE THEM VOICE. WE DO NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SCULPTURE, YET AT THE SAME TIME WE DO NOT WISH TO EXPOSE THE FULL SIZE OF OUR IGNORANCE BY PUTTING IT ON PAPER [MTP].

June 2 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam about possible hires and the return of Clarence E. Buckland (1851-1905), whom he thought unsuitable, too slow, and an instigator among the men to organize [MTP].

June 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood.

“Have written to ask Spofford [Librarian of Congress] if my copyright is perfect on my several books.”

Sam needed to know if any of his copyrights were faulty, as he considered a Chicago lawsuit against Belford and Clarke on the Sketches, New and Old (1875).

“There must be copyrighted articles in that pirated volume of Sketches—for some of them must have appeared in the Atlantic or Galaxy. I could tell if I had the book [the pirated edition]—and if proving that would answer our needs” [MTLTP 156].

Sam also wrote to Charles Webster.

I return Buckland’s letters unread—I don’t feel interest enough to read them. He is well got rid of.

You are right, as to Dennison, I judge [See May 29 letter to Webster].

The more I think of Ahern’s bill [plumber] the more it enrages me [MTP].

June 4 Sunday – Clarence E. Buckland wrote from Wash. DC to Sam, convinced that “my break with the Kaolatype Eng. Co. was the result of a conspiracy hatched in the fertile brain of Mr. F.C. Raubs.” He’d apologized to Webster for the way he left the firm and agreed upon a contract to work for $24 a month [MTP]. Note: Frank C. Raubs.

Charles Webster wrote to Sam: “Enclosed please find the Am. Bank Note Stock Certif.” His grandma was on her last leg. Their company funds were “holding out.” He hadn’t heard from Osgood. “What did you decide about the pictures for your new book?” [MTP].

June 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster about the Bierstadt Artotype business. He wanted Charles to look into it and see if it was worth investment [MTBus 186].

Sam also wrote to William M. Laffan, letter not extant but referred to in Laffan’s June 7 reply.

James R. Osgood wrote to Sam (Chatto & Windus to Osgood May 25 enclosed): “Yours of 3d received. We cabled Chatto on Saturday: meantime this morning arrives this letter….which sets things all right” [MTP].

John L. RoBards wrote to Sam, clippings enclosed from 5? June 1882 Hannibal Courier, containing the “Unwritten History” of Twain’s “Boyhood Days”. RoBards wrote: “The surprising contents of the inclosed clipping…will inform you of my reason for sending it.” Clemens was portrayed as “indifferent to family feeling”; RoBards had talked with the writer Reavis to correct this impression, and, regretfully shared a letter of Twain’s as well as pointing out the slab over Henry Clemens’ grave. He complimented P&P [MTP].

June 6 Tuesday – S.J. Ahern, ed. wrote a postcard from St. Paul, Minn. to Sam: “Come back. The circus is in town…” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote (twice) to Sam on various business matters, included correspondence with James Ahern, Hartford plumber. Clarence E. Buckland had asked to be taken back, but “he has lost his place.” In the second, “I have just seen Mr Shepard of the Am. Bank Note Co.,” who corrected a stock price; Webster advised Sam to take the stock at the corrected price [MTP].

William M. Laffan wrote to Sam having rec’d his of June 5 (not extant). He replied that the artist Edwin A. Abbey was in Europe and Smith was not available. “I would like to come up and make the sketches myself,” then send them to Abbey “to draw for ‘process’ abroad” [MTP]. Note: Laffan also mentions telegraphing “this evening.”

June 8 Thursday – Clara Clemens’ eighth birthday was celebrated with a party for 67 children at the Farmington Avenue house. In his notebook, Sam entered: “Osgood get a Longfellow for Clara’s birthday” [2: 460]. Longfellow died on Mar. 24; soon after, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. published a volume of his works. Sam believed Jean picked up scarlet fever at the party [MTNJ 2: 487n186].

Sam inscribed The Stolen White Elephant to Clara Clemens: “To / Clara Langdon Clemens / from / Papa / Hartford, June 8, 1882” [MTP]. Note: the first copy of the book which would issue from the press on June 10.

Orion Clemens wrote from Fredonia: “Ma is most well. Glory for Dr. Moore! She has had no more spasms” [MTP].

June 9 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote from Fredonia: “When your dispatch came this afternoon I told Ma I had received a dispatch from you, in which you sent the love of all that family, and wishes to be kept informed. She was much affected”[MTP].

William M. Laffan for Harper & Bros. Wrote: “Dear Clemens: / If it will suit you I can come up on the newspaper train Tuesday a.m. which will give me all day” [MTP].

June 10 Saturday – The official issue date of The Stolen White Elephant.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, asking for copies of the London periodical Tom Hood’s Comic Annual for 1873, 1874, and 1875. Sam’s article, “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel” ran in the 1873 volume; and the 1874 issue ran a version of his sketch “Jim Wolf and the Cats” [MTNJ 2: 485n179].

Sam also typed a letter to John L. RoBards, his old Marion Ranger friend:

“DEAR JOHN:—DON’T WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING THE NEWSPAPERS SAY LIFE IS TOO SHORT FOR THAT. AS LONG AS THE NEWS-PAPERS REFRAIN FROM TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT ME, I HAVE NO FAULT TO FIND WITH THEIR STATEMENTS” [MTP].

The Chicago Tribune was among the first to review A Stolen White Elephant and other Detective Stories:

Lt. Andrew Goodrich Hammond wrote from Mayer’s Spring, Tex. to Sam: “Please accept my heartiest thanks for your photograph which has just been forwarded me from Lt. Clark …We have been in camp now for six weeks looking for Indians, but I think the Mexican troops have spared us the trouble & killed them all…” [MTP].

June 11 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:

“I wish you would set a cheap expert to work to collect local histories of Mississippi towns & a lot of other books relating to the river for me.

“Meantime all those people who promised to send such things to us ain’t doing it, dern them” [MTP].

Joel Chandler Harris’ unsigned review of The Stolen White Elephant ran in the Atlanta Constitution, p. 4, cols. 2-3 [Griska 585; Budd, Reviews 219-20]. Remarking that this was “the first book which Mr. Clemens has entrusted to the regular channels of the book trade, the only one which may be bought of any bookseller who may desire to keep it in stock,” Harris went on to praise the story for which the volume of sketches was named, and to offer a Howells-like analysis of Sam’s approach to humor:

Orion Clemens wrote a follow up progress report on Ma’s condition, which was good now and her mind clear [MTP].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to Sam, homesick for “northern air.” She thanked Livy for the catalog sent (see May 7) and expected to draw on Sam for $25 for the next term of her medical studies. Evidently she planned on going to Elmira for she wanted to know when Sam would be there for a visit [MTP].

June 12 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Charles Webster, advising him to send the “Bank Note Certif.,” so he might put it in the safe with his other securities. “I need no more investments, now—bought a lot of Adams Express stock to-day & exhausted our pile” [MTP].

Two copies of The Stolen White Elephant were placed with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

June 12–15 Thursday – Sometime during this period, Sam and Livy traveled to Boston for a quick visit with the Howells and their close neighbors, the Fairchilds. In a letter of May 30, Howells had urged them to come for a visit “next Wednesday” or June 7, but with Clara’s large planned birthday celebration on June 8, it’s likely the trip was put off a few days, and this period was the only open one before Sam’s June 16 letter remarking of Livy’s “strong liking” for Colonel Fairchild [MTHL 1: 405]. See June 20 letter to Howells.

June 13 Tuesday – A.V.S. Anthony of Osgood & Co. wrote a list of comparisons between some illustrations for LM made with Kaolatype and those by Moss Engineering Co. [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Comparison of Kaolatype & Moss Eng. Doom of Kaolatype”

James R. Osgood wrote to Sam (Simon Sterne to Osgood June 12 enclosed) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Sterne’s report on my trade-mark case.”

June 14 Wednesday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam & Livy. He’d rec’d the letter of credit for 100 pounds. He also told of Mr. Elnell arriving and now they were “best of friends”. He told of their art progress, his sculpting and her drawing [MTP]. 

Edward T. Potter wrote to ask Sam what he should do with the $800 check. He wanted to pay Thorp the $300 he felt due him “& return you the balance” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”

Christian Tauchnitz, Jr. wrote to ask if they might publish The Stolen White Elephant in their Continental Edition [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Tauchnitz Jr / About Elephant”

Orion wrote from Fredonia that “Ma continues to mend.” He reported she often did not sleep at night, and the doctor, Mrs. London, recommended he not sleep in her room [MTP].

June 15 Thursday – From Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Charles Webster about pictures done by the Moss Engineering Co. (possibly for LM); about Osgood buying a shop; about the Bank Note stock certificate arriving safely; and about another letter received from Clarence E. Buckland that Sam referred to Webster [MTP].

William D. Howells wrote from Belmont to Sam: “Please pass this on to the editor of the Century, after you have corrected the errors of fact and judgment in it / Yours ever…” [MTP]. Note: one of Howells’ literary pieces (not in MTHL).

June 16 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, who was making ready to travel to Europe.

We leave here the 22d, D.V., —for Mrs. Clemens never alters a schedule: once decided, always decided, with her. Pity we can’t see you folks again, but evidently these families are too busy with journey-preparations to allow of any present visitings.

I don’t think I ever knew Mrs. Clemens to take such a strong liking for anybody on a first acquaintance as she took to Col. Fairchild…[MTHL 1: 405].

June 17 Saturday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Charles Webster about buying stock for him [MTP].

A brief description of The Stolen White Elephant appeared in the “Minor Notices” of Critic [Tenney 11].

Charles S. Fairchild wrote a notecard from Boston, hoping Sam & Livy would “review your decision and still find it possible to join us the 22^nd” [MTP].

William M. Laffan for Harper & Bros. wrote to Sam: “One thing I forgot wholly and that was to ask you what amount of dross you wanted for ‘Me W. and the B.A.’ Drop me a line so that I may notify the authorities duly”. Then some details of delayed telegrams, etc. [MTP]. Note: the reference to “The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm.” See June 20 to Howells.

Bruce W. Munro wrote from Newcastle, Ont. sending a chapter of his book—did it have any merit? [MTP]. Note: he wrote the same letter in French on June 19.

June 18 Sunday ca. – The famous four-generations picture was taken in New York on or about this day, Jane Clemens’ 79^th birthday: Jane, daughter Pamela Moffett, granddaughter Annie Moffett Webster, gr-granddaughter Jean Webster (See Webster, p. 193).

June 19 Monday – Sam entertained James R. Osgood at his Hartford home and “had a pleasant talk bout our trip & all…[the] charming people” he’d met [June 20 letter to Cable, MTP].

Frank H. Hooker for Hooker & Co., Carriages, N. Haven wrote to Sam, “sorry to have missed your call this morning.” He wrote that Sam “have some Hartford maker try to fix this up,” but felt they could do a better job of it. He advised on how to ship the carriage [MTP]. Note: this likely a telephone call.

June 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles W. Fairchild, Howells’ friend and neighbor in Belmont and brother of Lucius Fairchild. Charles had invited Sam to a farewell dinner for James R. Osgood, who was leaving for Europe. Sam decided not to go because the banquet was the same day the family had planned to remove to Elmira. The illnesses in the family no doubt also played a part in his declining the invitation. He sent his apologies [MTNJ 2: 487n191].

Would I go to a farewell feed whose object was to get rid of old Osgood, that majestic accumulation of iniquity? You bet you! By George I would walk to such a banquet rather than miss it. But you see, I am anchored here for the summer, 510 miles from Boston, & so long a journey, in this weather, would kill me…[MTP].

Sam also wrote to Howells (typewritten letter):

After infinite labor and fatigue, Mrs. Clemens has got her menagerie ready to move, but now we are brought to a halt by Jean’s illness. She has had hoarseness and a pretty sick time of it in one way or another, during the past four or five days, and now a rash has broken out on her which the doctor is not willing to say is not scarlet fever. So we shall stay still and wait a day or two, and then go or stay according to results.

Sam offered to advance $3,000 to Howells on the “Encyclopedia of Humor” project. He also spoke of the recent visit to Belmont:

I not only had a prodigiously good time at your house, but as usual I brought away some material results. I wrote an article for the Tile Club [“The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm”] which would never have been written if I had not gone to Belmont. I always make expenses, and a hundred dollars or so besides out of a visit to you. Yours as ever, Mark [MTHL 1: 406]. Note: This piece ran in the Harper’s Christmas Supplement, 1882.

Sam also wrote to George W. Cable. Sam’s plans for a traveling lecture “menagerie” had to be postponed:

Both Howells & Aldrich are to be absent a long time in Europe; & then Uncle Remus vanished southward again, without giving us a chance—according to agreement—to try the strength of his voice in some empty Boston hall. I suppose that if we ever do get the menagerie on its feet we can’t hope to have Remus [Joel Chandler Harris], because he evidently can’t conquer his diffidence. …

Our packing is all finished, to-day, & a special car engaged to transport out family to Elmira N.Y. for the summer—but now a horrible rash appears upon the body of the baby!—& there is much scarlet fever in the town [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam, more about purchasing stock for him, and also about Osgood coming in for a talk [MTP].

June 21 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook:

“June 21—Crane We should be delighted to see any one of you here, but as the children have been exposed we don’t dare move them” [MTNJ 2: 497]. Note: No letter survives with this date or message. Possibly Sam wrote the note to include in a letter or telegram which no longer exists, or was never sent.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster:

“We were to leave for Elmira tomorrow, but Jean developed scarlatina this morning. She is not very sick, but we shall remain here at least a week longer” [MTBus 188]. Note: scarlatina, an older name for scarlet fever.

Sam also wrote to Delaware, Lackawanna R.R. to obtain a hotel car, letter not extant but referred to in the R.R.’s June 26 reply.

Rev. J. Chester for Lincoln University visited Clemens to ask him to support a colored college student, to be chosen by the school staff [Chester to Clemens Aug. 16].

George C. Blanchard wrote from NYC to beg for a $40 loan from Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Blanchard (a no-account.)”

June, after 21st and July – Just when the Clemens family was about to make their annual retreat to Elmira on June 22, Jean came down with the dreaded scarlet fever on June 21. The disease ran rampant around Hartford. Even their servant Patrick McAleer’s child contracted the disease and was rendered deaf [A. Hoffman 297]. Trunks were unpacked. Sam and Livy kept Jean away from Susy and Clara, but on June 22 (see letter to Howells) Susy came down with a high fever, though it proved not to be scarlet fever. Faced with the stress of two seriously ill children, Sam broke down with lumbago and a slight fever of his own [Kaplan 247]. The house had become a hospital ward and the trip to Elmira postponed about a month. The only defense against scarlet fever before antibiotics was hygiene and quarantine.

June 22 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. After reading the July installment of Howells’ A Modern Instance in the Century Magazine, Sam gushed:

I am in a state of wild enthusiasm over…your story. It’s perfectly dazzling—it’s masterly—incomparable. Yet I heard you read it—without losing my balance. Well, the difference between your reading & your writing is—remarkable—I mean, in the effects produced & the impressions left behind. Why, the one is to the other as is one of Joe Twichell’s booming yarns repeated by a somnambulist.

Sam added in the evening that “Susie is stricken—& savagely—with this dire scarlet fever” [MTHL 1: 407-8]. (Her ailment turned out to be something less serious.)

June 23 Friday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam:

I hope all fear of scarlet fever in the case of your little ones is past, and that you soon will be on your hill-top at Elmira….A composer [George Henschel] who can get the Ideals to produce his opera wants me to write his libretto. Will you kindly let me know just what terms you made with Raymond for production of Col. Sellers? [MTHL 1: 409].

Sam wrote from Hartford to Jack (no last name) who had sent turtles to Susy and Clara Clemens.

“Both of the creatures have just now been baptised, & duly outfitted with the designations suited to their dignity & general dimensions: Clara has named her turtle Alexander Hamilton; Susie names hers the Duchess of Marlborough. If the twins survive these names I reckon they will pull through all right” [MTP].

June 24 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam having rec’d his (no date specified). “I hope Jean is not going to have a hard time of it.” Also a request for $1000 and some expenses listed [MTP].

Alex Wilkin, Jr. wrote from Balsam Ontario, Canada to Sam. “I received your card and was greatly flattered with it indeed it had gone quite out of my mind that I had ever written you.” The rest of the four pages is a long, rambling pile of verbiage about ambition, imagination and his lack thereof. He only asks that Clemens answer this letter [MTP].

June 25 or June 26 Monday – In Belmont, Howells wrote a short note to Sam, saying “Hurrah” for the fact that Sam’s children were well at last; and asking if Sam had sent on his “Mark Twain biography” to the Century Magazine. Howells ended with “We are off to-morrow. Good bye”—leaving for Toronto and then Europe” [MTHL 1: 409-10].

June 26 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Charles Webster, “From force of habit” Sam had sent a check for $500 instead of $1,000. “The child is doing first rate, at present” [MTP].

Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “I wish you would set me at work soliciting orders for the Kaolatype in some city.” A long letter of various topics, typical of Orion [MTP].

E.R. Holden for Delaware, Lackawanna R.R. wrote to Sam, having rec’d his of the 21^st. If Sam wanted to telegraph for a hotel car he was to send to A. Reasoner, Supt. Hoboken, since Holden was going on vacation [MTP]. Note: Sam’s not extant.

June 28 Wednesday – Charles Webster reported to Sam that Frank Bliss had agreed to allow an auditor to examine the records of the American Publishing Co. Sam felt he’d been cheated out of thousands by inaccurate reporting of book sales [MTNJ 2: 496n209].

Charles Webster wrote to Sam “glad to hear that Jean is better.” He settled for $500 from Sam for Co. expenses. He wrote about making Bliss mad, refusing to send a statement, telling Webster if he wanted on to come up and the books were open. “I think now we will bring this matter to a head soon & know where the leak is & see if we can get the books away from him” [MTP]. Note: it had been Clemens’ plan for some time to wrest the rights to his old books from the Am. Pub. Co.

June 29 Thursday – George W. Cable wrote to Sam: “Your letter of 20th keeps me anxious. Is it scarlet fever or is it prickly heat. The white elephant was rec’d by us through the mail—many thanks. I took it with me on the cars on my way to Oxford, Miss. day before yesterday and read it with laughter and prolonged applause.” He related the success of his “annual oration” in Oxford [MTP; Cardwell 83].

Orion Clemens wrote from Fredonia to Sam, with a break down of his and Mollie’s expenses [MTP].

June 30 Friday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy about a dinner enjoyed though he was intimidated somewhat by men of “world wide fame.” More on his art progress [MTP].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to Sam: “I wrote to you three weeks ago—telling you how homesick I was, and asking you to please advance $25.00 to enable me to come north for a rest.” She thought the letter had gone astray so was asking again [MTP]. Note: more likely than the letter going astray was Sam simply ignoring it. He’d agreed to support Kate in her medical training but not to finance her trips north. Her continual remonstrances with Clemens for funds seems to support Joe Goodman’s use of the term “succubus” for her.

Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with a July balance of $3,112.54 [MTP].

July – Sam inscribed P&P to Ellen C. Taft, wife of Dr. Cincinnatus A. Taft: “This is the book which I had intended to give my friend Mrs. Taft, but the book agent arrived first. / S.L. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / Hartford July 1882” [MTP].

Sam also inscribed The Stolen White Elephant to Harriet E. Whitmore: “Mrs. F. G. Whitmore / With the friendliest regards of The Author. July 1882” [MTP].

July 2 Sunday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, clipping enclosed listing Karl as “Mentions honorables” for the Beau-Arts, Lettres school. Hattie told about the dinner to M. Jouffroy that they’d attended [MTP]. Note: François Jouffroy (1806–1882) was a French sculptor and teacher at the school Gerhardt attended but he died on June 25. M. Jouffroy was likely “Monsieur Jouffroy.”