September 21 Wednesday – The Clemens family checked into the Gilsey House (see Sept. 17 to Webster). They spent “a day or two” in New York. Their stay was spent looking after the Kaolatype business and arranging for the redecoration of the Farmington Avenue house, which had been under renovation since March [MTNJ 2: 399n148].
New York weather: 73 to 62 degrees F. No precipitation [NOAA.gov].
September 22–23 Friday – The Clemens family returned to Hartford, where they found the house in disarray:
September 23 Friday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote again to Sam and Livy about details of their artwork and their life in Paris [MTP].
Charles Webster to Sam: “I delay writing to Nealy for fear of stirring up Joyce & Goff it seems to me on reflection that we want to buy them out on K. & English patent before we seem to enlarge by employing Nealy.” Two pages on Kaolatype details [MTP].
September 24 Saturday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers wrote to advise selling 100 shares of Omaha Common at $45 [MTP].
September 28 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich for Atlantic Monthly wrote to Sam: “I have just rec’d a telegram message from that girl in Chattanooga. She says it was a shame to inflict the death penalty on [illegible word], as he only outraged her in the ‘second degree.’…Did the typhoon and the maelstrom hit you the other day?” [MTP].
September 29 Thursday – Moncure Conway wrote to Clemens that he had a statement from Chatto & Windus of Sam’s account up to July 1 [MTP].
James R. Osgood wrote to Clemens, clarifying many points on Canadian copyright law and advising it would be necessary for Clemens to go to Canada “four or five days preceding and four or five days following the date of publication” [MTP].
September 30 Friday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement showing a credit balance to Oct. 1 of $13,679.32 [MTP].
October – On a Saturday, Sam spoke on “mental telegraphy” as a guest of William D. Whitney, a Yale professor, at Whitney’s home in New Haven. Sam gave his talk at a meeting of the New Haven Saturday Morning Club, a young ladies’ social and cultural group much like Hartford’s. Whitney’s daughter, Marian, was twenty [MTNJ 2: 359n12].
October 1 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, “working steadily on my revising.” He noted Sam was no longer writing for the Atlantic. He was going to subscribe to Scribner’s [MTP].
October 2 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster, mentioning his hope of interesting William W. Ellsworth of Scribner’s in the Kaolatype engraving process. Ellsworth was “the nephew of the business manager & chief owner of Scribner’s” and would become head manager of the Century magazine in 1882 [MTNJ 2: 358n5; MTP].
October 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, announcing they had all reached home and were living in a couple of rooms while the workmen finished remodeling.
“O never revamp a house! Leave it just as it was, & then you can economise in profanity” [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: entries for amounts due, deposits made with his banker, Bissell & Co. [MTNJ 2: 401].
October 5 Wednesday – Sam was well acquainted with frustration from contractors. In his notebook:
“Sent Patrick for Ahern 10 days ago.— He didn’t come. Sent for him yesterday by Dr Hooker, to mend up a hot water leak & other things. He didn’t come. Sent for Robt. Garvie this morning, the necessity being pressing. He came, & did the work” [MTNJ 2: 401-2].
October 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisabeth Fairchild, wife of Charles Fairchild, neighbors of the Howellses in Belmont, Mass. A dog of Sam’s had been killed, perhaps chasing a carriage or a horse. The dog was named Rab, after Dr. John Brown’s famous book. Another “pup of Rab’s exact breed” was wanted.
October 7 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. He acknowledged payment of £874.16.9 from Moncure Conway, for which he sent thanks. This amount was for A Tramp Abroad royalties [MTNJ 2: 401n157]. Sam added:
October 8 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House, seeking another visit from him and his daughter Koto, as long as he could get rid of the plumbers, carpenters and decorators by the first of November [MTP].
Sam’s Oct. 2? letter to W.H. Lentz was paraphrased and quoted in the Honolulu Saturday Press [MTP].
October 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt (see also Sept. 22-23 entry).
October 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, again about getting “Dean” and about designs for P&P [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Oct. 9 of Stephen C. Massett, with an apology for his last note (see Oct. 7 letter).
October 11 Tuesday – Thomas Fitch wrote from Tombstone, Ariz. to Sam: “The republication of the enclosed by a Bodic [?] paper has so flattered my vanity as to make me think it possible it might survive the ocean of arbitrary eloquence with which the land has been deluged, & find presentation in the columns of some eastern paper.” He asked Sam to send a clipping should he see same [MTP]. Note in file: “See SLC to John C. Kenney, 25 Oct. 1881.
October 12 Wednesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, sending some pages of P&P with his questions inserted while reading the work for review.
October 13 Thursday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote a follow up of his Oct. 12. He hoped Sam wouldn’t think he was “meddling,” but marked some passages of P&P that he didn’t “think are fit to go into a book for boys,” that the picture Sam created “doesn’t gain strength” from them [MTHL 1: 376]
October 14 Friday – Sam and Joe Twichell walked out to Talcott’s Tower, a wooden structure about five miles outside of Hartford. Sam related their talk in a letter to Howells the next day:
October 15 Saturday – Sam’s July 24 letter to the Australian public, ran in the Adelaide Observer (see July 24 entry).
Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, that “his entire day” had:
…gone to the devil with answering letters…send us another sack of those big hickory nuts, like those that came a year or so ago [MTP]
October 16 Sunday – Kate (Kitty) D. Barstow (Mrs. William H. Barstow) wrote from Washington to Sam, who had not heard from her since she “suddenly disappeared from our sky” back in 1870, owing $157.40 for unpaid copies of IA. At that time Sam recommended her to Bliss as an agent for the sale of his books; ultimately he had to reimburse Bliss.
October 17 Monday – Hartford Probate Court sent Sam a printed announcement postcard on the estate of John S. Ives [MTP]
October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. All of Sam’s prior investment losses in inventions would pale next to the Paige typesetter debacle, which he wrote about:
Mr. Wm. Hammersley, [Hamersley] our City Attorney, will call on you at your Engraving office, at 10 o’clock Thursday morning.