From March to October of 1871, the Clemens family stayed at the Langdon home in Elmira. Sam would spend days working on his "Roughing It" manuscript at Quarry farm while Livy and their son Langdon recuperated at home. During this period Sam also traveled quite a bit to New York City, Buffalo and Hartford as well as Washington DC. The family relocated to Hartford in October of 1871.
Mark Twain's less than successful "Three Speeches Tour" went from October of 1871 through February of 1872. Scharhorst writes (page 38 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891):
During this final week in February the Clemenses were visited by Joe Goodman and his wife, who were passing through Hartford en route back to the West. Goodman remembered later that Sam’s manners had reverted to normal in the year since they had met in Buffalo. Thomas Wentworth Higginson had dined with the Clemenses at the Hooker home soon after they settled in Hartford and “heard him say grace at table,” which “was like asking a blessing over Ethiopian minstrels. But he had no wine at his table and that seemed to make the grace a genuine thing.” When Goodman saw him in Hartford, however, Sam no longer asked Livy “for permission to smuggle whisky” into the house. Instead,
It stood on the sideboard as boldly as in a bar room. And when we sat down at table and I bowed my head in silence, there was no blessing forthcoming, I sought the first opportunity to inquire of Mark what the omission meant. He said he had tried his best to keep up the practice of saying grace to please his wife, but that it had come to seem too much like mockery to him, and he had asked her to relieve him from playing the part of a hypocrite, and she had agreed it was probably as well that he should, and so they had dropped it.
Wed, 02/21/1872 - Wed, 08/21/1872:
“Tuesday’s child is full of grace,” goes the old verse, and on this Tuesday the most graceful of Sam’s children was born at Quarry Farm. Olivia Susan Clemens, known as “Susy,” was named for her grandmother, Olivia Lewis Langdon, and her aunt, Susan Langdon Crane. The baby girl appeared healthy and hearty, unlike Langdon, but was probably also somewhat premature at a tiny five pounds [Powers, MT A Life 318].
Sam was in Elmira March 18, 1872 as per telegram to WD Howells: Mark Twain-Howells Letters pg 9 but in Hartford on June 15th (pg 10 & 11)
September - November 1872: Twain's plan ..."was to travel through various parts of the British Isles to collect material for a book that would do for that country what Innocents Abroad had done for Europe and the Holy Land. A second objective was to secure a British copyright for Roughing It."
"He arrived in England in early September, and from that time until November 12, when he returned home, he was so frequently entertained by the literary and civic leaders of London that he scarcely had time for anything else."
From CHRONOLOGY OF KNOWN MARK TWAIN SPEECHES, PUBLIC READINGS, AND LECTURES
September 6 - Whitefriars Club, London, England - Dinner Speech.
Published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 72-73.
September 21 - Savage Club, London, England - Dinner Speech
Published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 69-71.
September 28 Sheriffs Dinner, Guildhall, London - Response to a toast "Success to Literature" - text not available
The dinner was given by the new sheriffs of London to the city guilds and liverymen. When one of the sheriffs proposed the health of Mark Twain, he was applauded, then responded to the toast. The London Times, September 30, 1872, called it "an amusing speech." See Love Letters of Mark Twain, edited by Dixon Wecter (Harper & Bros., 1949), pp.178-79.
Back in Hartford:
From CHRONOLOGY OF KNOWN MARK TWAIN SPEECHES, PUBLIC READINGS, AND LECTURES
January 31 - Benefit for Father Hawley, Allyn Hall, Hartford, Connecticut - "Sandwich Islands"
In a letter to the Hartford Courant, January 29, 1873, Mark Twain said that charity is "a dignified and respectworthy thing, and there is small merit about it and less grace when it don't cost anything. We would like to have a thousand dollars in the house; we point to the snow and the thermometer; we call Hartford by name, and we are not much afraid but that she will step to the front and answer for herself.... I am thoroughly and cheerfully willing to lecture here for such an object, though I would have serious objections to talking in my own town for the benefit of my own pocket--we freebooters of the platform consider it more graceful to fly the black flag in strange waters and prey upon remote and friendless communities." All services having been donated, the benefit netted $1,500 for Father Hawley.
One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 4-15.
February 1 - Lotos Club, New York City - Speech
Remarks summarized in Mark Twain's Letters, Vol. 5, p. 292 which references text from John Elderkin, A Brief History of the Lotos Club (New York: Club House, 1895), pp. 15-16 for a page summary.
February 5 - Steinway Hall, New York City - "Sandwich Islands"
One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 4-15.
Review in The New York Times.
February 7 - Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York - "Sandwich Islands"
One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 4-15.
February 10 - Steinway Hall, New York City - "Sandwich Islands"
One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 4-15.
February 13 - Jersey City, New Jersey - "Sandwich Islands"
One version of this speech is published in Mark Twain Speaking, pp. 4-15.
Mentioned in Mark Twain's Letters, Vol. 5, p. 295.
March 31 - Monday Evening Club, Hartford, Connecticut - "License of the Press"
Published in Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches, & Essays, edited by Louis J. Budd, (Library of America: 1992), pp. 551-555.
June - October 1873: "By early June the Clemenses were in London, comfortably housed in the Langham Hotel, Portland Place and Regent Street, where their apartment soon became a gathering place for London's literary notables, During July and August they toured Scotland and Ireland. Then, in September, after two weeks of busy sightseeing and shopping in Paris, they returned again to their rooms at the Langham." (Lorch pg 137)
October, 1873 - January 1874: "After only six days in the United States Mark Twain returned alone to London, arriving there about November 20, and again took up residence at the Langham." (Lorch pg 143).
He returned to Boston January 26th and Hartford the next day.