April 28 Friday – The Fieldses, guests at the Clemens’ home, spent most of the day with Sam and Livy. Susy was ill again, with a touch of diphtheria. From Annie Fields’ diary:
Their two beautiful baby girls came to pass an hour with us after breakfast—exquisite, affectionate children, the very fountain of joy to their interesting parents.
When I did get to the drawing room, however, I found Mr. Clemens alone. He greeted me apparently as cheerfully as ever, and it was not until some moments had passed that he told me they had a very sick child upstairs. From that instant I saw, especially after his wife came in, that they could think of nothing else. They were half-distracted with anxiety. Their messenger could not find the doctor, which made matters worse. However, the little girl did not really seem very sick, so I could not help thinking they were unnecessarily excited. The effect on them, however, was just as bad as if the child were really very ill.
The messenger was hardly dispatched the second time before Jamie [James Fields] and Mrs. Clemens began to talk of our getting away in the next train, whereat he (Mr. C.) said to his wife, “Why didn’t you tell me of that?” etc., etc. …He was always bringing blood to his wife’s face by his bad behavior, and here this morning had said such things about that carriage! [Salsbury 51-3].
Sam wrote from Hartford to William B. Franklin (1823-1903), enclosing a letter from H.B. Langdon (no relation to his wife’s family) objecting to Sam’s use of the word “damned” in the play, The Loan of a Lover. Franklin, a Civil War general in the Union Army, had since been general manager of the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company and vice president of a Hartford insurance company.
Dear General: —They say that this pilgrim (who is a stranger to me,) works for you in your insurance Company. Do you know him? Is he in earnest?—or is he merely ill-bred enough to venture upon facetious impertinences with people who have not the humiliation of his acquaintance, under the delusion that he is conveying a gratification? This mess of pious “rot” was handed to Dr. Wainwright early yesterday evening with the earnest request that I should read it before going on the stage—a request which I didn’t comply with, I being too wise for that [MTLE 1: 51]. Note: Dr. W.A.M. Wainwright.
In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, thanking him for pictures sent. “Never mind about Tom Sawyer,” Howells said, referring to Sam’s upset about the review long preceding the issuance of the book. “I rather like the fun of the thing; besides I know I shall do you an injury some day, and I want a grievance to square accounts with” [MTHL 1: 134].