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.