April 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frances A. Cox. Sam thanked her again for the portrait of “Mammy” –“the lovely & lovable black face, heart of gold in ebony casket.” Sam also wrote that this reading was:
“…a splendid triumph. [Cable] read Parson Jones, & carried his house by storm. He will read that & some other good selections to-night [Apr. 6] before a company at Charles Warner’s & will score another triumph, & go forth from Hartford with banners flying & drums beating, an acknowledged conqueror” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood. Sam told of Cable’s “rattling victory” at the young girls’ club—“They have made it the talk of Hartford.” Sam was “uneasy & bothered” about Livy’s weakened condition since her bout with tonsillitis [MTP].
Clemens also sent a telegram to Francis Hopkinson Smith, in N.Y.C.
“Lovinge Greeting to ye tillers and I wolde surely come but that sundry of my tribe do languish under the hand of the medicine man [.] fill high the Vedder. SL Clemens”[Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Elihu Vedder Papers, Reel 518 Frame 1566].
Notes: Sam was unable to attend a dinner given by the Tile Club for Elihu Vedder, who was to sail the next week to Rome. The New York Times reported the Apr. 6 dinner on Apr. 7, and quoted Sam’s telegram in “A Dinner to Elihu Vedder.” On May 7, 1884, just over a year later, the Tile Club gave an exhibition of “a remarkable collection of pictures just completed by Mr. Elihu Vedder,” after what had been reported as a mysterious disappearance by Vedder. The 50-some pictures were to be illustrations for a large volume edition of the Rubaiyat by Omar Khayam, published by Houghton Mifflin & Co. [The Literary World May 17, 1884, p.170].
Sam also wrote to George E. Waring Jr. Sam blundered by inviting Waring to visit the family in Elmira at Quarry Farm in the summer, since “it takes every bed in the house to hold our gang.” The solution was to have him stay with Mrs. Langdon in town and Sam would “fetch” him “up, mornings & tote” him” back evenings, & insure …a perfectly lovely time…Will you forgive the blunderer?” Sam again raved about Cable’s talks [MTP].
Cable attended church services with the Bartletts and “heard a few tolerably good remarks from Dr. Parker & then some of the rambling stuff from a rev’d friend of his.” He stopped by Sam’s and gave him a letter from Mary Bartlett (Susy’s piano teacher [MTNJ 2: 397n141]). After putting up with a pun from Sam (a rather rare thing for which Sam abjectly “groveled”), Cable wrote his wife of the day’s events [Turner, MT & GWC 19].
In the evening Cable gave a private reading for the Warners and their guests, 55 in all. Sam stayed home with a sick Livy, but “others of the household” attended, likely the older girls and/or servants [20].
A check for $99.50 from J.C. Kinney to Sam, drawn on Hartford Trust Co., endorsed “pay to the order of Geo. W. Cable, esq” signed by each [MTP]. Note: John C. Kinney was an editor on the Hartford Courant.