March 11 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, again about the up-coming hearings and the trip to Washington.
I’m ashamed to have put you to all that trouble for nothing. As I was very anxious to get the best quarters I could for Mrs. Clemens, I set several schemes to work, & the result is, I have secured a first rate parlor bedroom & bath room (connecting,) at the Arlington.
In the evening Sam went to a dinner honoring English actor Henry Irving at Charles A. Dana’s (N.Y. Sun). Irving and his troupe were appearing at the Star Theatre [MTNJ 3: 379, 376n246]. Sam would regret going to this dinner instead of returning to Hartford.
March 11 Sunday through March 14 Wednesday –
The Blizzard of 1888
The Blizzard of 1888 hit the northeastern United States with a fierce intensity that etched itself into people’s memories. An unrelenting fury of heavy snows, bitter cold, and high winds pounded the region from Washington, D.C., to the Canadian border in a storm that lasted for three days in mid-March. The storm took people by surprise, and many were unprepared for the resulting isolation and destruction. Snow was measured in Connecticut between twenty and fifty inches, but high winds caused snowdrifts up to twenty feet in several areas. In one twenty-four hour period, thirty-one inches of snow fell in New Haven with forty-five inches as the total by the end of the storm. Railroad service was halted, businesses had to shut down, and citizens of the state were imprisoned in their homes while the storm raged. It took days for many to dig themselves out. Over 400 people across the east coast died in the storm, and damage was estimated at $20 million. http://www.cthistoryonline.org
THE NEW YORK TIMES · TUESDAY MARCH 13TH, 1888
IN A BLIZZARD’S GRASP.
The worst storm the city has ever known.
Business travel completely suspended.
New York helpless in a tornado of wind and snow which paralyzed all industry, isolated the city from the rest of the country, caused many accidents and great discomfort, and exposed it to many dangers.
The storm of wind and rain, which began to sweep over this city and the neighborhood on Sunday evening, gathered force as the night progressed. The temperature began to fall albeit and snow descended in succession and the wind be-came boisterous. Before daylight dawned yesterday a remarkable storm, the most annoying and detrimental in its results that the city has ever witnessed, was in full progress
Editor’s Personal Aside: In 1963 I had occasion to listen to my soon-to-be wife’s grandfather, A. Dill, then in his 90s, and a longtime resident of Connecticut, tell about the Great Blizzard of ’88. Snow to the rooftops, all commerce halted, people stranded for days. He told the story many times, so well I always felt chilled hearing it – DHF –
Henry Reeve wrote from St. Lucia, West Indies to Sam with a bad poem enclosed [MTP].
L.. Loisette for Loisettian School wrote to Sam that the time was short to change every advertisement (to remove Sam’s name) but that he “hoped to succeed before the limit arrives,” implying that Sam had imposed a time limit to do so [MTP].
Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam asking for employment for the son of a friend [MTP].