March 2 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote a two-sentence note to Frederick J. Hall. They’d received the check for £102.5.0 the night before and “were very short.” Sam repeated his hope that Hall would “have Carnegie convinced & converted by the time” he “arrived 30 days hence” [MTP].
March 1 Wednesday – On or about this day Clara Clemens played the lead role in a play at Mrs. Willard’s school for girls in Berlin [Mar. 4 Eagle article — see entry].
March 1-20 Monday – Sometime during this period Sam sent one of his early aphorisms to Constance Lloyd Wilde (Mrs. Oscar Wilde 1858-1898):
February 27 Monday – Sam finished his Feb. 25 to Hall by adding a PS:
Carry your negotiations with Carnegie right along — don’t wait for me — I hope to find them completed when I arrive the 2d or 3d of April / SLC [MTP].
February 25 Saturday – Two copies of The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New Stories were deposited with the US Copyright Office. In 1897 the content of this book was collected in The American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, as part of Harper and Bros. “Uniform Edition” [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.18, Oxford ed. 1996].
February 24 Friday – In Florence, Sam inscribed his photograph to Hartford resident, Mrs. Drayton Hillyer: To Mrs. Drayton Hillyer / with the affectionate regards of / The Original./ S.L. Clemens / Florence / Feb. 24/93 [MTP]. Note: The N.Y. Times, Nov. 5, 1894, p.3 listed the Hillyers as arriving from Europe, so evidently they passed through Florence at this time. Sam wrote to Clara on Mar.
February 23 Thursday – Some historians see the bankruptcy on Feb. 23, 1893 of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as the beginning of the Panic of 1893. Others point to a severe contraction on the N.Y. Stock Exchange which began on May 4. During the panic over 15,000 American businesses went under, some 500 banks failed, and by winter some eighteen percent of the work force was out of work.
February 22 Wednesday – Edgar W. (Bill) Nye wrote on Occidental Hotel, S.F. stationery to Sam, “very sorry that I missed you yesterday.” Nye compared his trip to that of the Donner Party; thanked Clemens for his kindness and the S.F. press for their courtesy “both 3 years ago and on this visit. What I have done to deserve it — I am quite unable to understand” [MTP].
February 21 Tuesday – Frank Bliss of American Publishing Co. wrote to Sam proposing a cheaper edition of his Sketches New and Old, paying him a ten per cent royalty on it. [MTP; Mar.8 to Bliss].
February, mid and last week – Susy Clemens finished a letter during “the last days of February” to Louise Brownell. It was a long letter, probably written over a two week period from mid-month. In part:
February 20 Monday – In Florence, Sam wrote to Katherine C. Bronson (1834-1901), wealthy New Yorker, and a central figure in Venetian society; also related to Thomas DeKay Winans. In 1879-80 she hosted such luminaries as Henry James, James McNeill Whistler, Robert Browning, and John Singer Sargent. She also had an intimate friendship with Robert Browning after the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.