January 7 Monday – From Sam’s notebook, more about the typesetter:
Monday, Jan. 7 — 4.45 p.m. The first proper name ever set by this new key-board was William Shakspeare. I set it, at the above hour; & I perceive, now that I see the name written, that I either mis-spelled it then or I’ve mis-spelled it now [MTNJ 3: 443].
January 6 Sunday – Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy: “You have known Ma in her happiest days tis well you can remember her thus. Now she is eighty-five and half years old and demented.” Mollie asked if they’d “authorize Orion to take enough of Ma’s money that is invested here, to put in a bath room and water closet on Ma’s bed room floor”; more talk of the house they would buy [MTP]
January 5 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a long letter of celebration and explanation to Orion Clemens about the Paige typesetter test at Pratt and Whitney Co.
January 4 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Malcolm Johnston (sometimes reported as simply Malcom Johnston). Sam addressed him as “Colonel” and thanked him for his “good letter” of Jan. 2. Fatout writes,
January 3 Thursday – Sam signed a contract giving Abby Sage Richardson permission to stage P&P. Fatout writes:
January 2 Wednesday – Sam referred to “last night at dinner” with Elsie Leslie on his Jan. 3 inscription to HF. It’s not known where and who else was at the dinner, but likely Elsie’s mother and perhaps Augustin Daly and other stage personalities.
January 1 Tuesday – Wallace W. Muzzy wrote from Bristol, Conn. to Sam: “That was a brilliant idea of yours, writing Prof. Smith requesting him to remain at Trinity…” [MTP].
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December 31 Monday – Sam printed a notice for Livy:
To Mrs. S.L. Clemens.
Happy New Year! The machine is finished, & this is the first work done on it [MTP]. Note: False hopes are the most intoxicating kind. See also Dec. 29 about this first “copy.”
December 30 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
We are hermits, now, & must doubtless remain so the rest of the winter. Theodore Crane has been here a month or two in a precarious state, because of a stroke of paralysis. Sometimes he picks up a little, & then for a day or two it is a cheerful house; after that, he drops back again, & the gloom & the apprehension return.