May 29 Sunday – Sam, Joe Goodman, and Steve Gillis left Virginia City for San Francisco. Goodman wrote to Paine in 1911 that he’d intended to ride only a short way with the pair, but that the company was “too good and I kept clear on to San Francisco” [MTL 1: 302].
May 30 Monday – Sam and Steve Gillis settled at the Occidental Hotel.
June–July – In a few weeks Sam and Steve would move from the more expensive Occidental to cheaper rooms, but they continued to take meals at the Occidental, where the food was great and the company stimulating. There Sam met and enjoyed Martha Hunter Hitchcock, wife of Dr. Charles McPhail Hitchcock (1813?-1885), medical director for the Army of the Pacific. Martha was a regular contributor to the Alta California and active in local literary circles. She introduced Sam to her literary circle, which included: Ina Coolbrith (1841-1928), Bret (Francis) Harte (1836-1902), Ambrose G.
June 6 Monday – Sam secured employment as a local reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call at forty dollars a week [Branch, C of Call 16]. His duties included local news, public meetings, and local theater productions. His hours were long and irregular. He wrote candidly about the racial and social injustices he saw, particularly about the Chinese. These articles were censored or discarded by the paper’s conservative editor, but many were printed by the Enterprise.
June 7 Tuesday – A local item in the Call, “Burglar Arrested” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 11 Saturday – A local item in the Call, “Another Chapter in the Marks Family History” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 12 Sunday – Sam gave a presentation speech at Maguire’s Opera House in San Francisco to Major Edward C. Perry, who had raised the Aquila, sunk at a city pier [Fatout, MT Speaking 1-3]. A local item in the Call, “Beasts in the Semblance of Men” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 13 Monday – Sam’s piece, titled “Parting Presentation,” about the presentation of a cane to Major Edward C. Perry, ran on the front page of the Alta California. This was Sam’s first signed publication following his move from Nevada [ET&S 2: 5]. Emerson observes the speech “was intended to be amusing; ‘Mark Twain’ was clearly a humorist” [24].
June 15 Wednesday – A local item in the Call, “Petty Police Court Transactions” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June, Mid – Sam wrote his Territorial Enterprise readers that the Occidental was “ ‘Heaven on the half shell’ – a welcome respite from the sagebrush and desolation of Washoe” [MTL 1: 302].
June 17–23 Thursday – The article “‘Mark Twain’ in the Metropolis” was probably first printed sometime between these dates in the Territorial Enterprise, copies of which were lost [ET&S 2: 9]. (See June 26 entry)
The Morning Call
June 21 Tuesday – A local item in the Call, “Short-Hand Law Reporter” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 23 Thursday – A local item in the Call, “Another of Them” is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 25 Saturday – Two local items in the Call, “A Trip to Cliff House,” and “Charge Against a Police Officer,” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 26 Sunday – Sam’s articles, “In the Metropolis,” and “ The Evidence in the Case of Smith vs Jones,” were published in the Golden Era [Walker 77; ET&S 2: 13]. This latter article was an early experiment with reliance on dialogue, dramatic narrative, and rhythm of dialect.
June 28 Tuesday – The following six local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Hackmen Arrested,” “Accessions to the Ranks of the Dashaways,” “Missionaries Wanted for San Francisco,” “Board of Supervisors,” “Charges Against a Police Officer,” (About Lewis P. Ward) “Swill Peddlers” [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 29 Wednesday – Two local items in the Call, “The Kahn of Tartary,” and “Police Court” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
June 30 Thursday – Two local items in the Call, “Municipal Records,” and “The Sacrilegious Hack-Driver,” are attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 289].
July 1 Friday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Old Thing,” “House at Large,” “School Children’s Rehearsal,” “Police Commissioners,” and “More Steamship Suits Brewing” [Branch, C of Call 289]
July 2 Saturday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Policeman Suspended,” “The Swindle Case,” “Chance for the Hotels,” and “Stole a Shirt” [Branch, C of Call 289].
July 3 Sunday – Sam’s article “Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House” was published in the Golden Era. The piece is “manifestly an attempt to elaborate the experience of his own recent trip into a humorous, essentially literary sketch” [Walker 83; ET&S 2: 22].
The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “The Secesh Highwaymen,” “Theatrical Record. City,” “Nabbed,” “Young Thieves,” and “Those Thieves” [Branch, C of Call 289-90].
July 4 Monday – Sam’s “Original Novelette,” an imitation of John Phoenix in a form popularized by Bret Harte and Charles Webb, was published in the Call [Wilson 195; ET&S 2: 31].
The following three local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam:
“A Sheep-Stealer Caught,” “Original Novelette,” and “An ‘Altagraph’,” [Branch, C of Call 290].
Dan De Quille paid $40 to Daggett & Myers toward rent owed with Sam [Mack 246].
July 6 Wednesday – The following four local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Shirt Stealing,” “Fourth of July,” “The Racing Stock in the Procession,” and “Banner Presentation” [Branch, C of Call 290].
July 7 Thursday – “Homicide—Coroner’s Inquest,” in the Call is attributed to Sam [Branch, C of Call 290].
July 8 Friday – The following five local articles in the Call are attributed to Sam: “Swill Music,” “Arrested for Bigamy,” “Insane,” “En Route,” and “The Bigamist” [Branch, C of Call 290].