August 25 Wednesday – Estes & Lauriat of Boston billed Sam $150 for John James Audubon’s The Birds of America from Drawings made in the United States and Their Territories (1860) [Gribben 31]. The bill at MTP shows the plates in 1 volume folio, text in 4 volumes.
August 29 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joe Twichell, about the baby and the family. The “stock-quotation of the Affection Board” was the priority the children put upon family and friends.
“Four weeks ago the children still put Mamma at the head of the list right along, where she had always been. But now: Jean / Mamma / Motley /Fraulein [last two are cats] / Papa.”
August 31 Tuesday – Mary Keily finished her July 30 letter to Sam [MTP].
September – Sam wrote a parody of the poem by James Leigh Hunt, “About Ben Adhem”. See Sam’s parody “Abou Ben Butler” [MTNJ 2: 372-3]. Sam’s second of three McWilliams sketches, “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” ran in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly [Wells 23]. Sam copied in his notebook John Sheffield’s famous quatrain:
Read Homer once, & you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
September 1 Wednesday – Park & Tilford billed Sam for “1 doz Glen Whisky” total $14; Sam ordered nineteen badges from Tiffany & Co. These badges were made for the young women of the Saturday Morning Club, and receipted for on Sept. 17 [MTNJ 2: 371-2n49; MTP].
September 2–16 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Tiffany & Co. in New York, enclosing their Sept. 1 invoice and a draft for $418 for nineteen badges [MTLE 5: 152].
September 3 Friday – Sam wrote a postcard from Quarry Farm, Elmira to T.W.M. Boone of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, thanking him for an honorary membership in their “Young Folks’ Literary Guild” [MTLE 5: 153].
September 8 Wednesday – Sam paid $6.60 to A.S. Fitch at 112 Baldwin Street, Elmira for German books [MTP].
September 11 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam sent a telegraph to George Griffin, his butler in Hartford. He directed the telegram to be exchanged with his attorney Charles Perkins for twenty dollars [MTLE 5: 157]. John J. Lawler, Hartford merchant, billed Sam $2.60 for glass pane and the labor to replace [MTP].
September 13 Monday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Harriet Whitmore (Mrs. Franklin Whitmore), responding to her letter about her husband’s recent illness. Frank was better and Sam offered that he would “hurry up Whitmore’s health in the billiard room” when both families returned to Hartford in the fall. He wrote for Livy, who still wasn’t up to writing. The Whitmores were staying in Branford, Conn. [MTLE 5: 158].
September 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the editors of the New York Evening Post. It was a humorous letter about mining gold in water. The letter ran in the newspaper Sept. 16 [MTLE 5: 159]. Note: it was reprinted in the Sept. 20 Hartford Courant, page 1 as “Mark Twain on the Goldsprings.”
Sam finished The Prince and the Pauper. (See Sept. 15 entry.)
September 15 Wednesday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had sent him a copy of his book to read—already read by Sam (The Stillwater Tragedy, serialized in the Atlantic Monthly, Apr.-Sept.1880). He wrote about Livy and the baby Jean, and about finishing a story (Prince and the Pauper) the day before.
September 16 Thursday – Sam’s letter to the New York Evening Post, dated Sept. 14, ran in the paper [MTLE 5: 159]. Camfield and Budd list this as “Millions In It” [bibliog.; “Collected” 1019].
September 17 Friday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Clemens with the Bissell Bank balance and other financial information. Dan Slote had not answered requests for a statement [MTP].
September 20 Monday – Sam packed a satchel and ordered a place in the sleeper car for by telephone, and prepared to leave the next morning for Buffalo and possibly Fredonia. He would visit family and the David Gray family. Six-year-old Clara came down with a very bad throat and the doctor was called. Sam canceled the trip [MTLE 5: 164].
September 21 Tuesday – David Gray wrote to Sam expressing the “wretched disappointment” that Sam’s telegram brought of Sam’s canceled visit over Clara’s illness; and he hoped “nothing serious is referred to in it, & that you plan for coming will only be postponed a little…Come! Come !! Come !!!” [MTP].
September 23 Thursday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to David Gray, about his plans to visit Buffalo being dashed by Clara’s throat inflammation, about Livy’s health and his lumbago, about growing older, and about the wonders of the telephone and telegraph. He’d planned to take his P&P manuscript to discuss it with Gray, who now would have to visit him [MTLE 5: 165].
September 24 Friday – Charles Dudley Warner wrote to Sam. “I really don’t think there is any danger in your coming now…” He felt the trouble with Sam’s petition to the Courant was it would be difficult to say anything (about the malaria) “without causing a row” [MTP]. File note: “SLC’s petition was probably letter to Editor, Courant, between 21 & 24 Sept 1880—about malaria—MTP has incomplete draft”
September 27 Monday – The Clemens family left Quarry Farm and Elmira and took the special “hotel car” for the ten hour ride to New York City, where they stayed three days at the Gilsey House. Invoiced by Arnold, Constable & Co., N.Y., blankets and a shawl, for $7.75 [MTP].
September 28 Tuesday – Elisha Bliss died [MTNJ 2: 353]. Twichell would speak at his funeral; Twichell’s message would be printed in 1882 [MTP].
T.A. Wales, M.D., Elmira billed the Clemens family for 39 visits from July 5 to Sept. 27; bill marked paid [MTP].
September 29 Wednesday – Sam was invoiced by the Gilsey House, New York for $171.80, including rooms, baggage costs, meals, wine & bar, carriages, messages and $25 cash [MTP]. This would suggest the Clemens family left New York for Hartford, but it may have been the day after. Also purchased was a $14 cloak from Arnold, Constable & Co., N.Y., paid Oct.
September 30 Thursday – The Oct. 31 bill from Western Union shows a telegram sent to Elmira, recipient unspecified (see Oct. 31 entry).
October – Catherine (Katy) Leary (1856?-1934) was hired as Livy’s personal maid. She stayed with the family until 1910 [MTNJ 2: 396n136].
October 1 Friday – Howells wrote from Boston to Sam.
October 2 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller in New York City. Sam recommended Fanny Hesse to Frank’s friends, mentioned the new baby, and thanked him for an invitation but he’d received it just as they were just starting for Hartford [MTLE 5: 169].