September 13 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to John C. Bostelmann, the Clemens girls’ music teacher whom Clara Clemens raved about in her July 15 (spelled there Bostlemann). Sam enclosed a check and wrote that even though the amount was owed for the lessons, “They were worth a great deal more.”
September 14 Saturday – On or just after this day Sam responded to E.H. Butler’s letter (below) through Franklin G. Whitmore. He didn’t recall the piece Butler asked about but told Whitmore if it was a sketch he wrote it must be in Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old or The Stolen White Elephant [MTP]
Sam also wrote to Charles J. Langdon in New York, letter not extant but referred to as “pleasant” in Langdon’s Sept. 29 [MTP].
September 15 Sunday – Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon in New York, letter not extant but referred to along with Sam’s Sept. 14 as “pleasant” in Langdon’s Sept. 29 [MTP].
September 16 Monday – Clara Spaulding Stanchfield invested $5,000 in the Paige typesetter; she was to receive a five-dollar royalty on each machine sold or rented; Sam increased this to six dollars [MTNJ 3: 277n174; 521&n128].
Sam’s notebook: [chk#] 4410 RR. fares, Sept. 16, $33 [3: 492].
September 19 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., William Dean Howells wrote to Sam about CY.
September 20 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam — more of Ma’s feeble mindedness and of the improvements being made to their new house, and hoping they might come next June [MTP].
September 21 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam, presuming Sam was back in Hartford by now and advising he would leave the next day for Chicago. Hall referred to a representative from a “newspaper syndicate” (likely Bacheller, see below) who’d asked for some extracts from CY, who also claimed the Century urged this. Hall told the man emphatically no, but said he might use the descriptive circular [MTP]. See Johnson’s Sept. 24 to SLC.
September 22 Sunday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ Sept. 19 letter about reading proofs of CY, as well as a follow up written that day or by Sept. 21 (now lost) which approved of Sam’s remarks in the book about the French Revolution. Sam offered that few people would approve of their feelings on the event:
September 23 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dora Wheeler, turning down her invitation to visit in early October. Sam responded that he had to write due to Livy’s pinkeye, which she’d suffered from since last February, and that guests were expected for the first half of October (Frank Finlay and daughter Miss Mary Finlay; Pamela Moffett); he felt “it would be noble spree, & most sorry we are that we can’t be in it” [MTP].
September 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:
At 12.15, Sept. 24, a man went along my sidewalk on a low bicycle; Jo Lane & Hough were in a buggy; I stopped them & pointed the man out, who was not on the sidewalk beyond the bridge, & asked them to get his name, so I could report him to the police [3: 522]. Note: Hartford grocer Joseph G. Lane and broker Niles P. Hough, also a resident of Farmington Ave.
September 25 Wednesday – Opha Moore editor of Light wrote to Sam: “Yours of the 23rd just received. I will not bother you for anything until after LIGHT makes its first appearance from New York and you have a chance to see the kind of a paper it is to be” [MTP].
September 26 Thursday – According to Sam’s Sept. 29 letter to Clara Spaulding Stanchfield, William J. Hamersley recorded papers for the Paige typesetter in the patent office on this date.
“…on 26 September Clemens obtained from Paige the right to a five hundred dollar royalty on each machine which was sold. Clemens promptly sold a number of shares in his royalty to friends and family in order to relive the immediate financial burden of the typesetter” [MTNJ 3: 479].
September 27 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote that the monthly $200 check was received. Orion loved the sample of the book (CY) and was eager to see the rest. He included a page and a half of his historical research, and more of the same delusional sufferings about Ma [MTP].
September 28 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John C. Kinney, editor of the Hartford Courant:
Dear Kinney — Thou knowest I am a shirk. Never never shall reform, I do believe. But I thank you heartily all the same for thinking of me [MTP].
September 29 Sunday – Clara Spaulding Stanchfield had paid Sam $5,000 on Sept. 16 for royalties on the Paige typesetter, and later wrote (she and her husband now lived on Long Island) evidently asking if and when she might buy more. In Hartford, Sam responded.
Yes, you can have more at any time in the future; & if I should raise the price & forget to notify you beforehand, the raise shall not be applied to you.
September 30 Monday – William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) inscribed his A Book of Verses to Sam:
To Samuel L. Clemens, in admiration of his happy gift of making his fellow creatures happy. From W.E.H. Glasgow, Sept. 30, ’89 [Gribben 308]. Note: See W.C. Angus’ letter below; he sent Henley’s book which Henley inscribed.
October – No Name Magazine ran a biographical sketch of Mark Twain, the first in a planned series of “American Literary Portraits.” Publishers’ Weekly reviewed: “Mark Twain is handled without fear or favor” [Publishers’ Weekly – American Booktrade Journal Vol. XXXVI July-Dec. 1889 p.542; not in Tenney].
October 1 Tuesday – Pamela Moffet came to visit the Clemens family for a week. She was living with her son Samuel Moffett, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner [Oct. 7 to Langdon].
October 2 Wednesday – Daniel Frohman wrote Sam through Daniel Whitford, Sam’s attorney at Alexander & Green. He advised that a new version of Abby Sage Richardson’s dramatization of P&P “embodying some recent changes,” would be sent on to Clemens “within two weeks.” There had been repeated delays by Richardson in carrying out her contract with Sam [MTNJ 3: 524n138].
October 3 Thursday – Sam finished his slipper for Elsie Leslie, the partner of one knitted by William Gillette, out of admiration for the girl actress [Oct. 5 to Leslie].
Sam’s notebook: Oct. 3. One [Paige royalty] to Orion Clemens; the other to Mrs. P.A. Moffett [3: 569].
Charles Ethan Davis wrote another typesetting record on a postcard to Sam, this one including three apprentices, “F,” “J,” and “S”. [MTP].
October 4 Friday – Sam jotted in his notebook that another of the anticipated apprentices for the Paige typesetter, Martin J. Slattery, on Oct. 3 and 4, “in his third hour (he had never seen the machine or its keyboard before) set 1593 ems. He sets 1500 an hour at the case” [3: 568].
October 5 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, responding to his invitation and offering to bring a guest:
Fellowcraft Club, 32 W. 28th. 7 pm Oct. 16 — I will be there.
October 6 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Sarah A. Sage (Mrs. Dean Sage) inviting for Livy and himself a visit by the Sages for Thursday, Oct. 17 and to “stay over Sunday & much longer if you can.” Livy had a “hard headache” caused by reading “five or ten minutes,” and so Sam wrote the invitation for her [MTP].
October 7 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a long letter of proposition about the Paige typesetter to Joe Goodman. He wrote that he’d come close to writing him several times but the time wasn’t ripe then. “It is ripe, now.” After describing what the compositor would do, Sam placed an offer plainly before Goodman:
October 8 Tuesday – Pamela Moffett left the Clemens home after a week visit [Oct. 7 to Langdon]. She sent a postcard from New York that she had arrived there [mentioned in Oct. 9 to Moffett].
Richard R. Bowker for Am. Copyright League sent Sam an invitation to read at the authors’ benefit for copyright at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Dec. 16 [MTNJ 3: 523n133].