November 13 Thursday – Sam delivered a “snapper” in his speech, “The Babies” (See Fatout, MT Speaking 131-3) for the Army of the Tennessee Reunion Banquet, Palmer House, Chicago, Illinois—the snapper that finally broke Grant’s cast-iron expression into waves of laughter. For Sam it was a complete and devastating triumphal victory, as high as the debacle on Whittier’s birthday had been low. In a letter written at 5 AM the next morning (Nov.
November 14 Friday – In Chicago, Sam wrote from the Palmer House to Livy at 5 AM.
November 15 Saturday – The Chicago Times, on page 3, ran an article mainly on Sam’s activities during the Grant reunion.
November 16 Sunday – Orion and Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy, Orion stories enclosed.
November 17 Monday – Sam arrived home at 2:30 A.M. Later in the day he wrote from Hartford to Howells. He hadn’t had much sleep in Chicago and somehow didn’t feel tired, but knew fatigue would come. He waxed eloquent about the Chicago event and especially Robert Green Ingersoll’s speech.
November 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William (Will) M.
November 20 Thursday – Charles B. Campbell wrote from Newark, NJ to ask Sam for the late William L. Garrison’s autograph, should Sam have one to spare [MTP].
William W. Kellett wrote from Boston to offer Sam a tardy (by 3 years) thanks for his writing which lifted him while suffering cold in England [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Good letter"
November 21 Friday – “Twain’s Best Joke,” a story purportedly published the first time in this edition of the Hartford Courant, ran on page 2. This was the tale of Sam applauding himself by mistake at the Lord Mayor’s banquet. (See Nov. 9, 1872 entry.)
H.W. Bergen wrote from Newark, NJ to ask for a $400 loan from Sam, since the recent death of his wife and the illness of his child had left him bereft. Bergen was a road agent for Sam [MTP].
November 22 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the editor of the Hartford Courant. After a long harangue against new postal regulations, which required street addresses, Sam concluded:
November 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. A Tramp Abroad was:
“…really finished at last—every care is off my mind, everything is out of my way—so I have accepted the invitation to be at the Holmes breakfast” (Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 70th birthday celebration).
November 24 Monday – Sam sent a postcard from Hartford to James B. Pond, the lecture circuit manager of the Boston Literary Bureau, who evidently had asked if he would lecture for charity. Sam responded he was “busy head over heels, & it’s just a solid impossibility” [MTLE 4: 158].
November 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote another postcard from Hartford to James Pond, saying he couldn’t take part in the “20 nights’ Entertainments,” but if he could spare the time he would “willingly do it for $7,000 a night” [MTLE 4: 159].
Sam’s letter of Nov. 22, “Mark Twain on the New Postal Barbarism” ran in the Hartford Courant [MTLE 4: 153; Camfield bibliog.].
November 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Andrew H.H. Dawson, declining to come to another banquet and citing the Dec. 3 banquet, and also more time than anticipated on getting his book ready. If Dawson didn’t hear from Sam by Dec. 20, “cross me off & consider that my book as got me ‘in the door’ & I can’t come.” [MTLE 4: 160].
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 34th birthday – Sam wrote her a love note.
“I love you, my darling, & this my love will increase step by step as tooth by tooth falls out, milestoning my way down to the great mystery & the Sweet Bye & Bye” [MTLE 4: 162].
November 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. Sam knew he would face the Boston Brahmins Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes, across tables once more, and have a chance to further redeem himself from the Whittier debacle. He asked Howells if he might “be heard among the very earliest…” and wanted Holmes to read what he might say prior to the event, “& strike out whatever you choose.” Sam took no chances this time.
November 29 Saturday – Jesse Madison Leathers wrote to Sam after receiving his of Nov. 26 (not extant); he thanked Sam for a Feb. invite. He noted the recent death of the Earl of Durham and considered sending a cable, but thought better since “they do not know us.” He speculated the son would be easier to deal with (Leathers intended to be a claimant of the estate) than the father [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the rightful Earl of Durham.
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 44th birthday. He read a piece called “Plagiarism” to the Saturday Morning Club in Hartford [MTPO].
He also gave a reading at the home of Mrs. Samuel Colt for the Decorative Art Society [MTPO].
December, before the 20th – Livy and Sam had enjoyed the Mother Goose performance at the Colt Party on Nov. 24. Livy wrote of it in her diary on Nov. 30 and soon planned her own such performance using James Elliott’s Mother Goose Set to Music. Sam’s notebook lists Piper’s Son as Mr. Carter; Dame Trot as Anne Trumbull; Emily as Mother Goose; Miss Barnard as Miss Muffett, Mr.
December 1 Monday – From Park & Tilford, New York, a long list of grocery items $136.01 tot, incl 2 dz Glen Whisky for $28 total [MTP].
William A. Seaver wrote from Mt. Vernon, NY to Sam.
Noble young Man:— / A young friend called at my house last evening, just as the bells were gonging for church, and asked me, in a perfectly serious manner, if you were the author of
“Jim Dobbs and the Tom Cats.”
December 2 Tuesday – Sam left Hartford and traveled to Boston, then on to Howells’ residence in Belmont, Mass. Charles Dudley Warner had lobbied for Sam to attend and accompanied him to Boston, where he then went on to visit friends [MTLE 4: 157].
December 3 Wednesday – In Boston Sam spoke at the Atlantic Monthly Breakfast for Oliver Wendell Holmes’ 70th birthday [Fatout, MT Speaking 134]. This time there was no embarrassment, as Sam delivered a Howells-approved speech.
December 4 Thursday – Sam probably returned to Hartford late on Dec. 3 or this day. He described the visit as “intolerably short” in a Dec. 9 letter.
December 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller, asking if he could get someone up to Hartford right away to fix the music box he’d ordered in Geneva.
Sam confided that he’d backed out of Slote’s speculation because his “lawyer insisted that it was risky” [MTLE 4: 168].
December 8 Monday – In Hartford, Sam responded to the Nov. 30 insulting letter from Thomas B. Kirby, private secretary to the Postmaster General, about Sam’s objections to the new postal regulations, which ran in the Hartford Courant. Sam’s hilarious response to Kirby was also sent to the editor of the Courant, and was printed there Dec. 9 [MTLE 4: 170].
December 9 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Cowan (1839-1884), declining to “write something for the ‘Knapsack’ as his time was “so wholly occupied on the closing chapters of a book…” [MTLE 4: 175].
Sam’s response to Thomas B. Kirby ran under the heading “Mark Twain and Postal Matters” in the Hartford Courant [MTLE 4: 170; Camfield, bibliog.].