February 25 Sunday – Karl and Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy, the letter from Drexel with money rec’d. “Many thanks for the new letter…I shall telegraph you when the little stranger arrives….Josie has a most excellent nurse who does everything for us so that I don’t have any worry and am losing no time” [MTP].
February 26 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote [MTP]. (envelope only survives)
February 27 Tuesday – Orion signed the pledge to Sam and returned it with an apology (see Feb.22 entry). “I will now turn my attention to law” [MTP; Fanning 202].
February 28 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus to ratify an agreement between Chatto and Herr J.H. Schufthas Boghandel of Copenhagen, Denmark, giving him the right to translate LM into Swedish [MTP].
March – Sam inscribed a note “To Miss Julie / With regards & kindest remembrances of / Mark Twain / (Known to the police as S.L. Clemens.) / Hartford Mch 1883I” [MTP]. No further identification is given.
Lawrence Barrett wrote a short note to Sam: “Hutton tells me you will meet the ‘Kinsmen’ Monday Eve—Pray arrange also to be with me at the [Ludwig] Barnay Breakfast—It will bolster me up—in my first appearance as President” [MTP].
March 1 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Howells, who wrote on Feb.
March 2 Friday – Sam wrote from New York to Livy, excited about the possibility of staying over until Monday and seeing “Vignaux, the greatest billiard man that ever lived” in a private exhibition. It would be “an event memorable for a lifetime,” and Sam was “perishing to see it.” He would let her know [MTP]. Note: Maurice Vignaux (1846-1916).
March 3 Saturday – The New York Times under “PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE” p.5 reported:
Samuel L. Clemens, of Hartford, and James R. Osgood, of Boston, are at the Victoria House
The Brooklyn Eagle, on page 7 under “EVENTS IN BROOKLYN” / Summary of the Week’s Local News
The trial of Captain C.C. Duncan’s suit for $100,000 against the New York Times was begun in the Supreme Court.
March 5 Monday – At the opening of the Guelph Club for billiards in New York, Sam introduced the great French billiards player, Maurice Vignaux and several other players, including George F. Slosson, Joseph Dion, and William Sexton, for an exhibition warm up match anticipating a large tournament in Chicago later in the month [N.Y. Times Mar.
March 7 Wednesday – According to the Brooklyn Eagle, p. 7, “Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) testified in the libel suit of Captain C.C. Duncan against the New York Times.” Since Sam’s letter of Mar. 9 to Cable referred to a Mar. 8 meeting with Charles Dudley Warner in Hartford, it’s likely that Sam returned from New York either on the evening of Mar.
March 8 Thursday – In the evening after receiving a letter from Roswell Smith, editor and president of Century Magazine, Sam and Charles Dudley Warner discussed how to set up a trial lecture for George W. Cable in Hartford [Mar. 9 to Cable, MTP].
March 9 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford responding to English writer George MacDonald’s letter suggesting a collaborative scheme for protecting against literary piracy. If Sam would write a few short paragraphs for MacDonald’s forthcoming novel then both writers’ names would guarantee copyrights in both countries. Sam politely offered the idea would make sense only if each could do half; but he had no time for such a team effort.
March 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George W. Cable, making a formal announcement from a list of leading Hartford citizens, which included Sam and Charles Dudley Warner, Joseph R. Hawley, J. Hammond Trumbull, Richard D. Hubbard (1818-1884), Austin C. Dunham, Edwin Pond Parker, James B. Patterson, William B. Franklin, Joseph H. Twichell, Henry C. Robinson, William Hamersley, A.E. Burt, Edwin E. Johnson, N. Shipman [MTP].
March 11 Sunday – An article ran in the New York Times p.4 about Sam’s father.
JUDGE CLEMENS.
HOW MARK TWAIN’S FATHER COMMANDED SILENCE IN THE COURT-ROOM.
Communication to the St. Louis Republican.
March 12 Monday – “Mark Twain” by H.R. Haweis, in the Elzevir Library, was a biography and criticism which argued though Sam built a reputation as a humorist, he should be taken seriously; emphasized his travel writings [Tenney, Supplement American Literary Realism, Autumn 1980 p170]. See also Feb. 12.
March 13 Tuesday – William H. Gillette wrote of expenses with the play The Professor and being unable to repay Sam the $3000, hoping he’d be “a little easy on time payments.” The play was making money, but comedy-farces didn’t play for more than three seasons [MTP].
Jane Lampton Clemens wrote to the Clemens family about attending a fun party the night before. She added a note on the 16th[MTP].
March 14 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam typed a letter to Benjamin H. Ticknor about a telegram he’d sent on the cut he wanted replaced in LM. Put in any sort of picture, even if it didn’t connect with the text and make sure it wasn’t funny, Sam wrote. A landscape would do, Sam thought and:
“…the reader can put in such idle time as he may have in trying to arrive at the connection…” [MTP].
March 16 Friday – Jane Lampton Clemens added to her letter of Mar. 13. “Now the weather is good and I wish to come to your house, if it suits you. I can do as you said pay Orion’s way there & home again” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answer”
W.G. Watson wrote to ask if he could see Sam “on very important business (to me) for about 15 minutes” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Watson the tramp”
March 17 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George W. Cable, at the time in Baltimore for a reading, confirming details on the planned “trial lecture” for Cable.
March 18 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam.
March 19 Monday – Susy Clemens’ eleventh birthday.
March 20 Tuesday – In New York City, Sam and Livy took Charles and Annie Webster and attended a special matinee performance of Herr Barnay at the Thalia Theater, “to which only members of the profession were invited.”
BARNAY IN FARCE AND TRAGEDY.
A PERFORMANCE FOR THE PLEASURE OF HIS PROFESSIONAL BRETHREN
March 21 Wednesday – Sam and Livy continued their New York stay, for both business and shopping pleasure. Sam and Livy also visited with Augustus Saint-Gaudens on this trip [Mar. 26 to Gerhardt, MTP].
March 22 Thursday – They arrived back in Hartford in the evening. Charles Dudley Warner “dropped in” after they arrived home and suggested that George W. Cable give the same reading in Hartford he successfully gave in Baltimore, instead of the planned lecture on “Creole Women.” Sam felt it would be “safer” to give a reading that had proven successful elsewhere [Mar. 23 to Cable, MTP].
March 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing a letter of interest in the Paige typesetter.
“So I thought that if you and [William] Payton should run up here together and examine the machine, it would help these people to remember the terms upon which they can be applied to those New York men for capital” [MTBus 212].