February 3 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam received a visit by Professor Francis Wayland (1826-1904), dean of the law school at Yale. In a letter to Julia D. Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) Sam quoted Wayland about the Grant Memoirs:

February 5 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote Sam, acknowledging receipt of $155 check, from which he gave $5 to “Puss” Quarles and deposited $50 into his mother’s account. He’d heard from Theodore W. Crane that the Clemens family was well and from Ed F. Brownell that the papers contained word of the quarter million given to Mrs.

February 6 Saturday – Sam signed a contract with James Paige, agreeing to pay him $7,000 annual salary, and undertake up to $30,000 in improvements to the typesetter, with no overall ceiling on his investment responsibilities. He was also obligated to raise capital for the machine and to promote it upon completion. In exchange, Sam would gain a larger share of the profits. Hamersley, for money already invested and for legal advice, was let in for ten per cent. Powers writes:

February 7 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Lilian Aldrich for the ailing Livy, declining an invitation to visit. Not only was Livy laid up, but also daughter Clara, who found tobogganing a dangerous sport:

Clara & her toboggan ran into a tree, & the former got the worst sprained ankle in history. It is thought she must keep her bed several weeks.

February 8 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote two notes to Charles Webster. The first concerned Jesse Grant’s desire to buy into Webster & Co. Sam valued the firm at a half-million dollars. He would entertain a visit and an offer from Grant “toward the end of February (for Clara will not be out of bed before that.)” The second short note asked what sum had been paid to Julia D. Grant (Mrs. Grant).

February 9 Tuesday – General Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886) died of an infected carbuncle, complicated by diabetes. Sam noted in his letter to Webster the following day that General Grant seldom mentioned Sherman, Sheridan, or Hancock in his Memoirs without adding a compliment. Hancock was an 1844 West Point graduate, and much distinguished in the Civil War.

February 10 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, suggesting mentions in Grant’s Memoirs, volume two, of General Hancock be culled out. He wanted to let a New York Tribune reporter know that the excerpts could be had by sending for them. Volume two was now in production, and Sam was promoting, in light of Hancock’s death the previous day [MTP].

February 11 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner in German to Franklin G. Whitmore.

Dank’ schön! Es wird herein zehn Thaler sich befindet. Ihr achtŭngsvollen [MTP].

February 12 Friday – Susy Clemens wrote of misgivings about her father’s neglect of his own writing:

February 13 Saturday – In Hartford working away at Connecticut Yankee, Sam wrote to Charles Webster, instructing him to have the manuscript typed up that became McClellan’s Own Story in 1887 for William C. Prime. Sam’s pen was hot on the new story and he didn’t want to lose even a day going to New York on business. He thought Prime would understand.

February 15 Monday – The Revue des Deux Mondes ran a review of LM by Eugène Forgues. LM was summarized and quoted at length. Sam Clemens was discussed as a writer and defended against accusations of poor taste and vulgarity. The article acknowledged that Sam’s works had not been too successful in France [Tenney 16].

February 16 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to the Portland Oregonian editor, George H. Himes, about his old Hannibal printer co-worker, Urban E. Hicks, who evidently had moved around quite a lot and was living in the Portland area.

February 17 Wednesday – Alfred P. Burbank (1846-1894) wrote on Lotos Club stationery to Sam seeking permission to perform the Sellers as Scientist play written with Howells. Burbank was a professional elocutionist described as “tall, lithe, slender, and naturally inclined to action” [Proceedings by National Speech Art Assoc., 1893 p.208; MTLTP 197n1]. See Mar. 19 to Webster for Sam’s answer.

February 19 Friday – Charles Webster wrote that the $100,000 notes were all paid and that no money was now owed; the firm had $260,000 in the bank and money coming in daily, with $50,000 in receivables he hoped they’d collect by the end of the month [MTP].

February 20 Saturday – Thomas Fitch wrote to Sam, sending a manuscript of a play written by his wife, Anna Mariska Fitch, a novelist who Sam described as:

 …an able romanticist of the ineffable school — I know no other name to apply to a school whose heroes are all dainty and all perfect [RI, Ch. LI].

See Aug. 2, 1863 for reference on Thomas Fitch. He asked Sam to:

February 21 Sunday – From Susy’s biography of her father, Papa:

Yesterday evening [Feb. 21] papa read to us the beginning of his new book, in manuscript, and we enjoyed it very much, it was founded on a New Englanders visit to England in the time of King Arthur and his round table [191-2].

February 22 Monday – In Hartford Sam read some pages of CY to Livy and daughter Susy [Powers, MT A Life 506].

February 23 Tuesday – Sam’s PS added to the letter to Karl Gerhardt written by Livy the day before:

February 24 Wednesday – From Susy Clemens’ diary:

February 25 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton with a duplicate to William M. Laffan. Lawrence Barrett would appear in a Hartford play Mar. 3 and 4, and Sam wrote they were trying to get him to stay with the family — would Hutton and Laffan come and spend those two days with them also? [MTP]. Note: See Susy’s diary Mar. 14 entry.

February 26 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to the Feb. 23 letter from Clarence C. Buel of the Century Magazine.

When I get this book done [CY], I think a chapter or two of it will read very well in the Century [MTP].

The Bismark (North Dakota) Daily Tribune reprinted on p.4 the earlier February interview from the Cincinnati Enquirer [Schmidt]. See February, early entry.

February 27 Saturday – Julia D. Grant was presented with a check drawn on the U.S. National Bank, New York for $200,000. Charles Webster wrote Sam on Feb 26 that he’d decided to pay her that amount, so Webster did the honors, not Sam, as some have reported (Perry, p 233, for instance — see prior entry). The actual check no. 353 was inspected at the MTP. (See Oct. 11 entry.)

March 1 Monday – The official publication for Volume II of Grant’s Memoirs, by Charles L. Webster & Co. Note: volume II contains an errata page for errors in volume I.

March 2 Tuesday – John Russell Young wrote a two-line note from the Lotos Club to Sam that he’d be in Hartford on Thursday [MTP]. Note: Young at this time was again working for the New York Herald as their European correspondent. His handwriting was extremely small.

March 3 Wednesday – In New York Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam about costs of the bronze Nathan Hale and pedestal and extras. He paraphrased James B. Pond as saying copies of the Beecher bust would sell for $1,000 each [MTP]. Lawrence Barrett arrived in Hartford to perform in a play and visited Sam during the day (see Feb. 27 entry).