July 26 Monday – Jean Clemens’ sixth birthday.
In Elmira Sam had received a letter (not extant) from Koto House. Livy had forgotten to send measurements (for a dress?) and Sam apologized for her. “We are hoping the dress will get here in time, to-day.” Sam remarked on the universal characteristics of teenagers:
July 27 Tuesday – The New York Times, p.6, ran a humorous story of Mark Twain and a swindle by a plumber.
DOCTOR, PLUMBER, AND TWAIN.
Hartford Letter to the Boston Saturday Globe.
July 28 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, after receiving news that a competitor typesetter, the Thorne machine (ironically, manufactured in Hartford), had failed. Sam enclosed August checks received.
July 29 Thursday – Sam wrote to Thomas W. Knox (letter not extant) inviting him for a drink [Referred to by Knox on Aug. 2].
July 30 Friday – Sam took the ten-hour train trip to New York City, where he checked into a hotel, took a bath, and wrote to Livy.
I have a note from Laffan [of the NY Sun] asking me to go down [Lawrence, NY on Long Island] & stay over Sunday with him.
Met George Warner in the lobby of the hotel, but only stopped to shake hands with him. [Note: Laffan had a summer residence in Lawrence: NY Times obit Apr. 25, 1912 p.10].
July 31 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam (Webster, in Rome, to Hall July 15 enclosed), asking if he should open a new account with the American Exchange National Bank, as Daniel Whitford had advised. He added, “Everything is going smoothly at the office” [MTP].
August – English author William Smith sent Sam an inscribed copy of Morley: Ancient and Modern, London (1886): To S.L. Clemens, Esq./with the Author’s kind regards/Morley, Aug. 1866 [Gribben 650]. (See Oct. 18 to Smith).
August 1 Sunday – In Lawrence, New York (Long Island), Sam wrote to Livy of his time with the Laffans in their residence:
Livy darling, I am having a divine time here, & am exceedingly glad I came. Have spent an hour & a half in the sea at noon, & we are all going again at 4 pm & finish the day in the water…We undress & dress, at home, then walk down street 300 yards; then wade a ¼ of a mile between two sandbars, & there you are! — splendid beach [MTP].
August 2 Monday – In New York City, about to leave for Philadelphia, Sam, at the offices of Webster & Co., 42 East 14th on Union Square, wrote to Livy:
Livy darling, I have 8 minutes before leaving for Philadelphia. It was decided by the lawyers that it would be altogether best for me to go to the trial, so of course I go. I telegraphed & also wrote the lady in Middletown [Conn.] my circumstances & that my stay in Philada would probably be several days.
August 3 Tuesday – In Philadelphia, Sam attended a hearing before Judge Butler in U.S. Circuit court. Sam’s New York attorneys, Alexander & Green, argued that a preliminary injunction should be issued to restrain John Wanamaker & Co. of Philadelphia from selling Grant’s Memoirs, on the ground that it was a subscription book and not sold in the book trade [NY Times, Jul 22, 1886 p.3 “Gen. Grant’s Book in Court.”].
August 4 Wednesday – Sam did not stay in Philadelphia as he’d anticipated, since the ruling would not come for several days. He went to Hartford for an interview with Mrs. Zadel Barnes Gustafson for the London Pall Mall Gazette, then returned to New York [MTNJ 3: 229n6; Aug. 6 to Mollie]. Note: No interview appeared in the Gazette.
August 5 Thursday – Sam returned to Elmira (probably this day) from New York, a ten-hour trip.
August 6 Friday – Back in Elmira Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens, responding to her Aug. 2 letter which detailed Orion, Pamela, Ma and herself being poisoned by bad milk while on an excursion:
Dear Molly —
What a terrific adventure! We are all glad it was no words, though goodness knows it was plenty bad enough….
August 7 Saturday – In Elmira Sam responded to his mother’s recent letter. He was glad that Orion and Mollie and Pamela were no longer sick. He remembered the weather there on their visit.
August 9 Monday – In Philadelphia, the court denied an injunction against John Wanamaker & Co.
AN INJUNCTION REFUSED.
August 10 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 38 to 16 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
His notebook also contains an observation with this date about the New York Tribune’s Mergenthaler Linotype machine:
August 11 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote a longish letter to Edward H. House, who had informed him (not extant) that someone named Rooker had raved about the Tribune’s typesetter (Mergenthaler), that was now used daily in production of that paper. Sam was saving Tribune editorials “day by day” to see how long the type matrices lasted. After restating the case for the Paige machine, he wrote:
August 12 Thursday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 42 to 16 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
August 13 Friday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 48 to 14 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229].
Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam about the delivery of the Beech Creek stock certificates [MTP].
August 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 48 to 25 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229]. Poor Crane lost on each day.
August 16 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to James W. Paige about settling the “vexed question of how many ems per hour is good average work.” Sam suggested a contest at the Hartford Courant, prized paid by him for composing a paragraph of 500 ems. Sam estimated the best man might do the work in 30 minutes, with the rest of the compositors around 40 minutes [MTP]. Sam needed to know how much money a newspaper would save by buying the Paige typesetter.
August 17 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about the book business. Sam confirmed, “I have written the General” (Philip Sheridan, whose Personal Memoirs Webster & Co. Would publish in 1888) with marketing strengths of Webster & Co. He also asked if Mrs.
August 18 Wednesday – Sam and Henry C. Robinson and other stock holders “turned over the Water Closet concern to Mr. Day, to have & to hold, for better or worse…” [Aug. 19 to Hall]. Note: the company referred to may be the Beech Creek RR.
Frederick J. Hall answered Sam’s Aug. 17 letter about Mrs. Almira Hancock:
August 19 Thursday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He was still analyzing newspapers and em counts; he asked Hall to send him “the name and address of every daily newspaper in the U.S. and Canada that contains fully 2 pages of new matter daily.” Sam also wanted a list of compositor’s unions in the U.S. — where located and number of members. He suggested Hall put the job in “the hands of some advertising agency — Rockwell’s or some other” [MTLTP 203-4].
August 20 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to longtime family friend, Clara L. Spaulding, who had obviously written to him (not extant) concerning some disagreement; she was about to be married. Sam offered wisdom about words spoken in argument, how to keep peace, and quoted from the Rubáiyát, by Omar Khayam:
“A moment’s Halt’ — a momentary taste/Of Being, at the well amid the waste”…etc.
No member shall be called to account for words spoken in debate