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 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 – 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 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 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 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
August 21 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote one line that he would keep a confidence for this unidentified person [MTP].
August 22 Sunday – The Boston Daily Globe ran “Mark Twain As A Wheelman,” p.8, Aug. 23, 1886 about his struggles on the bicycle.
HARTFORD, August 22. — Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, undertook to ride a bicycle at about the same time that his pastor began, and his not happy in the sport. The teacher of Mr. Clemens during the first weeks of his wheeling tells this story of him:
August 23 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, whose last letter to Sam was written Aug. 19. Sam enclosed a $10 check for , and also “the September checks” which probably were for bills, or for family, since Webster was not in the country. In order to secure the test he’d suggested for typesetting averages at the Hartford Courant, Sam suggested Whitmore confide in Mr. Stephen A.
August 24 Tuesday – Sam was elected “Corresponding Member for Life” of the Scottish Society of Literature and Art, and given a plaque bearing this date [Scott 132].
August 25 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. He didn’t care whether a Mr. Horace King was good or not — he gave Hall his power of attorney to unload all interests in Kaolatype to King [MTLTP 204-5]. Note: Sam’s losses from Kaolatype, an engraving process, amounted to $50,000 [A. Hoffman 302]. Horace King of Thompsonville, Conn. had applied to buy the rights for the process.
August 26 Thursday – Frederick J. Hall wrote Sam about the job of gathering statistics from newspapers:
I have visited nearly all the large Agencies, but they will not undertake the job; however, I think I have some one now who will put it through successfully. Will let you know positively in a few days. They all say it is a very difficult piece of work, and rather out of their line. Rowell refuses to undertake it at any price.
August 28 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam continued to work soliciting ems per hour information from newspapers, and directed Hall to make up a form to send to various papers. He suggested they obtain an advertising agency, which would allow the use of their name without them having to do the work. He was after country dailies now, not the big newspapers. He wanted to gauge the size of the entire market for his typesetting machine:
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 31 Tuesday – From Sam’s notebook, a startling plan. One wonders what reaction this idea brought.
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….