May 3 Tuesday – Sam wrote a one-liner from Hartford to Charles Webster, asking if there wasn’t a payment to be made on the Watch stock before May 10 [MTP].
May 4 Wednesday – Charles Webster wrote a postcard sized note to Sam that his letters came daily but he had been too busy to answer them. “I have a good deal to tell you & will try to write tomorrow. I saw Sneider yesterday, he refuses to show me the experiment.” He also made Slote pay up [MTP].
May 5 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens that Dan Slote was “either a knave or a fool” and that he was in cahoots with Sneider to “bleed” Clemens [MTNJ 2: 353]. Note: replied May 6.
Emerson O. Stevens (1865-1900) Wrote from Cleveland, Ohio
Mr. Twain,—Dear Sir:
May 6 Friday – Sam had initially hired Charles Webster to take charge of the Kaolatype investment, but he soon became a general business manager. Samuel Webster writes: “Mark Twain started at once to unload instructions, plans, and bright ideas onto his new helper.
May 7 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. His opinion of Slote had, by this time, gone completely dark.
Dear Charley— / The fact that we are into Dan near $900, reconciles me to the other things. He must never have a cent of that while he lives.
Come up here Monday—we can get through our talk before 6 P.M.—I leave then, for South Manchester [Conn.] to be gone till midnight.—or, come Tuesday, if you prefer.
May 9 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Karl and Hattie Gerhardt. After going on about how he liked the way they kept their finances, Sam admitted, “I am not as business-like, myself, as I ought to be—consequently I peculiarly detest the like thing in others.” Sam told of plans to go to the “Sound-side near New Haven about June 1st” and his hope that Paris would not be as “wintry & hideous as it was at this time in ‘79” [MTP].
May 10 Tuesday – Arnold, Constable & Co., NYC billed Sam $4.50 for “3 caps”, paid May 13 [MTP].
May 11 Wednesday – James R. Osgood wrote from Boston to Clemens. “I sold the story to Scribner for $400 with the understanding that if it should exceed 13 1/3 pages you should be paid for such excess at the rate of $30 per page [MTP]. Note: written on the env., “Osgood sells M.T. story to Scribners / A Curious Incident?”
Charles Webster wrote from NYC on Kaolatype Engraving Co. Letterhead to Clemens.
May 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, thanking him for some service performed (unidentified):
“Old man, you performed gorgeously. You would make a good highwayman. Yes, sir, for the sake of your character (& mine) I will be very mum to those people.”
May 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam. “At last Slote is thoroughly convinced that Sneider has been swindling you.” He detailed how Sneider had done the deed, and said “Dan is furious,” that he “could not uphold any one in cheating Sam & he had hard work to restrain himself &c.” Webster also touched on several other business matters [MTP].
May 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam was still hot on the heels of Dan Slote and Sneider.
May 16 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster.
“Yes, if we snatch Sneider up before the court he will weaken & be glad to sign the documents & get out.
May 18 Wednesday – Charles Webster reported to Sam:
“The bubble has burst. Sneider has confessed…that the whole thing was a swindle from the beginning….Sneider says he’s going to commit suicide” [MTNJ 2: 393n120]. Note: Sam’s loss on Kaolatype would eventually be some $50,000 [Powers, MT A Life 452].
May 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster. He wanted an accounting of old bills paid. After they were done with Sneider, he told Webster to get their attorney’s view how to proceed against Slote. Sam also felt the American Publishing Co. was “getting mighty feeble” and talked of plans to dump his stock. There were problems in England, too:
May 20 Friday – Sam sent two telegrams from Hartford to Webster about Dan’s Slote’s punishment:
FIRST TELEGRAM 11:30 A.M. …I PREFER THEY [LAWYERS] MAKE DEMANDS UPON HIM THOUGH I WILL DO SO IF THEY SO ADVISE [MTP].
May 21 Saturday – Livy had invited the Whitmores for the evening to meet her brother, Charles Langdon, and his wife, Ida Clark Langdon, who were visiting from Elmira [MTP see May 18 entry].
May 23 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Osgood & Co. He ordered two novels, Green Hand (1879) by George Cupples, and Sailor’s Sweetheart (1880) by William Clark Russell [MTNJ 2: 395n131; Gribben 168, 596]. Sam sent a check for $160.76 for past books ordered. Osgood had set up an account for such purchases [MTLTP 136-7].
May 24 Tuesday – Sam’s May 19 transfer of 200 shares of stock to Frank Bliss (probably Am. Pub. Co. stock) was completed [ViU].
Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy that she’d received and kissed many times their photographs. Josie was very homesick [MTP].
May 26 Thursday – G.H. Olmstead, Jr., Hartford, billed Sam $8 for “1 16in daisy; [?] by old mower” [MTP].
May 27 Friday – Haynes & Simmons, “fine boots, shoes & rubbers” billed $8 for goods (illegible); paid [MTP].
Miss E.T. Morgan wrote from Knoxville, Tenn. to thank Sam for the $25 he gave to Mrs. Olmstead for her. (This letter was enclosed in Mrs. J. Olmstead’s June 1; see entry) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From a damn fool in Tennessee —OLMSteads”
May 28 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, still trying to figure out how to make a living. His arm had swollen painfully so could not go to Chicago to set type. Could Sam “risk $200” for him to go to Colorado to check out that mining possibility? [MTP]. Note: begs the question: if he couldn’t set type how could he mine?
May 30 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam forwarded notes he’d made a week or two before, one of which suggested Slote had used his money to pay Kaolatype debts incurred before Sam purchased stock [MTBus 158].
May 31 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Webster advising him on the stock price of American Bank Note Co. Howells had informed Sam that a broker named Shepard could get the stock cheaper than Bissell, the Hartford broker Sam usually dealt with. Sam authorized Webster to buy $1000 worth.
June – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster advising him that Woodman, Dan Slote’s former partner, might be someone valuable to consult on scrapbook matters [MTP].
Sam inscribed: “S.L. Clemens, Hartford, June, 1881” on the flyleaf of Charles Anthon’s (1797-1867) Classical Dictionary (1880), which treated Greek and Roman literature and history [Gribben 25].
June 1 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to J.S. Wood replying to a request for some unidentified materials. “…my slips will arrive ‘the day after the Fair’ ” [MTP]. This may possibly be John Seymour Wood (1853-1934), Author.
Orion Clemens wrote to his brother that he now had 1776 MS. pages on his autobiography [MTP].
Mrs. John Olmstead wrote from Boston to Clemens: