November 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook on the alarm system: “It was right in the morning & wrong in the afternoon.”
“Spoke of Louise Messina (in bed in morning Nov. 12) first time in 3 years. Two days later got a letter from Andrew Langdon in Chicago dated 12th, asking indirectly for a contribution of money for her” [MTNJ 2: 402]. Note: Andrew Langdon was a cousin of Livy’s and a prominent Buffalo businessman [402n161].
November 15 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. “If the brass experiments fail, try copper.” Sam thought that copper or some alloy of copper would “cast perfectly” [MTP].
November 16 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David “Wattie” Bowser thanking him for “the photographs & the pretty pictures.” Sam promised to reciprocate with a copy of P&P when it issued in December [MTP].
November 17 Thursday – Sam gave an introductory speech for Archibald Forbes (1838-1900), Allyn House, Hartford. Forbes was a British war correspondent who wrote several novels after this time. The Courant reported, “Mr. Clemens’s introductory was received with much applause. He said:— ”
November 18 Friday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to advise Sam had a balance of $2,218.76 and Livy had a balance of $20,642.26. “I told George Robinson who called this morning that you were not situated so that you could make the loan—am very sorry that Jean & Susy are under the weather. Mother has improved and is on the road to comfortable health again. We have had three weeks of the most disagreeable weather I ever experienced— In haste…” [MTP].
November 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing $500.
“I leave for Canada Nov. 25, & shall be back about Dec. 7. If you should need more money meantime, write your aunt Livy. She will send it.”
Sam needed to go to Canada, so as to claim residency when P&P was released. This would secure copyright there [MTBus 176].
November 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, who evidently had caught a grammar error in one of Sam’s letters. “It is not my instinct to care whether I am or not in a private letter,” he answered [MTBus 177].
November 22 Tuesday – Now clearly impatient for success at the Kaolatype-brass casting process, Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Webster.
“PERFECT THE ENGLISH PATENT. MY BRASS PATIENCE IS RUNNING LOW. PUT A HUNDRED MEN ON IT AND TELEGRAPH ME A RESULT OF SOME SORT OR OTHER IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS—S.L. CLEMENS” [MTBus 177].
Sam could demand the impossible. Webster’s answer:
“SO IS MINE. IT’S JUST AS HARD TO REPORT RESULTS YOU CAN’T GET AS TO GET 100 SKILLED MEN IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS” [177].
November 23 Wednesday – Tiffany & Co. wrote acknowledging the thousand dollars sent [MTP].
November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He didn’t doubt Charley’s energy or dedication, but did require continual reports on things, including the “daily prospects for brass” in order to keep up the English patent. Not long reports, Sam insisted, but ones to the point. If brass wouldn’t work, try copper.
November 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elinor Howells, who evidently wrote that her husband was ill and confined to bed:
“Dear Mrs. Howells— / How you startle me! Can a man so near by, fall sick, & linger along, & approach death, & a body never hear of it?…I supposed Howells went to Toronto the 20th, & that he would fetch around & join Osgood & me in Montreal three or four days from now” [MTHL 1: 379].
November 26 Saturday – Sam left Boston by train for the 200 miles to Montreal, staying at the Windsor Hotel. He arrived at about 9:15 P.M. [MTBus 178; MTNJ 2: 407]. Sam took three history volumes of Francis Parkman to read on the train. On Nov.
November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 36th birthday.
Sam wrote from the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to Livy. His letter was a mixture of hieroglyphics (like his several lecture notes) and text. Paine’s translation:
Livy Dear, a mouse kept me awake last night till 3 or 4 o’clock—so I am lying abed this morning. I would not give sixpence to be out yonder in the storm, although it is only snow. …
November 28 Monday – In Montreal, Sam wrote a short note and a long PS to Livy [MTLP 407].
Livy darling, you and Clara [Spaulding] ought to have been at breakfast in the great dining room this morning. English female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits—& yet such honest, honorable, clean-souled countenances, just as these English women almost always have, you know. Right away—
November 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy.
November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 46th birthday. Osgood and Sam were guests of Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Dawson, of Dawson Brothers, Sam’s Canadian publisher. Sam wrote Livy on Dec. 1 that the gathering was “A crowd of very nice people there. We staid till 11” [MTP].
December – The Prince and the Pauper was published in Germany by Tauchnitz [MTNJ 2: 382n77]. The book was reviewed by Hjalmar Boyesen in the December issue of the Atlantic.
December 1 Thursday – Date of British copyright secured for The Prince and the Pauper [MTNJ 2: 403n165].
In the evening, Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy. Sam and Osgood had been:
December 2 Friday – Sam and James R. Osgood began a three-day excursion a little over a hundred miles to Quebec, arriving at night and staying at the old Russell Hotel (see insert; closed in 1925) [MTNJ 2: 413n181].
Sam wrote from Quebec to Livy at midnight:
December 3 Saturday – The official U.S. publication date for Prince and the Pauper [Nov 9 letter to David Gray, MTP].
In Canada, from Sam’s notebook: McShane & Stephens were both elected.
Snowing lightly—girls slipping down everywhere, sidewalks so icy. —on their way to school.
This is the foulest hotel in some respects in Am.
December 4 Sunday – Sam wrote from Quebec to Livy [MTLP 409].
December 6 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy. He was “pegging away” at a speech for Thursday night, but missed the family:
“I would most powerfully like to see you & the rats. I think of Jean sometimes, too; & to-day I happened to think of the dog. I love you, darling” [MTP].
December 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy at midnight. He just finished the speech for the next night but what he’d added that day made it too long, so he went back to what he had the day before and memorized it. He noted that he was “safe because I wind up in French—if one may call it that” [MTP].
December 8 Thursday – Sam wrote from Montreal to James R. Osgood, sending the speech he was to give that evening. Sam would telegraph if for some reason he did not give it, otherwise Osgood was to “insert a portion or all of the speech in the Boston Herald, or elsewhere,—or in the wastebasket.” Sam added that he would leave for Boston at 8.30 the next morning [MTP].
December 9 Friday – Sam left Montreal for Hartford at 8:30 AM [Dec. 8 letter to Osgood]. It was a day-long trip by rail.