March 16 Friday – Jane Lampton Clemens added to her letter of Mar. 13. “Now the weather is good and I wish to come to your house, if it suits you. I can do as you said pay Orion’s way there & home again” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answer”
W.G. Watson wrote to ask if he could see Sam “on very important business (to me) for about 15 minutes” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Watson the tramp”
March 17 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George W. Cable, at the time in Baltimore for a reading, confirming details on the planned “trial lecture” for Cable.
March 18 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam.
March 19 Monday – Susy Clemens’ eleventh birthday.
March 20 Tuesday – In New York City, Sam and Livy took Charles and Annie Webster and attended a special matinee performance of Herr Barnay at the Thalia Theater, “to which only members of the profession were invited.”
BARNAY IN FARCE AND TRAGEDY.
A PERFORMANCE FOR THE PLEASURE OF HIS PROFESSIONAL BRETHREN
March 21 Wednesday – Sam and Livy continued their New York stay, for both business and shopping pleasure. Sam and Livy also visited with Augustus Saint-Gaudens on this trip [Mar. 26 to Gerhardt, MTP].
March 22 Thursday – They arrived back in Hartford in the evening. Charles Dudley Warner “dropped in” after they arrived home and suggested that George W. Cable give the same reading in Hartford he successfully gave in Baltimore, instead of the planned lecture on “Creole Women.” Sam felt it would be “safer” to give a reading that had proven successful elsewhere [Mar. 23 to Cable, MTP].
March 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing a letter of interest in the Paige typesetter.
“So I thought that if you and [William] Payton should run up here together and examine the machine, it would help these people to remember the terms upon which they can be applied to those New York men for capital” [MTBus 212].
March 25 Sunday – In the Mar. 26 letter to the Gerhardts, Sam referred to this morning as Livy passing “the danger point” in her recent illness [MTP].
The following classified ad ran on page 5 of the Brooklyn Eagle:
March 26 Monday – Sam sent a telegram from Hartford to George W. Cable, verifying the upcoming lecture date as Apr. 4 on “Creole Women” while working in the Baltimore reading. Sam added that Livy was “out of danger” [MTP].
March 27 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George W. Cable, who had written asking if a particular engagement would interfere with the planned trip and reading in Hartford. Sam telegraphed that it would not, but advised him to:
March 30 Friday – Sam’s letter to the editor ran on page two of the Hartford Courant under the headline “George W. Cable”:
Of the evening of the fourth of April the gifted southerner whose name appears above, will deliver at Unity Hall, in Hartford, a lecture upon “Creole Women,” sauced with illustrative readings from “The Grandissimes” and other of his books [Courant.com].
March 31 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Charles Webster, conveying Livy’s apologies for not saying a proper goodbye to Annie after the opera in New York. Sam wrote that the “type setter company are going to have a meeting next week, April 4th.
April – Sam wrote a maxim on stationery of the Alpha Literary Society, Greenville Ill. to an unidentified person: “It is easier—& nearly always more judicious—to tell seven lies than make one explanation…” [MTP]. Note similarity with Apr. 3 to Bellows.
April 1 Sunday – Mollie and Orion Clemens wrote to Sam & Livy. Orion thanked Sam for the German books sent. They’d written to Kate Lampton to visit when it turned warmer and that Ma would send her tickets both ways. Sorry to hear of Livy’s “danger” but were glad she was better. Mollie urged them to visit [MTP].
April 2 Monday – George W. Cable arrived in Hartford at noon and stayed with Charles Dudley Warner. From Cable’s letter to his wife:
Charles D. Warner met me at the door just leaving for New York. He will be back to my lecture on Wednesday. His wife is at the piano practicing for a little afternoon musicale appointed for tomorrow at this house.
April 3 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote an aphorism to John Bellows in Gloucester, England: “I would rather tell seven lies than make one explanation” [Sotheby’s catalog at MTP].
From George W. Cable’s letter to his wife:
Dear old Mark Twain sends kindest word to all of you, beginning, of course, with Nellie.
April 4 Wednesday – Sam sponsored and introduced George W. Cable in a program of readings at Unity Hall in Hartford. To ensure a good response, Sam encouraged well-known literary types from New York and Boston to attend [Fatout, MT Speaking 176-7]. In his Apr. 6 letter to New Orleans artist Frances A. Cox, Sam wrote “George W.
April 5 Thursday – Sam introduced George W. Cable to the Saturday Morning Club, Hartford, at the home of Charles Perkins. Cable read “Posson Jones.” Richard Watson Gilder was among the guests [Bickle 97; Turner, MT & GWC 16-17]. Note: In this and a few other cases Sam’s young girls’ club met on days other than Saturday to accommodate speakers.
April 6 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frances A. Cox. Sam thanked her again for the portrait of “Mammy” –“the lovely & lovable black face, heart of gold in ebony casket.” Sam also wrote that this reading was:
April 7 Saturday – Sam’s carriage took George W. Cable to the depot so he could catch a train to Newport. Livy was too ill to accompany them [Turner, MT & GWC 20-1].
Charles Webster wrote enclosing a check for the last three months on old books. “Bliss won’t send me a price list or circular I have repeatedly requested him to do so…He says he will not supply me with books….What was your arrangement about ordering books from him?” [MTP].
April 8 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam’s mother was now living with Orion and Mollie Clemens in Keokuk by this time. Pamela Moffett was traveling in California but would return to Fredonia. Annie Webster was packing up her house there for the move to New York.
April 9 Monday – Charles Webster wrote: “Your smallest wish shall be gratified, no matter how much it discommodes me. I did not think for a moment that I was deserting my post here or I would not have entertained the idea…” He disputed Sam’s numbers on older books published by Bliss, as he had the binders statements in front of him—he listed years and numbers bound. He was enthusiastic about the sale of LM [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No. of various books of Bliss”
April 10 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Matt H. Hewins, about the cushions on his billiard table. “They seem to act first rate when we threaten to change them,” Sam observed [MTP].
April 11 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Mrs. Rollins (unidentified further):