September 28 Thursday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. Evidently, Livy was in transit to Paris, because Sam sent the letter in care of Drexel Harjes & Co. there, and wrote that he wondered where she was, “at Botzen, I suppose.” He pulled no punches about Webster & Co. or the economic conditions of the country:
September 29 Friday – In New York, Clarence C. Rice left for Chicago, leaving Sam alone in his “bachelor quarters.” Finding it too lonesome, Sam took a room at The Players Club at 16 Grammercy Park [Sept. 30 to Clara].
On Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Francis D. Millet, his old artist friend, responding to an unspecified gift.
September 30 Saturday – In New York, Sam finished his Sept. 28 letter to Livy. He wrote he’d forgotten to mail his letters of Sept. 28 and 29.
By Jackson a body forgets pretty much everything, these days, except his visions of the poor-house [LLMT 276].
October – Sam’s notebook makes reference to Sanford Fillmore Bennett’s 1868 hymn, “The Sweet By and By” [Gribben 59; NB33 TS 35]. Note: Sam first joked about this hymn in a Dec. 5, 1877 letter to D.F. Appleton.
October 1 Sunday – As evidenced by Oct. 3 letters to Clara and Livy, Sam made a quick round trip to Elmira on Oct. 1 and 2. Each way was nine to ten hours by rail, so his visit there was brief. Evidently he changed his mind about his clothes not being suitable, as expressed to Clara on Sept. 30. Sam’s notebook:
Erie Road. Parlor Car Hebrides, Sunday Oct 1 — left Jersey City 10.15 a.m. / Darkey porter with impudent manners [NB 33 TS 33].
October 2 Monday – Sam was in Elmira for a quick visit with his daughter Clara, Sue Crane and perhaps others. He returned to New York on this day or overnight.
John Brisben Walker for Cosmopolitan wrote a rather strongly worded note to Sam, that the “chief feature of my Christmas edition will be absent if you fail me. Don’t, for heavens sake, unless you wish me the worst sort of luck” [MTP].
October 3 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam was back in New York and wrote to daughter Clara:
Well, dear Ben, that little glimpse of you has done me a power of good. Was I indiscreet in talking as I did about my firm’s condition? I guess not; you will keep still & say nothing. It would hurt if any thing of our embarrassments got into print.
Thus far I haven’t felt any fatigue from my double journey [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Livy, with no news other than his trip to Elmira:
October 5 Thursday – In New York, Sam wrote on Webster & Co. letterhead to daughter Clara, responding to her “dear sweet letter” he found upon arrival in New York. Sam sent her an assortment of postage stamps for her to write more. On the reverse side of the letter he wrote:
Charley Warner is insisting that you go there, when you go to Hartford, & make that your headquarters, (with your trunk there), & visiting around among the Twichells and Robinsons from there [MTP].
October 8 Sunday – The New York Times, p.18 under “Personal” ran this squib:
Although the sons of famous men are apt to be disappointing, the daughters seem not infrequently to seize the mantle of the paternal genius. Miss Mildred Howells is a most skillful story-teller and a clever illustrator, and Miss Clare [sic] Clemens, daughter of Mark Twain, though only twenty years old, has written a play which is highly spoken of. [Note: the play is not specified; this may be confused with a play that Susy wrote.]
October 9 Monday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Joe Twichell, answering Joe’s urging letter (not extant) for him to come up to Hartford for a visit.
October 13 Friday – Grace King wrote to Livy about how delightful her visit with her sister last year was, and how the Clemenses were on her mind so much. Much of the letter is illegible [MTP].
October 14 Saturday – In New York, Sam wrote on the back of his Villa Viviani calling card, a note for Franklin G. Whitmore:
P.S. Moreover, that Buffalo firm have not paid me in full for “Adam’s Diary” & I am going to sue for the rest SLC [MTP].
October 16 Monday – In New York, Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to daughter Clara. This is an obvious response to Clara’s letter (not extant), which evidently had sought an answer to why gondolas carried a blade on the bow. Sam searched “two cyclopedias & the Century Dictionary, then examined the Astor Library — but all to no purpose.” Sam supplied an answer from Gilder and Johnson of the Century that the blade was a gauge for clearance, but also had become ornamental.
October 17 Tuesday – In New York, Sam began a story/letter to Livy that he laid aside forgotten until he moved into new quarters at The Players on Dec. 16, 1893. Sam titled the tale, based on a young girl he’d seen at Dora Keith’s, “TALE OF THE DIME-NOVEL MAIDEN”. Sam finished the tale on Dec. 16 and then put it in a letter to Livy on Dec. 17.
October 18 Wednesday – In New York on Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote a long letter to Livy. The last two days had been so busy he hadn’t had the time to write. The sale of LAL was finalized and the transfer would be made the following day. Sam called it a “give-away,” yet it removed a great burden from Sam and Webster & Co. [MTP] Paine writes,
October 19 Thursday – The sale of LAL to William Evarts Benjamin, H.H. Roger’s son-in-law, was finalized for $50,000 [Oct. 18 to Livy; MTB 971].
October 20 Friday – At 4:50 p.m. in New York, on Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. He mentioned a change in plans about his skeleton novelette idea, and would evaluate his “old translation of Struwelpeter & see if it is worth publishing.” He felt a new color printing invention by Cosmopolitan would be “just the thing” with the story.
October 21 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing a letter to him from Clara written Oct. 18 at Quarry Farm. Sam wrote after Clara’s signature:
October 24 Tuesday – In New York Sam sent a note to Frederick J. Hall directing him to send $175 to the steamer office for passage and funds for daughter Clara and her teacher’s daughter, Miss Katherine Willard.
I go to Hartford at noon to-morrow, (Wednesday) with my daughter. Please re-mail such letters as may arrive for us up to Saturday noon….Open all telegrams & re-wire them to me. SLC [MTP].
October 25 Wednesday – Before leaving for Hartford, Sam enclosed Charles Langdon’s Oct. 24 letter (asking for payment of $1,705.93 for the James Rathbone note and interest payments) to Frederick J. Hall. See Aug. 8 for Langdon borrowing $8,000 from his friend Rathbone to help Webster & Co.
October 26 Thursday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 27 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to letters and a formal invitation from John Elderkin and Frank R. Lawrence about a forthcoming banquet:
October 28 Saturday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 28-31 Tuesday – Sometime during this period Sam wrote a letter from either Hartford or New York to Livy about Isa Carrington Cabell and Susan Warner.
October 29 Sunday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 30 Monday – Sam returned to New York with daughter Clara [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].