December 20 Wednesday – In New York Sam arrived home (Players Club) at 3 a.m. from unspecified engagements. Some powders were waiting for him for his cold, sent by Henry H. Rogers. He stayed awake for an hour and took them, got a few hours sleep and wrote Rogers his thanks at 9 a.m.
I got the shoes on my way home from your office, & when you see them you will be paralyzed with admiration [MTP].
December 21 Thursday – In New York, Sam finished the letter to Livy at 2 a.m.
December 22 Friday – Sam and Rogers continued on to Chicago, eating breakfast in their parlor car after 9:30 a.m.
The colored waiter knew his business, & the colored cook was a finished artist. Breakfasts: coffee with real cream; beefsteaks, sausage, bacon, chops, eggs in various ways, potatoes in various — yes, & quite wonderful baked potatoes, & hot as fire. Dinners — all manner of things, including canvas-back duck, apollinaris, claret champagne, etc.
—
December 23 Saturday –In Chicago Sam and H.H. Rogers had a wake-up call at 7:45 a.m. The plan was for Rogers to confer with Mr. Walker and the others, while Sam would make a quick trip to the Columbian Exposition’s “White City,” the area at the Court of Honor so-called because the buildings were made of a white stucco, which, in comparison to the tenements of Chicago, seemed illuminated.
December 24 Sunday – Returning from Chicago, Sam and H.H. Rogers “insisted on leaving the car at Philadelphia so that our waiter & cook (to whom Mr. R gave $10 apiece), could have their Christmas-eve at home.” Rogers’ carriage was waiting for the men at Jersey City. Sam was “deposited” at the Players Club “close upon midnight” [Dec. 25 to Livy].
December 25 Monday – Christmas – In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote Livy a full account of the “Chicago campaign,” offered to “make up for the 3 letterless days.” See entries from Dec. 22 to 24.
Sam also wrote to Elsie L. Leslie:
December 27 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to daughter Susy. He wished she could be with him at Dr. Rice’s gathering the following night. He also told of how happy his speech had made Brander Matthews, quoting him as saying the delivery was “masterly!” Also, he told about his ruined Christmas dinner due to a lady he detested (See. Dec. 25 entry). Sam finished the letter after a six-hour interval, at midnight.
December 28 Thursday – In New York Sam wrote daughter Jean.
Dear Blatherskite: I am glad you are having good times at your school, but I kind of wish they had none but French girls in it.
December 29 Friday – At 1:30 a.m., Sam finished his Dec. 28 to Livy
2 in the morning, now, & I better go to bed. I love you my darling & think you are the dearest woman in this world. / Saml [MTP].
Later in the day Sam was able to write Livy a longer letter. He’d had two business calls while putting on his shirt. When he got downstairs for coffee, George Warner was waiting for him to tell him about Dr. Whipple, “mind curist,” and take Sam to see him.
December 30 Saturday – In New York at 1.p.m. Sam wrote a short note to H.H. Rogers, asking if Henry G. Newton accepted (for his client Charles R. North) wouldn’t it be “judicious” to get it in writing? Sam emphasized this was only a suggestion to Rogers, who undoubtedly was much wiser in business, “from one accustomed to teach his grandmother how to suck eggs” [MTHHR 31].
December 31 Sunday – On Players Club letterhead Sam wrote a short note thanking Curtis Bell.
I am very glad to foster & increase our kind of crime, & so I do the thing which you suggest [MTP].
Sam also wrote responding to a request for a photograph from Mr. Moskovitz. He thanked the man for his kind letter but hadn’t a photo “on the place.” They were probably with his family in Paris [MTP]. Note: this may have been Moritz Moskowski, Clara’s piano teacher in Berlin.
January – Sam’s notebook lists several ideal subjects for his “Back Number” magazine, including Pepys’ Diary, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Herodotus’ writings, and “John Johnson (Iceland) in old Littell.
January 1 Monday – In New York Sam wrote to Henry G. Newton, attorney for Charles R. North:
It would not avail for me to go to New Haven, or to re-open negociations here, because I have no larger powers now that I have been equipped with heretofore. But if you would like to see Mr. Rogers I will make the appointment for you, or you can communicate directly with him.
January 2 Tuesday – Sam signed the brief introduction, “A Whisper To The Reader,” to The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins:
Given under my hand this second day of January, 1893, at the Villa Viviani, village of Settignano, three miles back of Florence, on the hills…[Oxford facsimile edition 1996].
January 3 Wednesday – In New York on the stationery of the Office of Woodlawn Cemetery, 20 E. 23rd Street, where the Knevals brothers (of the Conn. Co.–See Dec. 7, 1893) were directors, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
January 4 Thursday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam’s wakeup call came at 8:30 a.m. He was “rested & vigorous,” and “spent the day walking the sidewalk out in front taking the brisk air & keeping watch for messengers.” He wrote all this and much more in another long letter to Livy. He opened with a paragraph referencing, “The Tale of the Dime-Store Maiden” he’d sent on Dec.
January 5 Friday – The New York Times of Jan. 6, p.9 “Notes of the Courts” reported an old lawsuit against Sam was dropped:
The suit brought by Edward House to prevent Samuel L. Clemens, (“Mark Twain,”) Abby Sage Richardson, and Daniel Frohman from producing “The Prince and the Pauper” without consent of the plaintiff, was dismissed by Justice Bischoff in the Special Term of the Court of Common Pleas yesterday.
Note: See May 7, 1890 and other entries concerning House’s lawsuit.
January 6 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote two notes to Frederick J. Hall. In the first:
I think I will go to Elmira tomorrow and distribute some stock to people who are anxious to get it. I expect to get back Monday night. If I don’t & the bank is stubborn, go to Mr. Rogers…
[Note: MTLTP 361n1: “Perhaps to Susan Crane, who had offered MT $5,000 in stocks and bonds the preceding fall”; See LLMT, p.270.]
January 7 Sunday – Sam left in the a.m. for Elmira, a nine or ten hour train trip [Jan. 6 to Hall].
January 8 Monday – Sam was in Elmira to give stock to those who had surrendered royalties — besides Sue Crane and Charles Langdon, Matthias Hollenback Arnot held 50 royalties. Sam’s return to New York late this evening would have given him only a few hours on two days for his business.
January 9 Tuesday – Sam was back in New York, and his rooms at The Players Club.
January 10 Wednesday – Sam went to Hartford and took in the play, The Masque of Culture, by the Saturday Morning Club, which he’d established years before. It had been performed previously at Unity Hall, so it’s likely that’s where it came off on this day. Sam had missed two prior invitations to see the play with Annie E. Trumbull in the cast. He described the play, and evaluated roles in a letter to Livy the next day.
January 11 Thursday – In Hartford at Joe Twichell’s parsonage, Sam wrote to Livy about the previous night’s play given by the Saturday Morning Club (see Jan. 10 entry). Sam may have stayed with the Twichells.
January 12 Friday – In New York on Dr. Rice’s letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy of the trip down from Hartford the previous day, lingering negotiations in the typesetter affair, and Mrs. Cabell’s confidence. Kipling would be in New York for a week and Sam wanted to invite him to dinner, but was afraid there would be business interruptions.
January 13 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy from Mr. Rogers’ office. He described Rogers’ sending a telegram framed by the Conn. Co. people and followed by his own: “My telegram of yesterday [Jan. 11] states my position accurately.