May 20 Thursday – Sam rented a hack from Wm. P. Woolley, Hartford livery, to ride to the circus. The Grand London Circus, then played in Hartford. It’s not known if the whole family went or just Sam and the children, but Livy was seven months pregnant, so likely she stayed home (see Oct. 17 for livery bill details). The Hartford Courant reviewed the circus May 21, page 2, and reported:
The opening performance in the afternoon [May 20] tested the capacity of the tents to their utmost, and when the horses pranced in for the opening cavalcade not a seat was to be had…the baby elephant was, of course, the center of attraction, but the cages of animals, plump fine-conditioned beasts, also held their knots of observers….The equestrian exercises were at times thrilling, Charles W. Fish’s bareback riding sharing the plaudits with Madame Cordona’s four-horse trick act with Linda Jeal’s pretty riding terminating with her leaps through rings of flame. Note: Can you picture Sam with 8-year-old Susy and nearly 6-year-old Clara being wowed? See http://www.circushistory.org/History/PTB1881.htm
Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss. A letter of May 3 had arrived from Chatto & Windus objecting to the $450 charged for the electrotypes for A Tramp Abroad. Sam enclosed their letter to Bliss:
“Evidently this should have been written to the Am. Pub. Co., Frank, & not to me. How could I have had an ‘understanding’ about what the Co. would charge for electros, when I could by no possibility know?” [MTLE 5: 108].
Sam also wrote to Moncure Conway, again about the electrotype cuts. He’d made Bliss cable the price of the cuts just so Chatto could stop the process if not satisfied. “Now at this late day he writes & complains of the price,” Sam wrote. He couldn’t dictate to Bliss what to charge; had no “understanding” with Chatto.
“However, it seems to me I am writing a dam sight of letters on other folks’s business—so I’ll stop, & get a fan” [MTLE 5: 110].
Sam sent an inscription for E.S. Bowen to Charles Langdon, using a page from TA [MTLE 5: 111].
Park & Tilford billed Sam for “2 doz Glen Whisky” total $28 [MTP].