April 2 Thursday – On or just after this day, Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Frederick Dent Grant (1850-1912), son of General Grant. Sam’s note was in response to an Apr. 1 letter from Gerhardt, who was in New York at the time. “I hope you can speak a moment with Gerhardt. I am sending him to you on a matter of importance” [MTP]. Note: Such a matter of importance unspecified would lean toward Sam sending the dispatch as soon as he received Gerhardt’s, or Apr. 2 at the earliest. Mail between New York, Hartford, and Boston seems to have been timely in the 1880s.

Sam then telegraphed Karl Gerhardt:

“Go see Col. Grant & if that man’s name is mentioned you can tell him what you have told me. I have telegraphed Col. Grant you are coming” [MTP].

The Boston Daily Advertiser, on page 2, ran a short announcement:

Concord, April 1—At a recent meeting of the Concord Free Trade Club, Mr. S.L. Clemens (Mark Twain) was elected an honorary member of the club. A certificate of his election was sent Mr. Clemens in due course, and the following acknowledgment of the same has just been received—

W.W. Taylor for Rockwood Pottery wrote they’d sent the vase to Hartford [MTP].