May 4 Tuesday

William Dean Howells would be much affected by the Haymarket riot (there was actually no riot), which Goodman and Dawson in their biography of Howells write, “marked the culmination of two decades of social conflict and resulted in a trial that gripped the entire country” [276].

“From the outset, Howells followed reports of the Haymarket story and the trial. His version, which anticipated the findings of later historians, ran contrary to almost every contemporary editorial and every assumption about justice in the national press. He did not consider the process supervised by Judge Joseph Easton Gary a trial at all. As he saw it, Gary selected his own biased jury, silenced or overruled an able defense team, and found consistently for the prosecution….Howells pitied the defendants as victims of a judicial system gone awry” [278-9].

In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, responding to his May 3 letter, to firm up the day of his arrival to work on the Sellers as Scientist play.

We can be as private here as pie (that’s Mrs. Howells’s comparative for everything) and I shall be glad to see you, understanding of course that it doesn’t cut off the Susy visit later. What time Monday shall you arrive? Why not Sunday? But perhaps Monday is best. I find I’ve got a copy of the 3d Act, but you’d better bring another if you can [MTHL 2: 555-6].

John Fiske wrote to Sam that “at last” he had things arranged to lecture in Hartford on May 14, 18, and 20, hoping he had “not lost his visit…through this unfortunate delay.” He’d written to “Mrs. Bartholomew that if she wishes to divide me with you as before proposed, I shall be very happy to be made the subject of such division” [MTP].