September 17 Friday, before – Sam wrote in his notebook plans for a one-day outing to Springlake Beach, New Jersey during the ten-day stop in New York after the family’s return from Keokuk [MTNJ 3: 256n94]. No evidence of the considered side-trip was found, though there certainly was time for such a side-trip and Frank M. Scott’s letter of Sept. 18 hints the trip may have been made Sept. 18-19, or over the weekend.
September 17 Friday – The Clemens family left Elmira for a ten day stay in New York City [Sept. 14 to Whitmore]. It had been “an unimaginably delightful summer,” though not productive for Sam’s literary efforts. They stayed at the Murray Hill Hotel [Sept. 16 to Whitmore].
L.. Hoffman on their time spent in New York:
“On the way back to Hartford, the family stopped in New York for a week, meeting Charley and Annie Webster on their triumphant return from Rome, where they had enjoyed an audience with Pope Leo XIII and obtained his imprimatur for the biography of him. Sam tried to reestablish warm relations with Charley, but during this visit he did not waste much time with him; the family had other interests to pursue in the city. The prospective fortune the company would make from the biography of the pope encouraged Sam to allow himself considerable freedom with money. Livy wanted some new furniture and other objects for the house, since her mother planned to spend the winter in Hartford. Clara, who had inherited her mother’s crooked teeth, began a $400 course of treatment with Dr. J.N. Farrar, the world’s leading orthodontic authority. The girls’ affection for animals created a special fervor for the work of Henry Bergh, whose Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals successfully had campaigned to protect the city’s dray horses. Sam took the girls to the organization’s headquarters” [336-7]. (Editorial emphasis; See MTNJ 3: 258n103 for Farrar.)
Note: attached to an entry in Sam’s notebook: J. Wells Taylor / Bergh Society. “No information has been discovered about Clemens’ business at the New York office of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Henry Bergh, the society’s founder, was still its president at this time. J. Wells Taylor has not been identified” [MTNJ 3: 256n95] [Perhaps Hoffman discovered facts not cited.]
Sam’s notebook entry after the stay at Quarry Farm lists Sam’s additional obligation to Theodore W. Crane for the family’s summer expenses at $57.85.
Farm: Estimated the family (6 persons) in bulk at $40 per week, & the pony at $3. (Add $50 to the whole to cover possible overlookings [MTNJ 3: 257]. Note: page 296 shows calculations of 13 weeks @ $40 = 520 plus $40 for the pony, and $40 added, totaling $600.
Orion Clemens wrote about “poking along in Henry III.” The letter was sent to Elmira and forwarded to the Murray Hill Hotel in New York [MTP].