October 11 Monday – The New York Times, Oct. 14, 1886 p.2 ran a facsimile of a check to Julia D. Grant for $150,000 drawn on the Mount Morris Bank and signed by Charles L. Webster on this date. Canceled check no. 169 is in the MTP.
This, with the preceding payment made on Feb. 28, 1886, brings the amount received by Mrs. Grant on account of the memoirs to $350,000. Of the sum uncollected she will be entitled to receive something over $100,000 additional. Volume I. of the book was published Dec. 1, 1885, and Volume II. May 10, 1886. [Note: the prior payment was made on Feb. 27, 1887, not Feb. 28]
The Times on p.2 under “Literary Notes” also ran this squib:
L.. The life of the Pope written by Dr. Bernard O’Reilly will appear in London and New-York in English, at Cologne in German, at Paris in French, at Barcelona in Spanish, at Turin in Italian, and at Amsterdam in Dutch all on the same day. The agents for Europe are Sampson Low & Co., and the firm of which Mark Twain is a member manage the venture.
Sam read a paper, “A Protest Against Taking the Pledge” at the Monday Evening Club, Hartford. [Fatout, MT Speaking 657]. MTNJ 3: 226 refers to this as “Concerning a Reformed Pledge: A New Year Sermon,” which Sam wrote in response to Irving Bacheller’s Sept. 8 request to publish in his syndicate of newspapers on Christmas Day. The above source explains,
“He also produced three papers which he read at meetings of the Hartford Monday Evening Club, one of them a version of a piece called “Concerning a Reformed Pledge: A New-Year Sermon.” A failure of literary judgment is apparent in Clemens’ repeated notebook references to this meandering and dreary work which he did not tire of showing around and which he tried unsuccessfully to publish.”
Orion Clemens began a letter to his brother he would finish Oct. 12:
I hauled Pamela your letter. She laughed and was pleased. I felt authorized to tell her that if she needed money, east or west, to let me know.
In the course of communication she repeated your advice to Sam about writing history. It encouraged me to send you a copy of work which I did last Friday and Saturday.
Ma, Mollie and I are suffering with severe colds. The doctor is trying to keep Ma’s from settling on her lungs [MTP].
Monday Evening Club delivered Sam a printed form postcard announcing a meeting at Henry C. Robinson’s home for Oct. 11 at 7:30. The Essayist: “Mr. Clemens: A Protest against ‘Taking the Pledge’” [MTP].