January 15 Sunday – The New York Times, p.8 ran news Sam would have surely heard about.
THE “ENTERPRISE” TO SUSPEND.
D.O. MILLS SAYS IT DOES NOT PAY TO KEEP IT GOING.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 14. — One of the signs that the bottom has really dropped out of the great Comstock Lode is the telegraphic order from D.O. Mills, now in New-York, to suspend publication next Sunday of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, the oldest newspaper in Nevada, which for twenty-five years has been controlled by the bonanza millionaires and the Bank of California. It was the organ of these people. …
The suspension of the Enterprise proves that the insiders, who know what the diamond drill has reached, have no hope of rich strikes. The Enterprise had the honor of serving as a kindergarten for most of the noted California writers. With the exception of Bret Harte, all have served on this Nevada paper. Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, and Dan De Quille were reporters in the bonanza days, and some of Mark Twain’s best stories first saw the light in the Enterprise.
January, mid – Susy Clemens wrote to Louise Brownell after receiving her letter written on Christmas day. Susy’s letter is postmarked, January, 1893. She writes of the “lovely weather now in January” and “the other day we had the merest sprinkling of snow” which brought transportation by horses to a halt. Being used to New England winters, Susy thought this “utterly ridiculous!” With her “creative” spelling:
Tonight Mlle. [Lançon] and I are going to hear the great Salvini but in a comedie a thing which I cannot regret enough having never seen him before. I wanted my first impression of him to be in a tragedie of course.
Lina and I have grown suddenly intimate during the past weeks and some of her reserve has disappeared. …
America looks further and further away recedes and recedes till I am ready to scream. If the cholera comes in the spring as it undoubtedly will that will keep us over here longer than ever on account of certain results to the publishing business. Then Clara wants to live and die abroad, and is urging Mamma to let her prepare for the concert stage, — a most allarming and convulsing attitude for her to take, and finally Mamma’s health is not sufficiently improved to make it possible for her to go back. So when — when — when? And meantime, most discouraging of all, we are getting accustomed to European life and growing to dread the change of going home with all our longing to return. Papa and Clara seem quite weaned [Cotton 101196-9].
Note: English girl Lina Duff Gordon (1874-1964) was Susy’s daily companion, going into Florence almost daily, and attending balls and parties together [A. Hoffman 380]. The Clemens’ neighbor, Janet D. Ross, was the daughter of Lucie, Lady Duff Gordon (1821-1869) of Letters of Egypt and Letters from the Cape fame. Lina was Lady Gordon’s granddaughter; she became a travel writer in her own right, with several books on Italy.