April 6 Monday – Sam added a PS to his letter of Apr. 4 to Webster. He noted that the man made two errors in an enclosed galley proof, but the Paige machine made “not a single error” [MTP].
Karl Gerhardt wrote “I carried bronze bust to Col Fred Grant this afternoon and he gives it to his mother. I give the other members of the family terra cotta busts” [MTP].
April 5 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Charles Webster.
“Livy forbids the ‘Prefatory Remark’—therefore, put it in the fire.”
Sam also discussed the son, age 34, of brilliant criminal lawyer Samuel F. Jones, who was looking for a position. Sam referred him to Webster to evaluate as a state agent for book sales. Sam also vowed to raise the money for Hamersley necessary for the “type-writer speculation” [MTP]. Note: Paige typsetter.
April 4 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:
“General Grant is still alive to-day, & the nation holds its breath & awaits the blow” [MTNJ 3:127].
The Hartford Courant ran Sam’s Mar. 28 letter to Nichols, prefaced by these remarks about the Concord Library and the Boston Advertiser:
April 3 Friday – Sam wrote on the envelope of a letter from Karl Gerhardt:
“Telegraphed Gerhardt not to send this letter—leave the matter alone or put it in General Badeau’s hands” [MTP]. Note: Adam Badeau was an old friend of Grant’s and one of his closest advisors during the war. He was an accomplished writer and also a public figure [Perry 72-73].
Sam also wrote from Hartford to Miss Wachschlager, probably an autograph seeker.
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.
April 1 Wednesday – Sam’s Mar. 28 letter to Frank A. Nichols ran in the New York World. It was widely copied in other papers [MTHL 2: 526n2].
In Hartford, Sam wrote to an unidentified lady who had asked if he might send his short tribute to Adam. Sam replied positively and sent her a paragraph from Innocents Abroad [MTP].
April – On an unknown Friday evening in April, Sam wrote from New York City to Charles Webster of his plans to go home to Hartford in the morning and stay there for the time being unless Webster needed him back in New York.
March 31 Tuesday – Sam spoke at the Tile Club Dinner for Laurence Hutton in New York City—the title of his talk “On Speech-Making Reform” [Fatout, MT Speaking 190-3]. Note: Fatout says this speech is conjectural for this date.
Sam inscribed a copy of HF to Mary Mason Fairbanks: “To / Mother Fairbanks / with the love of her eldest, / The Author. /~ /March 31, 1885” [MTP].
March 29 Sunday – N.E. Collins wrote from Pittsburg to praise HF [MTP].
March 28 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Reginald Cholmondeley of Shrewsbury, England. (Cholmondeley had warned Sam about the Australian imposter.) Reginald had asked if feuds like the Shepherdson-Grangerford trouble were factual. Yes, they had existed in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, just like he’d described in Huck Finn.