June 4 Friday – Sam paid a $4.37 bill to Solomon & DeLeeuw, Hartford tobacco dealers for two dozen corn cob pipes and tobacco [MTP]. Was Sam really smoking this many corn cob pipes? They do burn out after a time; he may have been passing them to friends at such gatherings as his Friday Evening Club.
June 3 Thursday – G.S. Whiting, Hartford hardware, cutlery, guns, billed $6.50 for one wringer [MTP].
June 2 Wednesday – Fred. Kingsley, Hartford dealer in “meat, poultry, game, fish & vegetables” billed a monthly statement for $62.56; paid June 4 [MTP].
June 1 Tuesday – Sam wrote to Orion in Keokuk. Only the envelope survives [MTLE 5: 118].
June The Atlantic Monthly, “Contributors’ Club” ran Sam’s unsigned reply to a letter from “A Boston Girl,” criticizing his grammar [Wells 23]. (See Aug. 9 entry to Howells.) Also in this issue Sam’s “A Telephonic Conversation.” [23].
May 31 Monday – Western Union Telegraph Co. of Hartford billed Sam by the month. For May, the following: May 1 for delivery; May 4, 5, 14, 17, 27, 31 to New York; May 24, 26 to Elmira. Bills contain number of words written for each message sent, but did not specify the recipient [MTP]. Note: perhaps none of these telegrams has survived or can be identified. The Elmira messages were most likely either to the Langdons or the Cranes.
May 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Julia Jones Beecher (Mrs. Thomas K. Beecher 1826-1905), about her “jabberwocks” (creative arrangements of roots, flowers and other natural items into images of creatures.) Sam agreed to be the auctioneer for the June 5 auction at the Grand Bazar for Union Home Work. [MTLE 5: 116; Eastman 61].
May 29 Saturday – From Twichell’s journal:
“M.T. and I go on a walk to the Tower—the first of the season. A splendid day and lots of talk” [Yale, copy at MTP].
Sam paid Frank M. Wilson & Co., Bridgeport Conn., Tailors and Gents Furnishers, $120.50 for two suits, vest and alterations; He purchased what appears as “flannels” on a bill this date from Arnold, Constable, New York, which was paid June 2 [MTP].
May 28 Friday – Sam attended the operetta Fatinitza at the Hartford Opera House, put on by the Boston Ideal Opera Company. It was a one-night performance unconnected with the New York production cited by Gribben above, as the tickets were not sold until May 27 (the day Sam purchased one), and no further performance is mentioned [Hartford Courant, May 25, 1880 p.2]. From a short review of May 29, page 1, the same paper:
May 27 Thursday – Sam purchased one ticket for a local production of the operetta Fatinitza [MTP receipt from Goodrich & Hawley in 1880 financial file] by Camillo Wälzel (1829-1895), Genée Richard Franz, with music by Franz von Suppé. The first American production took place at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on Apr.