March 10 Wednesday – Sam and Livy went to the theater to see William Dean Howells’ play, Yorick’s Love, by a leading Spanish author, Estebanez, with Lawrence Barrett. Sam loved it and wrote: “The language beautiful, the passion so fine, the plot so ingenious, the whole thing so stirring, so charming, so pathetic.” It was “the language of the Prince & the Pauper,” he wrote Howells on Mar.
March 9 Tuesday – C.E. Goodspeed wrote from Newton Centre, Mass. to ask for an autograph [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Auto fiend / 1880 / Cheek”
Sam wrote to W.A. May in Scranton Pa. Letter not extant but referred to in May’s Mar. 11 reply.
March 8 Monday – Sam inscribed this date and his signature in a copy of Sketches, New and Old to an unidentified person [MTLE 5: 35].
March 6 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles H. Clark (John Quill or Max Adeler) of the Hartford Courant, denying he hadn’t ever killed any Indians, nor had Dan De Quille. Such a rumor had been “gotten up by the Indians” he wrote.
“Years ago, I was accused of loading an Indian up with beans lubricated with nitro-glycerin & sending him in an ox wagon over a stumpy road. This was impossible, on its face, for no one would risk oxen in that way” [MTLE 5: 34].
March 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion agreeing to look at Orion’s manuscript. He answered questions about Kaolatype patent, rights, etc. He ended the short letter by saying he’d:
“…added 114 pages to Prince & Pauper. I thought that might almost complete it, but it doesn’t bring it to the middle, I judge” [MTLE 5: 32].
Sam also wrote to Howells in Belmont, Mass.
March 3 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss about particulars in the publishing of A Tramp Abroad [MTLE 5: 31].
March 1 Monday – Orion finished his Feb. 29 to Sam. “Yours of the 26th just received…‘The Autobiography of a Coward’ will be commenced within an hour and the first chapter sent to you within a week. The writing will be according to your suggestions. / I congratulate you on your invention. / I am glad you are going to finish Prince and Pauper” [MTP].
March – From Livy’s diary:
“George brought them [the children] a beautiful great maltese cat, about a year old that his wife raised—it is a splendid creature and is getting wonted already” [Salsbury 117].
George Stronach performed misc. house repairs and chair repairs, billing $7.80 and dating it simply “March.” The bill was marked paid on May 15 [MTP].
February 29 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote from Keokuk to Sam, adding to it on Mar. 1. “We left Fredonia Wednesday, and arrived here Thursday—26 hours from Dunkirk…Yesterday I wrote 20 pages with great satisfaction…We received your welcome letter Friday, and were glad to hear the little ones are well” [MTP].
February 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, asking him to return the 1601 manuscript (Or, Conversation As it Was by the Social Fireside, in the time of the Tudors) “& keep no copy of it.” Evidently, Sam had given the risqué sketch to his brother during his and Mollie’s recent visit to Hartford, and later thought better of it.