October 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Jesse Madison Leathers, a distant relative who had inquired about the feasibility of claiming part of the English Durham estate. Citing the cost that the Tichborne claimants spent unsuccessfully, and the 600 plus years the present heirs had held the lands, Sam wrote “It would be too much like taking Gibraltar with blank cartridges” [MTL 6: 545-6].
October 2 Saturday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam that conflicts wouldn’t allow Sam’s visit the next Saturday [MTP].
October – Sam’s unsigned sketch, “The Curious Republic of Gondour,” attacked suffrage and suggested weighted votes based on property and education. The piece ran in the October Atlantic Monthly. Sam sometimes preferred his more serious pieces to be published anonymously, so that readers would not suspect hidden humor connected with his trademark name, Mark Twain.
September 29 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant published a letter from Sam wrote (probably on Sept.
September 28 Sunday – Charles L. Webster married Annie Moffett in Fredonia by Rev. A.L. Benton.
September 27 Monday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote, repeating his aim to bring his daughters to meet them for only 10 minutes on the 29th [MTP].
Jesse Madison Leathers (1846-1887), third cousin of Sam’s, wrote from Louisville, Ky.
September 26 Sunday – Sam saw the first copy of Sketches, New and Old [MTL 6: 541].
September 25 Saturday – The first 100 copies of Sketches, New and Old arrived at the publishers from the bindery [MTL 6: 535n2].
September 24 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote two letters to Sam. The first informed that they had changed the date of their Hartford visit to the 29th, and that “the tribe of Barnum will number 6.” The second: “Yours recd—since I mailed a letter to David Clarke for you. We are to be in Hartford Wednesday next as that letter will inform you” [MTP].
September 22 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James Redpath, explaining why lecturing would cost him money and interrupt his book (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).
“I never HAVE lectured without losing a great deal of money by it (no matter what the fee,) & so you can understand my reluctance to meddle with fire that has burnt me so often. And, besides I absolutely loathe lecturing, for its own sake!” [MTL 6: 540].