July 4 Monday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss. Jervis had rallied again, so much so that Sam expected him to get well. Sam disclosed his back and forth with the Appleton Co. and had been expecting Bliss to come up and discuss “books and business.” Sam was still counting on the Adirondack trip with the Twichells [MTL 4: 161-2].
July 2 Saturday – Sam’s article, “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once,” which had appeared in the July Galaxy, was reprinted in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 217].
July – In the Galaxy for this month—MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once”
“The ‘Tournament’ in A.D. 1870”
“Enigma”
“Unburlesquable Things”
“The Late Benjamin Franklin”
“The Editorial Office Bore”
“Johnny Greer”
“A Daring Attempt at a Solution of It”
“To Correspondents” [Schmidt].
June 28 Tuesday – Charles Langdon sailed from Liverpool on the Abyssinia. It arrived in Boston on July 8, not New York as Sam had thought in his letter of the previous day [MTL 4: 161n1].
June 27 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, complimenting him on a circular claiming 150,000 sales for Innocents Abroad (a stretcher, for sure. 60,378 is more accurate.)
“Mr. Langdon is very ill. Sometimes we feel sure he is going to get well, but then again hope well nigh passes away. This morning the case looks so well that all are pretty cheery again” [MTL 4: 159].
June 25 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, and sister:
“We were called here suddenly by telegram 3 days ago. Mr. Langdon is very low. We have well nigh lost hope—all of us except Livy.”
June 24 Friday – Sam’s article “Buffalo Female Academy” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 211].
June 23 Thursday – Female Academy, Buffalo, New York – Commencement Exercises Speech. Clemens wrote the speech, though David Gray (1836-1888), poet and editor of the Buffalo Courier, read it [McCullough 211].
Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN NEW YORK” was printed in the Auburn, California, Stars and Stripes [Fatout, MT Speaks 62].
June 22 Wednesday – Sam and Livy returned to Elmira to help nurse Jervis Langdon [MTL 4: 155n1]. They took turns at a bedside vigil. Sam took a shift in the middle of the day and from midnight to four in the morning. Livy and sister Susan Crane sat with their father for seven or eight hour stretches, waving a palm-leaf fan over him during the hot summer days [Willis 61].
June 19 Sunday – Sam and Livy wrote from Buffalo to Jervis & Olivia Langdon. Jervis had improved somewhat and the newlyweds expected them to visit [MTL 4: 153]. Note: Jervis’ condition must have worsened after this, because they did not make the trip to Buffalo.