November – In the Galaxy for this month—MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“Riley – Newspaper Correspondent”
“Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again, Letters V – VI”
“A Reminiscence of the Back Settlements”
“A General Reply”
“Favors from Correspondents”
Also a Special Feature not in Memoranda: “Mark Twain’s Map of Paris” [Schmidt].
October 31 Monday – Sam wrote again from Buffalo to Dr. Iretus G. Cardner that the letter Sam received did not indicate any money Sam had sent [MTL 4: 219].
October 29 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss. Sam disrespected one “Colonel” Albert S. Evans.
October 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss, asking him to send or have sent a copy of Innocents Abroad to “Mortimore Thomson, ‘better known,’ (as they have the thrice-infernal fashion of saying of me,) as ‘Q.K. Philander Doesticks, P.B.’ ” [MTL 4: 215].
Clemens also wrote to the secretary of Goethean Literary Society, Lancaster, Penn.
October 27 Thursday – Edward Eggleston (1837-1902), in an article in The Independent said he was amused by Sam’s sketch in the Galaxy, but more impressed by a poem of Helen Hunt’s [Tenney 3].
October 26 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss asking if he thought his articles in the Galaxy had hurt book sales. He had notified Frank Church at the Galaxy that his year would be up with April’s edition. Even though Sam had expounded firmly that he was done lecturing, now he said, “I half expected to lecture a little next year” [MTL 4: 212]
October 22 Saturday – Francis P. Church of the Galaxy wrote:
“Dear Twain: / The portrait is all right. I will give it to the engraver immediately.
We wont talk about your giving up at the end of the year. It is something not to be even thought of for a moment” [MTPO]. Note: a doodled portrait of King William of Prussia; see Oct. 18.
October 21 Friday – An article attributed to Sam, “The Libel Suit,” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 246].
Mortimer Neal Thomson (Q.K. Philander Doesticks, P.B.) wrote from NY.
I don’t believe you’ve forgotten me, and I don’t want you to put on airs and pretend you have, just because I’m going to remind you of a promise.
October 20 Thursday – An earthquake struck Buffalo at about 5 p.m., and “lasted only thirty or fourty seconds. Church steeples and chandeliers swayed. Walls of buildings shook, windows shattered, and furniture moved across floors” [Reigstad 171].
October 19 Wednesday – In Buffalo, Clemens wrote to Francis P. Church:
I am so stupid. I forgot that it will be two or three weeks before I can see whether you are going to want that portrait & burlesque or not—so you must sit right down & write me even if you have to delay your dinner a minute or two. Will you?