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?
October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Frank Church, editor of Galaxy. Sam sent a doodled “portrait” of King William of Prussia, parodying the use of portraits in the magazine [MTL 4: 210].
October 15 Saturday – “Mark Twain – His Map and Fortifications of Paris” was reprinted in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 238].
October 13 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Mary Mason Fairbanks. Mary’s daughter Alice (“Alie”) was engaged. Sam wanted Mary to visit. Charles Langdon had married Ida B. Clark on Oct. 12, but Sam was too busy to go and Livy was unable [MTL 4: 208-9].
Sam also wrote Elisha Bliss:
October 11 Tuesday – Robert Shelton Mackenzie (1809-1881), editor of the Phila. Press wrote: “You will see by the enclosed, which I had much pleasure in writing, as far as your book [IA] is concerned, that you are somewhat appreciated in our Quaker City. / Yours…” [MTP]. MacKenzie’s review is in the file; it praises Twain as “one of the three great living American prose humorists” the others being Harte and Oliver Wendell Holmes.
October 10? Monday – Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, on his “Fortifications of Paris” map which ran in the Buffalo Express Sat. Sept. 17:
Mr. Spofford, could I get you to preserve this work of art among the geographical treasures of the Congressional Library?
Yrs Truly
Mark Twain.
October 9 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath. He’d given up putting the additions on his Paris map, since it had been printed and reprinted several times and he’d not copyrighted it. Sam began to think about lecturing again [MTL 4: 206].
October 8 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Curious Relic for Sale,” which had appeared in the October edition of the Galaxy, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 233].
October 8–13? Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss, about Hubert Howe Bancroft, West Coast agent for Innocents Abroad.
October 5 Wednesday – The Fredonia Censor for this date reported Sam and Livy’s visit.
Samuel S. Clemens (Mark Twain) and wife are spending a few days with his mother and sister, who came here to reside last spring. He is engaged in preparing another work for the press.—His “Innocents Abroad” has had a sale of over 70,000. Its great popularity will prepare the way for an extensive sale of the book which he is now writing.