February 26 Friday – Sam wrote after midnight from Stuyvesant to Livy, and enclosed a photograph of himself taken at Gurney & Son on Fifth Avenue in New York. He had left New York City early in the day. In Stuyvesant, Sam was the guest of Rev. Elbert Nevius [MTL 3: 111-14]. Sam left Stuyvesant in the morning and traveled all day.
February 25 Thursday – Early in the morning, Sam took a train 125 miles north to Stuyvesant, New York, where he gave his “Vandals” lecture.
February 23 Tuesday – Sam reached Trenton early in the day. That evening he gave his “Vandals” lecture in Trenton, New Jersey and then returned to New York, where he waited “all day” for a room at the St. Nicholas Hotel. That evening Sam and Jervis tried without success to visit Fidele (Mrs. Henry) Brooks. The Brooks were family friends of the Langdons. Sam probably wrote Livy a letter, which has been lost [MTL 3: 113n2].
February 19–22 Monday – Sam spent four days visiting the Langdons in Elmira. Sam sent three telegrams from Elmira to the Genesco Academy, promising to lecture there Mar. 1 [MTL 3: 110- 111]. Sam left Elmira on Feb.22 with Jervis Langdon, who was headed to New York City on business. Sam stayed with him a day or two [Sanborn 422].
February 19 Friday – The Genesco Academy of Young Men wrote again to Sam trying to pin down when Twain could come and lecture [MTP].
February 18 Thursday – Sam telegraphed from Franklin, Pa. to the Young Men’s Association of Genesco Academy to say he would not be able to make the lecture planned there. Sam headed for Elmira again, to see Livy. For a good account of the cancellation and subsequent Mar. 1 lecture, see The Twainian, Nov.-Dec. 1961 p1-4.
The Genesco Academy of Young Men wrote to acknowledge Sam’s telegram [MTP].
February 17 Wednesday – In Titusville, late after the lecture, Sam wrote letters to Livy, Joe Goodman, and Mary Mason Fairbanks. To Mary, Sam wrote teasingly:
“I haven’t got nothing more to write, I believe, because there ain’t no topics of interest here to write about, except that Beech was here & the angel of the coal mine went down in an oil well. No damage to either. Oils well that ends well” [MTL 3: 107-8].
February 16 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Titusville, Pennsylvania to Livy the next day that he had:
…sat up until 2 in the morning (because no porter at hotel to call me,) & returned on a coal train to Ravenna—went to bed for one hour & a half & then got up half asleep & started in the early train for this Titusville section of country—had to wait from 1 P.M. till 5, at Corry, Pa., & so found an excellent hotel & went to bed… [MTL 3: 103-4].
Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture at Corinthian Hall in Titusville, Pennsylvania [MTPO].
February 15 Monday – Sam wrote in the morning from Ravenna, Ohio to Livy about having her engagement ring made. He left Ravenna “about noon” and that evening gave his “Vandals” lecture in Alliance, Ohio.
February 14 Sunday – Sam responded from Ravenna, Ohio to Elisha Bliss’ letter of Feb. 10, which he’d received while in Elmira. Sam wanted to handle all details of revision on the proofs, having learned the lesson of neglecting this step with his Jumping Frog book. He wrote Bliss that he expected to be in Hartford two or three weeks starting the last week of February. Sam also wrote Twichell and answered General Joseph R. Hawley’s (1826-1905) letter of Feb. 10 about Sam’s desire to buy into the Hartford Courant. Hawley and Charles Dudley Warner (1829- 1900) ran the Courant.