August 6 Friday – The last day of the business/pleasure trip to Niagara Falls.

August 5 Thursday – At Niagara Falls, NY. Sometime during the 3 day stay Jervis Langdon and Sam made a side trip to Buffalo, where Jervis likely visited the branch of his coal company at 221 Main Street, as well as a waterfront coal-yard operation. The pair also searched records in the Buffalo Express office to “confirm the soundness of their upcoming investment.” A few days later (Aug. 14), Twain complained about ‘the bore of wading through the books & getting up balance sheets’” [Reigstad 60-61]. Note: the Aug. 14 letter was to Mary Mason and Abel W. Fairbanks: “As soon as Mr.

August 4 Wednesday – Sam and the Langdons took a three day trip to Niagara Falls and stayed at the Cataract House Hotel. Also along were Charles J. Langdon and his fiancée Ida Clark, he parents, as well as Livy’s friend Fidele Brooks and husband Henry Brooks and son of New York, and neighbors of the Langdons, Dr. Henry Sayles and wife Emma Sayles. Cousin A. Langdon was also in the hotel. The trip allowed Jervis to inspect the finances of the nearby Buffalo Express.

March 19 or 20 Saturday – Sam left Elmira and traveled to Sharon, Pennsylvania, where he gave his “Vandals” lecture, which he called a “grand success” [MTL 3: 175].

March 18 Thursday – Sam was a guest of the Langdons, who were entertaining a well-known guest, Wendell Phillips, former abolitionist and social reformer. Phillips gave a lecture in the evening at the Elmira Opera House on Daniel O’Connell, Irish political leader. During his visit, Sam had said something derogatory about Phillips for which he expressed embarrassment to Livy in the margin of Oliver Wendell Holmes’ Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table. This book he was marking for Livy would afterward be known as their “courting book” [MTL 3: 174-5].

March 17 Wednesday – John Russell Young, editor of the Tribune, gave or sent Sam an extract from a San Francisco Evening Bulletin article about the importation of Chinese women for prostitution. Young asked Sam to pen a response, and it is likely he did so within a day or two [MTL 3: 174]. Sam arrived in Elmira in the evening.

March 16 Tuesday – Sam stopped at New York Tribune to discuss more articles for the newspaper. Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture in Newtown, New York, on Long Island [MTL 3: 174]. He left New York for Elmira.

March 15 Monday – After Boston socializing, Sam left for New York City in the evening [MTL 3: 174].

March 14 Sunday – Sam met Oliver Wendell Holmes and other literary lights of Boston. He was accompanied by David Ross Locke (Petroleum V. Nasby) who had been lecturing in Boston [MTL 3: 174; MTPO notes Sept. 30 O.W. Holmes].

March 13 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam wrote at midnight on Mar. 12-13, again to Livy. “Had a really pleasant time at Mrs. Hooker’s last night, Twichell & I” [MTL 3: 173].
He also wrote a short note to Horatio C. King and John R. Howard of Beecher’s Plymouth Church, declining their offer to lecture in New York, informing them that it was too late since “he must make ready for a short visit to California.”