May 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Virginia City to Orion and Mollie. Orion had been appointed president of the Ormsby County sanitary committee, and Sam wrote, “I am mighty sick of that fund…” Sam expressed a desire for the whole controversy to go away [MTL 1: 298].
May 24 Tuesday – Sam printed under the title “Miscegenation,” an article in the Enterprise explained the hoax with an apology to the ladies of Carson City. Sam also printed all of his letters in the scrape with the Union, plus those of Laird, Wilmington, and Gillis in the Enterprise, numbering them I through VII (See Smith 191-6 for text). He then called Laird a coward, liar and a fool.
May 23 Monday – Sam wrote Ellen G. Cutler (Mrs. William K. Cutler), president of the Carson City Sanitary Ball committee his apologies for the unintended printing of the “joke.” Sam wrote, “I address a lady, in every sense of the term” [MTL 1: 296]. James L. Laird of the Virginia Daily Union wrote again answering Sam [MTL 1: 295].
May 22 Sunday – Sam’s article “Washoe” was published in the Golden Era [Walker 54].
May 21 Saturday – The Virginia Daily Union reacted to the “libelous article” in the Enterprise signed anonymously by “CITIZEN.” Sam’s humor was too raw for these folks, and a full-blown scandal was on. In a further squabble over each newspaper’s contribution to the Sanitary fund, Sam was called “an unmitigated liar, a poltroon and a puppy” in the pages of the Virginia Daily Union. On this same day, Sam wrote to James L. Laird, a partner in the publishers of the Union, demanding a public retraction “of the insulting articles I have mentioned, or satisfaction.”
May 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Virginia City to his sister in law, Mollie Clemens, explaining and apologizing for the appearance of the “joke” of May 17. Sam’s confessed he was not sober when he wrote the miscegenation editorial, and had never intended it to be published. He theorized that after sharing it with Dan De Quille he left it in the office and the foreman found it, thinking it was to be published [MTL 1: 287-290]. Another Enterprise editorial continuing the feud with the Union is attributed to Sam [Schmidt].
May 19 Thursday – Four ladies on the Carson City Sanitary Ball Committee drafted a letter of protest to the Enterprise over Sam’s miscegenation editorial. Joe Goodman, back at his desk, tried to ignore the uproar [Powers, MT A Life 138].
May 1 Sunday – Sam’s article “Mark Twain and Dan De Quille / Hors de Combat” ran in the Golden Era [Walker 50]. This was essentially a reprint from the Enterprise of “Frightful Accident of Dan De Quille” [Camfield bibliog.].
May – Sometime during May, Sam’s article “Burlesque Life of Shakespeare” ran in the Enterprise [Camfield bibliog.].
April 30 Saturday – A fragment of Sam’s Enterprise piece about De Quille survives:
DAN REASSEMBLED