November 6 Monday – Sam’s unsigned article, “Oh, You Robinson!” about a man charged with bigamy, ran in the gossip column of the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle, p2. The “Robertsonian method of teaching French” is very good, but the Robinsonian method of getting divorces is rather too brash [ET&S 2: 488; Gribben 583].
Theodore Robertson (1803-1871), author: The Whole French Language: The Robertsonian System (1855).
November 3 Friday – Sam’s article “‘Chrystal’ on Theology” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 486-7].
November 1 Wednesday – Sam’s article “More California Notables Gone” ran in the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 485].
October 26–28 Saturday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter to the Enterprise included: “A Love of a Bonnet Described,” “Re-opening of the Plaza,” and: MORE FASHIONS – EXIT “WATERFALL.”
October 22–24 Tuesday – Sam’s San Francisco Letter about the Rawhide Ranch Mine was printed in the Enterprise and reprinted in the Sonora (Calif.) Union Democrat [Schmidt].
October 18 Wednesday – Sam had sent his Jumping Frog story to George W. Carleton (1832-1901), for a book that Artemus Ward was editing. It was too late for inclusion in the book so Carleton sent the story on to Henry Clapp, Jr. (1814-1875) at the Saturday Press, who published it [Rasmussen 265-6]. See also AMT 2: 484-5 for more on Carleton and Clapp.
October 17 Tuesday – Sam’s “Earthquake Almanac” was published in San Francisco’s Dramatic Chronicle [ET&S 2: 297].
Orion & Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Twain’s 19 and 20 Oct. reply, referring to the sermons sent. [MTP].
October 10–11 Wednesday – Sam’s article, “The Cruel Earthquake,” appeared in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise about this time, and was reprinted in the Gold Hill News on Oct. 13 [ET&S 2: 289].
October 8 Sunday – Around noon on a peaceful Sabbath day, a severe earthquake hit San Francisco. Sam’s later account: I was walking along Third Street, and facing north, when the first shock came; I was walking fast, and it “broke up my gait” pretty completely—checked me—just as a strong wind will do when you turn a corner and face it suddenly….The noise accompanying the shocks was a tremendous rasping sound, like the violent shaking and grinding together of a block of brick houses. It was about the most disagreeable sound you can imagine [ET&S 2: 304]. See Jump’s cartoon insert.
September 9 Saturday – Sam’s Californian articles won praise in the New York Round Table. He is, we believe, quite a young man, and has not written a great deal. Perhaps, if he will husband his resources and not kill with overwork the mental goods that has given us these golden eggs, he may one day take rank among the brightest of our wits. By the end of the year, Sam was a literary celebrity.