June 24 Monday – The Elmira Advertiser p.5 ran a short interview conducted on June 23 about a famous murder case in Brooklyn: “The Henry Murder: Mark Twain Theorizes on the Bloody Hand Prints Found.” Sam cites the study and book (Finger Prints 1892) of Sir Francis Galton, who introduced the use of fingerprints as a way of identification. Sam had studied Galton’s book and claimed it even changed his manuscript during the writing of PW [Scharnhorst, Interviews 148-50; Gribben 251].

June 22 Saturday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote two letters to H.H. Rogers. In the first, an obvious response to one of Rogers, not extant.

I have made some notes, which I enclose. I wish I could come down and talk with you and Colby and the Harpers, but I can’t. I shan’t be able to put my clothes on till — I don’t know when. Carbuncles are extravagantly slow.

My main objection is a the absence of a time-limit.

June 19 Wednesday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to John Horne of Glasgow, Scotland.

I find it thoroughly entertaining. Moreover, I thank you very much for the pleasant attention of giving me the front seat.

I once made a valuable collection of autographs myself — without knowing I was doing it.

June 18 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to Frank Hall Scott, president of the Century Publishing Co.

I am at last able to take my attention from my pains & discomforts for a moment & do some thinking, preparatory to answering your two long-neglected letters [not extant].

I have a thought; & as a result I am convinced that the magazine articles are impracticable. Let us give up the idea.

June 17 Monday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to James B. Pond, having received a copy of the circular. He felt it was a good circular, “very good indeed.” He had questions about wanting to do a second reading in St. Paul and Minneapolis. He asked Pond to send a copy of the circular to R.S. Smythe, Melbourne, “& tell him we don’t go to Frisco because nobody there in mid-summer” [MTP].

June 15 Saturday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Since writing a P.S. to Miss Harrison a minute ago, your note has come and I am very glad you are back. Also, this mail has just brought a notification from Pond that he has got my first reading postponed a week; therefore we shan’t have to leave for Cleveland till Monday July 15. This ought to give me a chance to run down and see you and the Harpers a moment, about the 10th or 12th, or along there.

June 13 Thursday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to John D. Adams of Harper & Brothers The proof he’d received of “Mental Telegraphy Again,” which would run in the Sept. issue, contained no errors. Because he could not read segments of JA before they appeared in Harper’s Monthly, Sam supposed that the chapters XII and XV, which he thought would appear in the August or September issues, might be read in Australia in mid-Sept.

June 11 Tuesday – In Elmira at Quarry Farm, Sam wrote to nephew Samuel Moffett. He’d heard from J.B. Pond that San Francisco was out for the tour:

June 9 Sunday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote to James B. Pond, listing many, but not all, of the stops for the American leg of the reading tour. He didn’t think they needed a circular (one was made anyway, see Lorch, p.189) and saw it as an unnecessary expense [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, glad that the William Wander “piano business is settled — & so well settled, too.” He also addressed the water bill paid up and supposed John Day had paid his share.

June 8 Saturday – Clara Clemens’ 21st birthday.