March 4 Saturday – Sam’s notebook in Florence:
Settignano, March 4, ’93, 9.30 p.m. Mr. Cleveland has been President, now, two or three hours, no doubt [NB 33 TS 1].
The Brooklyn Eagle, p.4 Mar. 5, 1893, ran a list of German news items under “The German Army Bill” with this dateline, Berlin. At the end of the article these tidbits appeared:
March 3 Friday – Andrew Chatto inscribed a copy of John O’Hagan’s Joan of Arc (1893) to Sam: Laid at the feet of / Mark Twain / by Andrew Chatto / Mar 3 ’93 [Gribben 514].
March 2 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote a two-sentence note to Frederick J. Hall. They’d received the check for £102.5.0 the night before and “were very short.” Sam repeated his hope that Hall would “have Carnegie convinced & converted by the time” he “arrived 30 days hence” [MTP].
March 1 Wednesday – On or about this day Clara Clemens played the lead role in a play at Mrs. Willard’s school for girls in Berlin [Mar. 4 Eagle article — see entry].
March 1-20 Monday – Sometime during this period Sam sent one of his early aphorisms to Constance Lloyd Wilde (Mrs. Oscar Wilde 1858-1898):
February 27 Monday – Sam finished his Feb. 25 to Hall by adding a PS:
Carry your negotiations with Carnegie right along — don’t wait for me — I hope to find them completed when I arrive the 2d or 3d of April / SLC [MTP].
February 25 Saturday – Two copies of The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New Stories were deposited with the US Copyright Office. In 1897 the content of this book was collected in The American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, as part of Harper and Bros. “Uniform Edition” [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.18, Oxford ed. 1996].
February 24 Friday – In Florence, Sam inscribed his photograph to Hartford resident, Mrs. Drayton Hillyer: To Mrs. Drayton Hillyer / with the affectionate regards of / The Original./ S.L. Clemens / Florence / Feb. 24/93 [MTP]. Note: The N.Y. Times, Nov. 5, 1894, p.3 listed the Hillyers as arriving from Europe, so evidently they passed through Florence at this time. Sam wrote to Clara on Mar.
February 23 Thursday – Some historians see the bankruptcy on Feb. 23, 1893 of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad as the beginning of the Panic of 1893. Others point to a severe contraction on the N.Y. Stock Exchange which began on May 4. During the panic over 15,000 American businesses went under, some 500 banks failed, and by winter some eighteen percent of the work force was out of work.
February 22 Wednesday – Edgar W. (Bill) Nye wrote on Occidental Hotel, S.F. stationery to Sam, “very sorry that I missed you yesterday.” Nye compared his trip to that of the Donner Party; thanked Clemens for his kindness and the S.F. press for their courtesy “both 3 years ago and on this visit. What I have done to deserve it — I am quite unable to understand” [MTP].