April 9 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam of the need for Webster & Co. to close ranks:
…that after next year, instead of making it our policy, as we have heretofore, to push forward and enlarge the firm in all directions, it would be wiser to commence at that time to concentrate; to bend our efforts…in keeping what we have, doing it with less expense, and making it more profitable [MTLTP 300].
April 8 Friday – At the Grand Hotel Sud Tirol In Trient, Austria en route to Florence, Italy, Susy Clemens wrote her “beloved,” Louise Brownell. Joseph Verey and Susan Crane escorted the Clemens girls. The letter was postmarked Apr. 16, but this is the date assigned by the MTP.
April 7 Thursday – Horace Rutherford wrote from Trenton, Ky. He enclosed under another cover, a “genuine Kentucky Meerschaum. It has been in training for two or three weeks, and I trust it is ancient enough for you. I saw an article several weeks ago,by Luke Sharp in the Louisville Times in which it stated that you were very fond of smoking an old Kentucky cob pipe, and as you could not stand a new pipe, you hired some old tough to flavor it for you, etc.” [MTP].
April 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook : “Harriet Hosmer’s Studio — 4 p.m. Wednesday” [NB 31 TS 36]. Note: placement in the NB suggests this day or Apr. 13 Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (1830-1908).
April 5 Tuesday – In Rome Sam sent a cable to Henry C. Robinson:
Do they offer no modification of the proposition? [MTP; also NB 31 TS 36].
Sam’s notebook : “Ezekiel’s Studio — 4 p.m. Tuesday” [NB 31 TS 37]. Note: placement in the NB suggests this day or Apr. 12.
Ben W. Austin wrote from Oak Cliff, Texas to Sam, asking for the autographs of John Raymond and Charles S. Webster [MTP].
April 4 Monday – In Rome, Sam wrote two letters to Frederick J. Hall, relating the entire history of the aborted play Colonel Sellers as a Scientist (The American Claimant), including A.P. Burbank’s efforts, Howells and his loss of money and a past proposal of Alfred Arnold to dramatize the story for “Crane the comedian” (William H. Crane (1845-1928) actor/comedian).
April 3 Sunday – A shorter reprint of Sam’s Europe letter, “German Chicago” ran in the Boston Daily Globe, p.23 under the title, “CITY WITHOUT NEWSBOYS.” See Oct. 13, 1891.
April 2 Saturday – From the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, p.13, “Brief Mention of New Books”:
Mark Twain’s humor isn’t always of a delicate sort, but one forgives that fault for the laughs with which every page of his work is sprinkled. It is the intention of the publishers to bring out in this series all the popular little classics in the French, Spanish and Italian as well as the English language [Budd, Contemporary 323].
April 1 Friday – In Rome, Sam sent a cable to Henry C. Robinson:
Keep me posted by cable [MTP; also NB 31 TS 35].
Note: their communication during this period had to do with the Paige typesetter, and its move to Chicago, and Sam’s rights.
April – In Rome, sometime during the month, Livy wrote an undated letter on Sam’s behalf to Daniel Willard Fiske (1831-1904), librarian and professor at Cornell, who was in Rome at the time. After the 1881 death of his wife, Jennie McGraw, Fiske spent a great deal of time in Italy collecting manuscripts. He bequeathed a large collection to Cornell, known now as the Fiske Collection.