April 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about a possible book to publish and the way he’d like to respond to suggested books:

Now here’s a simple system, & certain-sure of a result: When you propose to me, & detail your argument for or against, enclose a blank note, & I can fill out & sign & return that note without saying a word.

Sam also said he thought well of “the MacAlister [sic] etiquette book” [MTP] Society as I Have Found It, by (Samuel) Ward McAllister (1890) was published by Cassell Publishing Co. [Gribben 434].

April 20 Sunday – In Hartford Livy wrote to her mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon referring to Apr. 18 (see that entry).

James B. Pond wrote to Sam: “The arrangements are completed & all here accepted & will be present next Sunday morning to give Max O’Rell a send off.” Pond named eleven men who would be there, including Augustin Daly, George Kennan, Edmund C. Stedman and Richard Watson Gilder; he hoped Sam would not miss it; O’Rell was “worthy of it” [MTP].

April 19 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam’s business manager for Hartford affairs, Franklin G. Whitmore, had offered to invest $10,000 or $12,000” at a “usurious rate of interest — 8 or 10 per cent” and even preferred to buy an interest in Webster & Co. He had worked as a general agent for the company in 1888 for the Library of Humor. Sam advised Hall to take Whitmore on for a year and then see if an interest might be sold him. At first Sam spoke approvingly of the idea:

April 18 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Joe Goodman having received his telegraph of the day before and his earlier letter. A. Hoffman puts Joe in Washington at this time, attempting to hook Senator Jones into backing the Paige machine [359], but from his Apr. 17 telegram and letter of this day it’s clear he was in Fresno. Sam wanted Joe to go inspect the new Mergenthaler Linotype machine, because he and Paige weren’t allowed to sit and watch it run now.

April 17 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Edgar W. (Bill) Nye, answering his Apr. 11:

I am just your man! I expect Joe Goodman East before many weeks, & when he comes, we’ll foregather, you & Riley & Joe & I, & just have an elegant time — a time that will beggar description, if that it the right literary phrase & sufficiently unhackneyed; & if it ain’t, we’ll substitute a time that will cast a gloom over the whole community [MTP].

April 16 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam telegraphed Joe Goodman in Fresno, Calif.

TAKE THE EARLIEST TRAIN EAST YOUR BUSINESS WILL POSSIBLY ALLOW JOE I THINK IT WILL PAY FIRST RATE ANSWER [MTP].

In the evening the Clemens family sans Jean went to a Nook Farm wedding; Miss Mary Robinson and Louis R. Cheney tied the knot [Salsbury 276]. Livy described the decorations at the wedding in a letter to her mother on Apr. 20.

April 15 Tuesday – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to an unidentified person: Everything in this book is true — at least in measure. / Mark Twain/ Hartford/ April 15/90 [MTP].

April 14 Monday – Mollie Clemens finished her Mar. 30 letter to Sam and Livy (clipping encl.):

I wrote the first of this upon the receipt of Livy’s letter — laid it down — and never got at it til now. Ma was quite comfortable for several days, but for three days is not nearly so well. Yesterday’s Gate City contained the enclosed printed letter. We suppose “Prince & Pauper” is in Chicago from this. Sam choose your own time to come, so you don’t put it off too long…Will you go to Elmira this season? [MTP].

April 13 Sunday – The Boston Sunday Globe, p.10 gave a glowing review of P&P with Elsie Leslie, which was in town for a two-week stand (See also the Globe display ad of Apr. 26, 1889, p.3.)

April 12 Saturday – An English version of the P&P play opened at the Gaiety Theatre in London [MTNJ 3: 482]. Note: this had been authorized by Sam and Andrew Chatto.

Moncure D. Conway wrote from London about the P&P play — he’d seen the first performance of it and could not sleep until he had “put on paper an assurance for you of its wondrous success.” He also thought CY was “a pretty book” [MTP].