July 2 Tuesday – Sam responded to James B. Pond’s letter of June 28 asking him to do more introductions for Edgar W. “Bill” Nye and James Whitcomb Riley during the summer. (Sam introduced the pair on Feb. 28 in Boston.

It is too late, old man. June was the only idle month I was to have for a year, & June just escaped from us. We are in deep trouble here. Mrs. Clemens’s brother-in-law (Mr. Crane) is believed to be dying, after ten months of wearing illness [MTP].

July 1 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother Orion Clemens and sent him complaints about Charles Webster, whom he had no more use for:

Read it & forward to Pamela. If she answers, I would rather she should do it under cover to you. I have never hated any creature with a hundred thousandth fraction of the hatred which I bear that human louse, Webster.

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June 29 Saturday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Mary A. Jordan, seeking a “capable governess — one who can prepare Susie for Smith & carry Clara along.” Sam wrote he was sending the note with Miss Hesse (Fanny C. Hesse?), as he did not know Jordan’s address [MTP]. Note: Up until this time the Clemens girls were home-schooled.

June 28 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.

I expect a telegram from Paige to-morrow to say the machine is done. After that, I would like a daily note from you telling me the state of the machine…. Ask Paige to keep the fact that the machine is finished absolutely secret from everybody until I come. I’ve got a scheme which will explain this [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: [chk] #4974. Whitmo, $125, June 28 / #4975. F.G. Warner $9 [3: 491].

June 27 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having received the monthly $200 check. Samuel and Mary Moffett left yesterday and Orion related their conversations. Ma was going to a concert this evening — “seems to be well enough to walk to the opera house. We’ll ride.” He wrote of writing and starting again several times on a religious article [MTP]. Sam likely traveled back to Elmira by this day.

June 26 Wednesday – Sam spoke at the Yale Alumni Banquet in New Haven, Conn.

June 25 Tuesday – Sam’s Notebook:

Offered William Gillette stock at one-2500th for $1000. This offer has also been made heretofore to Dean Sage, Ned Bunce, H.C. Robinson, Mr. Parsons, Charley Langdon, Theodore Crane & George Griffin. I had the hope that they would decline, & they did. The stock is worth either ten times that or it is worth nothing; maybe the latter, though I think otherwise [3: 496].

June 24 Monday –For Sam to have traveled to New Haven for the Yale Alumni speech of June 26, he would have had to leave Elmira this day or the next.

June 23 Sunday – In Elmira † Sam wrote a short note to O.C. Kingsley of Kingman, Sturtevant & Larrabee, who had written June 20.

It was all the better to leave off the quotation marks because if you had coupled my name with the story it would have injured me in England, where they believe everything I say [MTP].