May 11 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam read for the Saturday Morning Club, which included “Isaac Muleykeh,” “King Arthur,” “Interviewer,” and “Christening” [Fatout, MT Speaking 659]. The club met at 10:30 a.m. [MTNJ 3: 472]. Budd calls this last item, “The Christening Yarn” [Collected 1: 938].
May 10 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam. Sister Pamela had arrived and he wrote:
We made a confidant of her, after pledging her to secrecy. Afterward your letter of the 7th came. It was just as Pamela was starting for the hack, which had driven to the door. She was made acquainted with the contents of your letter and its printed enclosure…promising to keep silence, and especially by …agreeing to say nothing about the machine… [MTP].
May 9 Thursday – Sam’s notebook carries an entry about the defeat this day in England’s House of Lords, a bill legalizing marriage between a widower and his deceased wife’s sister. Sam concluded:
Without the Established Church the bill would have had a majority [MTNJ 3: 487].
May 8 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a two-sentence note to the editor of The Critic:
One dramatic version of the Prince & Pauper will be put upon the state in the autumn, but not two [MTP].
Note: The editor at this time was Jeannette Leonard Gilder and Joseph Benson Gilder, siblings of the Century’s Richard Watson Gilder.
May 7 Tuesday – Sam and Livy attended a Charity Ball, Union for House Work, at the Hartford Foot Guard Armory [MTNJ 3: 468n212]. Sam was on the reception committee, joined by the Governor and other big wigs. The charity supported “reading rooms for boys and girls, a day-nursery, sewing and cooking schools, a clothing-club, lending library,” and affordable tenement houses [438n101].
May 6 Monday – Webster & Co. wrote to Sam summarizing current business income and outlays. “The enclosed report explains itself.” No report is with the letter in the file [MTP].
May 5 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “I wrote to the Texas ‘cub’ the same day I received your letter. I said what you suggested, on your behalf, and added some personal recollections of his grandparents, whom I remembered. I wrote kindly.” He added family goings on and hope for the typesetter [MTP].
May 4 Saturday – Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote a short note advising Sam, enclosing a copy of Frohman’s May 3 having to do with who might act in the P&P lead role. Frohman believed it could not be played by someone over the age of 15. [MTP].
May 3 Friday – Thomas S. Fox for Albany Evening Union wrote to Sam inquiring about using the Kaolatype process [MTP].
Jeannette L. Gilder for The Critic wrote to Sam wishing to know “the truth of the case” about the P&P play with Elsie Leslie. She’d received a note from Edward House that he had signed a contract with you about the play. Who had the rights? [MTP].
May 2 Thursday – Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote to Sam [MTP]. “I do not think the reformation of the agreement with Mrs. Richardson should be delayed longer. I therefore enclose it to you. Do examine it carefully and if there is anything you wish explained bold it and let me know…. I judge from the tone of Mr. Frohman’s letter which I sent you that he was unable to make anything out of what Mr. House had written” [MTP].