August 2 Tuesday – The Brooklyn Eagle, page 2, under “PERSONAL MENTION”:
It is said that Mark Twain tries a new hotel every time he comes to New York. This gives greater freshness to his jokes.
August 1 Monday – Webster & Co. Sent Sam a small, handwritten accounting showing a “Cash Book” balance of $31,506.94 [MTP].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
3794 John O’Neil 60.00 Gardener
3795 Patrick McAleer 50.00 Coachman
3798 Telephone Co 15.95
3799 D.F. Healy 14.75 Laborer
August – Sam’s notebook entries for this month carries a list of cryptic calculations for these books to be issued by Webster & Co. With columns of sales numbers and total projected sales as below (years of publication added here):
Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, by Almira Hancock (1887); 18,000
Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas, by Elizabeth Custer (1887); 25,000
July 31 Sunday – In his Aug. 3 to Webster, referring to this day, Sam wrote of the “fun, which was abounding in the Yankee at Arthur’s Court up to three days ago,”. It is probable then, that upon returning to New York from Hartford sometime late in the week, that Sam got a fuller picture of the problems and negative forecast of Webster & Co. He may have returned to Elmira this day or the day before.
July 29 Friday – Livy wrote to her sister-in-law, Mollie Clemens that she and Susan L. Crane were reading Charles Kingsley’s His Letters and Memories of His Wife (1877); Sam’s notebook carries a July entry which suggests he was also was reading the book:
The Deity filled with humor. Kingsley. God’s laughter [MTNJ 2: 37; Gribben 372].
July 27 Wednesday – Sam’s telegram to Franklin G. Whitmore on July 23 about a meeting at his house “next Wednesday eve [this day]…” to “talk the thing all over have statics and other information ready,” suggests Sam’s research into the Paige typesetter and a meeting, at least informally, of stockholders.
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam; check for $155 received; he discussed his research and writing into English kings [MTP].
July 26 Tuesday – Jean Clemens’ seventh birthday. (See July 24 entry.)
In New York City at the St. James Hotel, Sam wrote to Livy:
Livy darling. I have finished up what I had to do here, & shall start to Hartford at 4.30. Charley [Webster] is a constant sufferer from his neuralgia, but has lately found a doctor who gives him several hours’ relief per day.
July 25 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to his brother-in-law Charles Langdon for Livy, requesting $1,500 be remitted to Bissell & Co., Hartford bankers, with the check mailed to Franklin G. Whitmore. In the afternoon, Sam left for N.Y.C., and read the fourth volume of Metternich’s memoirs on the train in the evening (a ten-hour trip). He stayed at the St.
July 24 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote his mother, Jane Clemens about being away for daughter Jean’s seventh birthday in two days; teaching a new dog to “let the cats alone” and how they’d love to visit but “it’s a long way, & even the dead can’t travel in such weather, without spoiling.” His paragraph about Jean is revealing:
July 23 Saturday – In Elmira Sam telegraphed Franklin G. Whitmore that he was on his way to Hartford.
I am coming & shall be glad to meet all of you at my house next Wednesday eve & talk the thing all over have statics and other information ready that can bear upon the matter [MTP].