See The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871 pages 269-71
Much as he had been galled by the deadly routine of the schoolroom and the print shop, Sam was aghast at the compromises countenanced in the competitive newspaper market of San Francisco. “Finally there was an event,” a blatant act of censorship by Barnes of one of his articles, or so Sam recalled in 1906:
PACIFIC COAST—CONCLUDED., CHINAMEN,
One of California's curiosities the people in the States will some day become familiar with through the Pacific Railroad, I mean the Chinamen. California contains 70,000 of them, and every ship brings more There is a Chinese quarter in every city and village in California and Nevada, for Boards of Aldermen will not allow them to live all around town just wherever they to locate. ‘This is not a hardship, for they prefer to herd together.
PECULIARITIES ARD SUPERSTITIONS
The town of Como was established in late 1862, during the gold rush in Palmyra Mining District.
The Occidental Hotel opened in 1861 in San Francisco, California. It was destroyed in the San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire of 1906.[1] It was one of the many hotels named Occidental in the United States, and it was among the few luxury hotels in San Francisco that catered to wealthy travelers.
The Lick House was one of San Francisco's first luxury hotels, built by the piano maker/real estate investor James Lick, who was one of California's wealthiest men of his day. It was one of a cluster of luxury hotels erected in San Francisco during the early-to-mid-1860s, the others being the Russ House (completed in 1862), Occidental Hotel. and Cosmopolitan Hotel (1865). These hotels reflected the city's less rambunctious and more affluent character brought about by Gold Rush prosperity.
Steamboat Springs is a small volcanic field of rhyolitic lava domes and flows in western Nevada, located south of Reno.
May 10 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner response to a query or request from James B. Pond, one that makes for an interesting quotation:
O’ b’gosh I can’t. I hate writing. / Ever Thine — Mark.
Sam’s notebook entry: May 10, ’87. Charley reports Livy’s balance at J L & Co’s a trifle under $55,000. $3,847.14 subject to draft at any time [MTNJ 3: 288] Note: Charles J. Langdon & Co.
May 9 Monday – In Hartford Sam received the Library of Humor from William Dean Howells and wrote to him:
You spoke of writing an introduction to the L. of H. [Library of Humor]. All right, I wish you would. I think of putting the book in the printers’ hands about a month hence. I’d like the introduction, first-rate, whether you can sign it or not. [MTHL 2: 592-3; MTNJ 3: 295n233].
May 8 Sunday – Joseph Jefferson, actor, offered his autobiography for Sam to publish at Webster & Co. [MTNJ 3: 289n213]. See Sam to Webster, May 28. Jefferson’s book would be published in 1890 and reprinted several times by the Century Co.
Orion Clemens wrote that he’d received Sam’s letter of May 5; Orion wrote of local matters [MTP].