August 12 or 19 or 26, 1885 Wednesday

August 12 or 19 or 26 Wednesday – On one of these days, Sam wrote to Webster & Co. (Charles Webster was sailing to Europe). He hadn’t received a letter referred to in a telegraph from someone at the company. There were “bogus Grant books” being canvassed and Sam suggested “Mr. Hall employ detectives or trustworthy friends to write” a solicitation to canvass to be sent to “several fraudulent publishers” [MTP].

August 11, 1885 Tuesday

August 11 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Richard S. Tuthill, at this time District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago). Tuthill had sent an invitation for Sam to come and break bread with some of his old Midwest friends.

“I would give anything in the world if I could go; for that is true which you have said: the boys are growing old & passing away—did not we deliver to the rest & peace of the grave the greatest, noblest, the chiefest of them all, three days ago?”

August 10, 1885 Monday 

August 10 Monday – Sam left New York in the morning for the long train ride to Elmira. He telegraphed from Portland, Penn. to Theodore W. Crane: “Shall arrive at the usual / S L Clemens” [MTP]. Portland was en route to Elmira.

August 9, 1885 Sunday 

August 9 Sunday – Sam had arranged “business…with Hartford people” on Tuesday (Aug. 11), but moved it up to Sunday so he might return to Elmira the next day [Aug. 15 to Johnson]. The nature of his business with Hartford people is unknown. It is possible that the Hartford people referred to came to New York.

August 8, 1885 Saturday 

August 8 Saturday – Grant’s funeral and procession included 60,000 members of the military assigned by President Cleveland. Sam was not in the funeral, but took a place in the window of Webster & Co. overlooking Union Square. He stood for five hours watching as the procession worked its way north through the City, passing along 14th Street toward Fifth Avenue [Perry 231]. Kaplan says 40,000 military. A lot, anyway.

August 6, 1885 Thursday

August 6 Thursday – After lying 24 hours in the Capitol at Albany, Grant’s casket, was put on a train for the six-hour ride to New York City. The train slowed passing West Point for the cadets to salute. Once in the city, where tens of thousands waited, the casket was taken to City Hall, where it lay in state another 24 hours [Perry 229].

August 4, 1885 Tuesday

August 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, describing the black draped buildings and how much more so the City was for Grant than it had been for Garfield.

“I think I have seen a thousand big portraits of the General, set in the centre of a desert of black, on store-fronts” [MTP].

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