June 19, 1885 Friday 

June 19 Friday – The Clemens family took a special car from New York to Elmira, a ten-hour trip. They stayed at Mrs. Langdon’s home (See June 14 to Gerhardt)Livy wrote in her diary, “On June 19th we arrived in Elmira, we went directly to Mothers spending a little more than a week with her” [MTP].

June 17, 1885 Wednesday

June 17 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam sent a short note to W. Minor.

“I believe if I were you I would continue to sort beans & sand sugar, & not stray out of my God-appointed beat & strain my capacities” [MTP]. Note: This implies the recipient is a grocer, but not much else.

June 16, 1885 Tuesday

June 16 Tuesday – General Grant left New York City a little after 8 AM and took a five-hour train ride to Saratoga, New York. From there he boarded a smaller-gauge train for the final twelve miles to Mt. McGregor, where a welcoming committee waited. It had been the doctor’s recommendation that Grant spend time in the Adirondacks, where the air was clean and much cooler than New York in the summer.

June 15, 1885 Monday

June 15 Monday – The New York Times ran a short note on page 3 under “Literary Notes” that volume one of Grant’s memoirs would not be out till December and the second volume about March, 1885.

C.L. Webster…will go to Europe to arrange simultaneous issues in several other languages, besides French, German, and Italian.

In Hartford, Sam inscribed a copy of Huck Finn to an unidentified person [MTP].

June 14, 1885 Sunday

June 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts in New York City.

We arrive at the Everett House Wednesday evening & leave for Elmira on Friday morning, & shall hope to see one or two of you, if we can see the whole trinity [MTP]. Note: The family stayed at the Hotel Normandie (see June 19 entry).

June 12, 1885 Friday

June 12 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, explaining against her admonitions why he hadn’t written her.

Correspondence is the despair of my life. Suppose you had to have 15 teeth pulled every day; & every time you lost 3 days…

June 11, 1885 Thursday 

June 11 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to the editor of the Christian Union. Sam’s letter, a reaction to a Union article, “What Ought He to have Done,” ran in that publication on June 16 on pages 4-5, and is a great argument for the proper application of a whipping to a wayward child, given in the right spirit “with hearts wholly free from temper.” Significantly, Sam ended the letter about proper parenting by referring to Livy:

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