May 1 Friday – Sam spoke at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, for their Founder’s Day, reading the popular “Trying Situation” and “Golden Arm” [Fatout, MT Speaking 656].
From Susy’s unfinished biography (her spelling):
May – Sam’s article “What Ought he to Have Done?” ran in the May issue of Babyhood [Lou Budd’s list furnished by Thomas Tenney and citing Branch]. Note: this piece also ran in The Christian Union, July 16, 1885 [Camfield, bibliog.]. It was also reprinted in the July 21 Courant as “Mark Twain on the Government of Children.” Susy Clemens reported that upon reading the piece, Livy was “shocked an
April 30 Thursday – From Susy Clemens’ unfinished biography (her spelling):
…mamma planned to take the four-o’clock car back to Hartford. We rose quite early that morning and went to the Vienna Bakery and took breakfast there. From there we went to a German bookstore and bought some German books for Clara’s birthday.
April 29 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading on this second day at Madison Square Theater, Author’s Reading given for the Longfellow Memorial, an entertainment managed by George Parsons Lathrop (1851-1898). Charles Eliot Norton introduced the readers [MTB 817]. Note: Paine mistakenly identifies this event as “early May.”
April 28 Tuesday – Sam, Livy, and thirteen-year-old Susy Clemens went to New York for a four-day outing, which included a reading up at Vassar in Poughkeepsie on May 1. Sam conferred with Webster and General Grant and gave a reading on Apr. 29 [MTNJ 3: 140n48].
April 27 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to George Iles, Montreal editor:
“I hope to live to see you swing your scepter by & by, in accordance with that plan we talked of” [MTP]. Note: The “plan” is not identified. Sam may have left for New York this day or early the next.
April 25 Saturday – Sam received a letter from J.B. Clapp, secretary of the Blodgett & Clapp Co. an iron and steel merchant of Hartford.
“I was unfortunately ran into by your carriage and my own carriage somewhat injured. The carriage I have placed in the Hospital & trust it will soon be convalescent. The Doctors bill I presume you will see in due course of time” [MTNJ 3: 138-9n42]. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Ha-ha!”
April 24 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Accident—man backed almost into us—we had to almost run into the curbstone to keep from taking his wheel off—injured it, anyway” [MTNJ 3: 138]. Note: note 42 of source corrects date.
April 23 Thursday – Thomas S. Nash wrote a long, tender reminiscence of Hannibal boyhood days. Most of the letter here:
Dear old friend, / I have waited for a long time for an opportunity of inflicting on you some more of my poor penmanship and bad gramar, but did not know for certain whether you were out west interviewing the earliest settlers or down South among the Cannibal Islands hence you have been spared the infliction until now, and I hope not to tire you with too many words
April 22 Wednesday – The Prince & the Pauper play was re-staged by the Clemens and neighborhood children. This may have been the time Sam played the part of Miles Hendon. James B. Pond had been invited the prior Sunday [Apr. 20 to Pond].