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].
April 21 Tuesday – Sam visited U.S. Grant at 9:30 a.m.
Albert H. Dowell wrote a begging letter “for a few dollars” from HahnemannHospital, NYC [MTP].
Webster & Co. wrote, Gerhardt to Webster Apr. 19 enclosed: “We refer the enclosed to you as it is something which you are personally concerned” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Send 1000”
April 20 Monday – Howells wrote from Boston to Sam, advising him not to use his Cornell speech on Apr. 29 to defend Huck Finn against the Concord Library Committee—he thought them:
April 19 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James B. Pond, inviting him to the Clemens’ home Wednesday evening, Apr. 22 for a presentation of P&P by Susy and crew. Jean Clemens added scribbles to the top of the note, to which Sam referred:
“The above is a postscript—I should say an ante-script—by Jean—& she has gone off without translating it”[MTP].
April 16 Thursday – John Linahan wrote from St. Louis to suggest a subject for the next book: a Comic History of the U.S. [MTP]. Readers would have to wait for Stan Freburg on this one.