January 31 Thursday – Sam continued to entertain George W. Cable, down with a case of the mumps, and recovering slowly. Drugged with quinine, Cable had to dictate letters to his wife through either Livy or Lilly Warner. Cable told of enjoying Sam’s company and the:
January 30 Wednesday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Louise Cable: “Your husband will be out of bed by tomorrow S.L. Clemens” [Turner, MT & GWC 28].
He also telegraphed James B. Pond twice in Cable’s behalf that he would be unable to read the following night [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks.
January 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to John Chalmers Blair (1848-1910?), of Huntingdon, Penn. “Your packets are an unspeakable convenience. They make authorship a pastime.” [MTP]. Note: In 1879 Blair started a tablet factory, which grew to a worldwide business, so Sam’s compliment probably had to do with writing tablets. Blair’s wife would name a hospital after him in 1911, which still operates.
January 28 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, again about the proposed play, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Webster was trying to find an actor to play the role of Tom, and Sam had definite (and rather inflexible) ideas about the money angles.
“No, the actor must play Tom Sawyer till it is down to where it pays him only an average of $300 or $400 a month clear & above expenses, for a whole season. It’s important” [MTBus 233].
January 27 Sunday – George W. Cable, visiting the Clemens home while on a reading tour, came down ill, probably with a case of the mumps, though Webster describes the illness as measles [234]. Kaplan describes it as a “fever and racking pains in his lower jaw” [254]. Sam hired a private nurse to care for his guest. The nurse and all three Clemens girls came down with the mumps [254]. Cable was nursed back to health but would be laid up at Sam’s until Feb.
January 24 Thursday – Edward L. Burlingame of Charles Scribner Co. wrote to ask Sam for Edward H. House’s address in Japan [MTP].
January 22 Tuesday – In California, Joe Goodman telegraphed, then wrote a long letter to Sam, pleading for a piece for his new publication, The San Franciscan.
January 20 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam replied to the Jan. 18 of Howells, of the Mallory brothers nearly begging for details about the Sellers play or the “romantic and picturesque play” (about Bill Ragsdale and leprosy).
January 19 Saturday – Phillip Shirley, a fellow passenger of Sam’s on his spring, 1868 return voyage to New York, submitted two of Sam’s poems to The Wasp, a short-lived San Francisco publication. The verses ran on this day [The Twainian, July-Aug. 1946, p.3-4]. Camfield lists these as “Ye Equinoctial Storm,” and “Tragic Tidings” [bibliog.].
Worden & Co. wrote to Sam. the $2,000 received [MTP].
January 18 Friday – Sam replied from Hartford to the Jan. 9 from Howells about writing plays. Henry Nash Smith observes that Howells became as stage-struck as Sam during this period, though he often insisted he preferred writing novels. Nash adds that Howells translated or adapted or wrote thirty-six dramas, including a musical comedy [MTHL 2: 463n2].
“Raymond still biting. Shall hear more, very soon.