November 14 Wednesday – In the evening Sam and Livy and Howells attended a Hartford reception for Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), who was to lecture in Hartford the next day. Arnold had lectured in Boston on Nov. 7 and would repeat the talk there on Nov.
November 13 Tuesday – Western Union per W.C. Hamstone, J.H. Lounsbury wrote in response to a report in the NY Times that a telegram had been lost/delayed. He claimed from reports he’d rec’d that “our service was properly performed,” the telegram phoned to his residence at about 4 pm Nov. 3, the date it was sent from Boston by Howells [MTP].
November 12 Monday – In Hartford, Sam typed a note to Andrew Chatto, acknowledging receipt of “904 pounds, 7 shillings and 11 pence.” He expected to talk contracts on the new book (HF?) in about a month, and accepted their word on pricing their edition of TA [MTP].
November 11 Sunday – The New York Times ran this article:
MARK TWAIN ON COPYRIGHT LAW.
November 8 Thursday – Francis Hopkinson Smith for Pedestal Fund Exhibition wrote about his plan to read “that letter” to a group, “ if it don’t send every mother’s son of them home with a sore back, I’m a Dutchman” [MTP].
November 7 Wednesday – This article ran in the Hartford Times (and Nov. 9 in the New York Times, p4, below), documenting the missing telegram:
THE TELEGRAM THAT WAS “MISLAID”
From the Hartford (Conn.) Times, Nov. 7
November 5 Monday – The missing telegram from Howells turned up at the telegraph office (see Nov. 7 entry).
Kate D. Barstow wrote what is now a letter too faded to read. Likely another request for funds for activities beyond her medical training, because Sam wrote on the env., “No” [MTP].
November 4 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, further explaining his telegram of the previous day:
“…Mrs. Clemens has a menagerie on her hands from now till Tuesday Evening—the preparation & achievement of a big lunch party of old ladies to meet her mother.”
November 3 Saturday – After receiving Howells’ Nov. 1 letter about coming to Hartford, Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Howells for him to “Come Wednesday” [MTHL 1: 447]. Sam expected “an important telegram” the same day (from Howells? Or, possibly from Raymond or Webster) but it did not arrive (see Nov. 7 entry).
November 2 Friday – Margaret Meestenmacher wrote from St. Louis to ask Sam & Livy for funds to help her church. Evidently she’d known the Langdons [MTP].