August 27 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote a short note: “Just deposited William the Conqueror in the American Express Office Herr Bob Ogdon charged me 90 cents a page, and will allow me 30 cents a thousand for setting it up” [MTP].
August 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Sam wanted Webster to “Pitch into Mills’s business & square it up.” He spoke highly of Mills, not identified further.
Sam also reported on Duncan’s lawsuits:
“I have a telegram from Bath, Maine,—the grand jury threw out the bill, to that editor’s vast comfort. Duncan went for a criminal indictment, in that case.”
August 23 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
“I am told, Aug. 23, 9AM, that the Times lawyer proposed to Duncan that if he would let them off they would prove I said it all” [MTNJ 3: 24] Note: Evidently, the Times attempted to deflect blame to Sam. (See Aug. 22 entry.)
Sam’s article “Historical Peg Driving,” ran in Mastery—an Illustrated Weekly Magazine of Useful Pastimes for Young People, p. 248 [Budd’s list furnished by Thomas Tenney citing Baetzhold].
August 22 Wednesday – Sam appeared as a witness, ironically for Captain C.C. Duncan, in his $100,000 libel suit against the New York Times [MTNJ 3: 25n41].
Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells. Clemens had just completed perhaps the most productive period of his writing career. With HF drafted and “1002d Arabian Night” completed, he wrote:
August 19 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Olivia Lewis Langdon on her birthday, thanking her for the hospitality of the previous evening and for her gift, the rauchen-geschirr (ashtray?) [MTP].
George E. Waring wrote, “Swear at me, if you will. I deserve it. But I can’t help it.” He had to be in Buffalo and couldn’t leave before the next night. He had wanted to visit him in Elmira [MTP].
August 18 Saturday – Sam and Livy spent the evening with Mrs. Langdon in celebration of her 73rd birthday the next day [Aug. 19 letter to Olivia Lewis Langdon, MTP].
August 16 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, Jane Clemens. He expected to be in Elmira until mid-September. Livy remained poorly and “improves so slowly.” Rosina Hay, their German nursemaid had left their employ, replaced by a new girl who only spoke German:
August 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Ellen C. Taft, wife of the family doctor, Cincinnatus Taft who had been ill.
August 12 Sunday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, advising he’d given a letter of introduction in order to “launch a lord” at Sam. The candidate was 30-year-old William Hillier Onslow, whom Howells had met on his homeward voyage, and who seemed “to know a lot of artists and literary men,” and who expressed a liking for the works of Mark Twain. The Howellses had rented a house at 4 Louisburg Square in Boston, and extended an invitation to Sam and Livy to visit [MTHL 1: 436-7].
August 10 Friday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: History game, insurance, Barton vineyard scheme (that Joe Goodman claimed a “put up job to make money” using the poorest land [MTP].