November 28 Monday – In Montreal, Sam wrote a short note and a long PS to Livy [MTLP 407].
Livy darling, you and Clara [Spaulding] ought to have been at breakfast in the great dining room this morning. English female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits—& yet such honest, honorable, clean-souled countenances, just as these English women almost always have, you know. Right away—
November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 36th birthday.
Sam wrote from the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to Livy. His letter was a mixture of hieroglyphics (like his several lecture notes) and text. Paine’s translation:
Livy Dear, a mouse kept me awake last night till 3 or 4 o’clock—so I am lying abed this morning. I would not give sixpence to be out yonder in the storm, although it is only snow. …
November 26 Saturday – Sam left Boston by train for the 200 miles to Montreal, staying at the Windsor Hotel. He arrived at about 9:15 P.M. [MTBus 178; MTNJ 2: 407]. Sam took three history volumes of Francis Parkman to read on the train. On Nov.
November 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elinor Howells, who evidently wrote that her husband was ill and confined to bed:
“Dear Mrs. Howells— / How you startle me! Can a man so near by, fall sick, & linger along, & approach death, & a body never hear of it?…I supposed Howells went to Toronto the 20th, & that he would fetch around & join Osgood & me in Montreal three or four days from now” [MTHL 1: 379].
November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He didn’t doubt Charley’s energy or dedication, but did require continual reports on things, including the “daily prospects for brass” in order to keep up the English patent. Not long reports, Sam insisted, but ones to the point. If brass wouldn’t work, try copper.
November 23 Wednesday – Tiffany & Co. wrote acknowledging the thousand dollars sent [MTP].
November 22 Tuesday – Now clearly impatient for success at the Kaolatype-brass casting process, Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Webster.
“PERFECT THE ENGLISH PATENT. MY BRASS PATIENCE IS RUNNING LOW. PUT A HUNDRED MEN ON IT AND TELEGRAPH ME A RESULT OF SOME SORT OR OTHER IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS—S.L. CLEMENS” [MTBus 177].
Sam could demand the impossible. Webster’s answer:
“SO IS MINE. IT’S JUST AS HARD TO REPORT RESULTS YOU CAN’T GET AS TO GET 100 SKILLED MEN IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS” [177].
November 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, who evidently had caught a grammar error in one of Sam’s letters. “It is not my instinct to care whether I am or not in a private letter,” he answered [MTBus 177].
November 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing $500.
“I leave for Canada Nov. 25, & shall be back about Dec. 7. If you should need more money meantime, write your aunt Livy. She will send it.”
Sam needed to go to Canada, so as to claim residency when P&P was released. This would secure copyright there [MTBus 176].
November 18 Friday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to advise Sam had a balance of $2,218.76 and Livy had a balance of $20,642.26. “I told George Robinson who called this morning that you were not situated so that you could make the loan—am very sorry that Jean & Susy are under the weather. Mother has improved and is on the road to comfortable health again. We have had three weeks of the most disagreeable weather I ever experienced— In haste…” [MTP].